Technology in the Classroom

Growing up with Technology: Education Practices and Changes

As I near the end of the fall semester in my final year of college, I

continually notice how I’ve grown as a student, how I’ve gotten to this

position. I’ve noticed how at 21 years old I still have the privilege to sit

in a traditional classroom setting, with notable professors, and engage

in materials, and high-level thinking. As I looked around in my

Consumer Behavior class this morning I noticed that only a handful of

spiral and composition notebooks were out in front of students, and

only a select few of those were actually being used to take notes.

Those with laptops only followed along with the lectures in between

doing other work or Facebook surfing. Other students continually

checked and went on their phones throughout class, some just looked

miserable to be there.

I was born in the mid-90’s, the same era that the computer and the

web were growing up. My elementary school classroom had the latest

models of Apple Desktops for us to fight over during recess. We had

typing classes. Math teachers often provided links to clever online

games that would improve our skillsets. SmartBoards that were once

mobile digital chalkboards that teacher’s shared amongst each other

became permanent attachments to high school chalkboards.

As I entered college laptops seemed to be the best way to take down

those quick lecture notes. Online interfaces such as BlackBoard

became regular ways to check homework assignments and contact

professors. Now I find my peers, and myself at times, are taking

pictures of slides and homework questions with the click of a button on

their iPhones.

These amazing technologies have certainly impacted my education for

the better; in fact my entire college career is based upon the

computer, as a graphic design major. I couldn’t imagine life without a

Wi-Fi connection in college. But sometimes I can.

My love of print stems back from those early classroom days, with

physical planners and agendas, continually practicing writing, school

supply shopping for the perfect binders, notebooks and folders. Print

materials have always excited me, something seems to have more

importance and value when it’s in my hand, I can turn pages, mark

those pages up, and interact with the material. I’ve found that I don’t

seem to fit in when it comes to purchasing textbooks online, reading

database articles for a research assignment, or uploading assignments

to a drive. Instead, I buy all physical textbooks, I love printing out my

rough drafts to edit them with pens and highlighters, and I absolutely

have to take notes by hand. There’s just something about turning a

beautifully crafted page full of new content at my fingertips. I can

hardly tolerate flipping through countless eye-searing tabs of onscreen

text, memorizing and interpreting a fact to then type that up in

a different word document. For me, synthesis and engagement takes

place at the moment between reading content, writing that specific

piece of information down, reading it again, understanding it until full

comprehension takes place, then integrating it into an essay or

project.

Shortcuts are the way of technological world; I mean who doesn’t love

that you can copy and paste just about anything on your mobile

device? My peers and I have adapted to the latest and greatest

changes in interfaces and productivity tools, we are lucky to have such

an exclusive connection. At the same time, however, I think it’s

imperative for my peers to look at the material we’re engaging with

and really interact with it. Putting in the “extra” effort it takes to look

up a book, find that book on a shelf, and then find supporting

information will guarantee you higher quality learning experience.

As the student it’s our opportunity to learn, to really immerse

ourselves in our domain. Although the Web is such a powerful tool, I

think many people would be surprised to see how different you think

when you start interpreting your own notes, physically writing dates

down in a planner, and actually searching for the right content. It not

only leads to exciting discoveries, but a more complex pattern of

thinking.