Superhighway or Road to Nowhere essays

Superhighway or Road to Nowhere essays What impact, if any, is the use of computers and other digital technologies having on the learning process of todays student? To what extent or degree are we as teachers responsible, or should be responsible, for the proper integration of technology into our classrooms? Research and inquiry into this realm have proposed both positive and negative aspects to computer versus traditional learning. There are, without question, cultural and educational benefits and dangers of technology and computer usage for students. As educators, we have a significant role to play in ensuring equal access to technology, and in realizing its full educational and creative potential. Public debate about the impact of new digital technologies have been marked by a kind of schizophrenia which often accompanies the advent of new cultural forms. On the one hand, these new forms are seen to have enormous positive potential, particularly for learning; on the other, they are frequently seen to be harmful to those who are regarded as particularly vulnerable. In both cases, it is children - or perhaps more accurately, the idea of childhood - which is the vehicle for many of these aspirations and concerns. This was certainly apparent in the early years of television. Amid current fears about the impact of television violence, it is interesting to recall that television was initially promoted to parents as an educational medium. Likewise, in the 1950s and 1960s, television and other new electronic technologies were widely seen to embody the future of education: they were described as teaching machines. Even here, however, hopes of a utopian future were often balanced against fears of loss and cultural decline. Television was seen both as a new way of bringing the family together, and as something which would undermine natural family interaction. The medium was extolled as a means of nurturing c...