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    Writing Assignment #4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Technology in The Classroom

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    This document discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the classroom. Some key advantages include allowing for collaboration between educators worldwide, making lesson planning and resource development more efficient, and facilitating communication between teachers, students, and parents. However, disadvantages include not all students having access to reliable internet or devices, and technology potentially reducing important interpersonal interactions. Overall, technology can be beneficial for learning if used precisely by educators with an understanding of its effects.

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    Writing Assignment #4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Technology in The Classroom

    Uploaded by

    Matthew Bailin
    81 views7 pages
    This document discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the classroom. Some key advantages include allowing for collaboration between educators worldwide, making lesson planning and resource development more efficient, and facilitating communication between teachers, students, and parents. However, disadvantages include not all students having access to reliable internet or devices, and technology potentially reducing important interpersonal interactions. Overall, technology can be beneficial for learning if used precisely by educators with an understanding of its effects.

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    EDUC5280 WA#4

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    This document discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the classroom. Some key advantages include allowing for collaboration between educators worldwide, making lesson planning and resource development more efficient, and facilitating communication between teachers, students, and parents. However, disadvantages include not all students having access to reliable internet or devices, and technology potentially reducing important interpersonal interactions. Overall, technology can be beneficial for learning if used precisely by educators with an understanding of its effects.

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    81 views7 pages

    Writing Assignment #4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Technology in The Classroom

    Uploaded by

    Matthew Bailin
    This document discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the classroom. Some key advantages include allowing for collaboration between educators worldwide, making lesson planning and resource development more efficient, and facilitating communication between teachers, students, and parents. However, disadvantages include not all students having access to reliable internet or devices, and technology potentially reducing important interpersonal interactions. Overall, technology can be beneficial for learning if used precisely by educators with an understanding of its effects.

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    1

    Writing Assignment #4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Technology in the Classroom

    Department of Education, University of the People

    Dr. Alex Kumi

    EDUC 5280 – AY2022 – T1

    09/30/2021
    Writing Assignment #4: Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Technology in the Classroom

    Introduction

    This paper weighs the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the classroom,

    and also weighs the evidence provided supporting either side of the issue. In general, both

    proponents and opponents of technology in the classroom have something intelligent to say.

    Technology can be both beneficial and detrimental to learning and its effects greatly depend on the

    precision by which educators utilize technology in their own learning milieus.

    Advantages of Using Technology in the Classroom

    Technology has the power to help educators provide a wide variety of educational

    experiences that would otherwise not be possible. There are clearly a number of advantages

    in using technology in the classroom, such as being able to collaborate with people around

    the world, develop engaging content and resources, and prepare to facilitate myriad student

    learning styles. The U.S. Department of Education (2017) claims that

    [e]ducators can create learning communities composed of students; fellow educators in

    schools, museums, libraries, and after-school programs; experts in various disciplines

    around the world; members of community organizations; and families. This enhanced

    collaboration, enabled by technology offers access to instructional materials as well as

    the resources and tools to create, manage, and assess their quality and usefulness (p. 28).

    First, one of the clearest advantages of using technology in the classroom is that its use

    allows teachers to collaborate with other educators around the world. This collaboration is

    particularly important for teachers who may teach in more isolated communities or in schools

    with only one content teacher per grade. Using technology allows educators to compare

    resources and best practices across multiple disciplines around the world. Technology also gives

    students the opportunity to connect with students across the country. The U.S Department of
    Education (2017, p. 29) concludes that “[a]ll of these elements make classroom learning more

    relevant and authentic”.

    Another advantage of using technology in the classroom is that, in most cases, its use

    makes planning lessons and developing resources more organized and efficient. For this simple

    reason, it is almost impossible to imagine teaching without assistive technologies in today’s

    learning milieus. Person (2007) explains that “[w]hen technology integration in the classroom is

    seamless and thoughtful, students not only become more engaged, they begin to take more

    control over their own learning, too”. Technology allows students and educators to communicate

    with each other more quickly and with a greater likelihood that messages will be received and

    understood. In “Google Classroom”, for example, students and teachers can leave messages to

    each other as if they were chatting on a Youtube video stream. The simplicity and speed with

    which students and teachers can communicate makes technologies such as Google Classroom

    very alluring.

    One final advantage of using technology in the classroom is that, in the case of certain

    products like Google Classroom, a number of other technologies can be integrated to create an

    ecosystem that encourages accountability and clarity. For example, Google classroom works

    seamlessly with other Google products, such as Google slides, Google docs, Youtube videos,

    and so on. This integration allows teacher to provide all sorts of information at a magnitude not

    seen even a few years ago. Teachers may also use technologies to bring parents into this

    integration, improving parent-teacher relationships. For instance, teachers may use an app called

    ClassDojo to send parents messages about what’s going on in the classroom and how their child

    is doing. This app works similarly to other messaging systems such as Edmodo. On ClassDojo,

    teachers can share updates for parents and students to see or they can message parents

    individually. All of these messages are convenient because they are received like a text

    message, thus ensuring that the parents will see them. Communication between parents and
    teachers is fundamental for a successful classroom, and clearly these technologies can help

    facilitate that goal.

    Disadvantages of Using Technology

    On the other hand, there are a few disadvantages to using technology in the classroom that

    educators should be aware of.

    One of the risks of relying so heavily on technology is that not everyone teacher or student

    has the infrastructure for run their classroom in this way. Teachers must acknowledge the fact that

    many students do not have access to Wi-Fi in order to use technology outside of the classroom.

    Having students jump into emergency online instruction without warning, as has been the case

    during the Covid-19 pandemic, has placed undue strain on families that may even have difficulty

    affording Wi-Fi or decent computing system. The expense and effort it takes to help families in

    this way would be daunting for almost any school.

    Another disadvantage of including technology in the classroom is that technology has the

    tendency to reduce interpersonal interactions, which are essential for constructing deep, “real

    world” schemas of reality (Lois, 1999). Students need explicit interaction with both their peers

    and their teachers. All of the features of impactful conversation-building, such as eye contact or

    the interplay of discussion, can be lost in an online environment. Although it is certainly the case

    that technology has improved our ability to engage in more human-driven conversation, it must

    be acknowledged that an in-person conversation will retain the features of good conversation at a

    higher level.
    References

    Delaney, M. (2021, May 10). Training Teachers to Integrate Technology. Technology Solutions

    That Drive Education. https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2011/11/training-teachers-

    integrate-technology.

    Lois, F. N. (1999). Beyond narrative to performed conversation ('in the beginning' comes much

    later). Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 12(1), 23-40.

    Person. (2007, November 06). How to Integrate Technology. Retrieved from

    https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation

    US Dept. of Education. (2017). Reimagining the role of technology in education: 2017 National

    education technology plan update. Retrieved from:

    https://tech.ed.gov/files/2017/01/NETP17.pdf

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