Technology in Education Goal (Essay Sample)

Student
Professor
Course
Date
Technology in Education
In today’s world there are emerging trends in technology which have simplified the way of doing things. Learning has been simplified through use of technology in education. Technology in education helps in improving knowledge and educational skills. The constant and rapid pace of technological changes is creating challenges and opportunities in education. Opportunities include; unlimited access to information, online course-taking, unlimited internet access through mobile phones, conservation of the environment, and personalized learning through digital games. Challenges include; the high speed in technology changes that learning institutions have to race with. It also encourages, laziness in learning, cheating, and scholars may forget the basic way of learning.
Information can easily be accessed. In the past, information would only be accessible if one goes out of his home to places with reading information. Mothers would examine recipes from books followed in libraries. Fathers would buy newspapers to learn new information regarding society, business and economy. Students and teachers spent all evenings in libraries writing academic papers, reports, projects and teaching contents respectively. Today mothers satisfy their need for recipe information through use of available gadgets at their convenient time in their homes. Fathers easily access newspapers from their mobile phones. Students write their academic papers at their homes at their convenient time. Teachers are able to gather their teaching content with ease.
Online learning is on the rise be it in schools or at homes. Online learning enables distance learning. Previously direct teacher student interaction was compulsory for learning to take place. There are options when taking online courses today; full time and part time learning. Full time programs require students to engage in classes under the stipulated time period of learning institutions. This program requires a scenario where an adult is present in the house to provide assistance to young children. For instance, if the program runs at the morning hour of the week students must be online to take their courses.
Part time online learning helps individuals upgrade their education. Part time online courses are offered at time period different from the scheduled class course time tables. Adults may prefer this type of program soon after reporting to their homes after work. Researchers argue that online course-taking among student yield great success due to hybrid education. Students access digital information, through an online educator, as well as an in-class teacher who collaborate in assisting students. Online course-taking saves on costs and allow schools to offer a wide range of courses. Retakes in courses not passed are easily done in a different format in a new environment.
Unlimited access to the internet enables students to study on their own without assistance from their teachers or parents. Study lessons are in the internet with instructions and guidelines therein. They also contain graphics videos and images which make learning exciting and enjoyable to students and instructors. When teachers use teaching aids in classes student’s interest in studying is aroused. Participation in the learning process takes place between the students and the teachers.
Technology has also helped in conservation of the environment. There are many schools worldwide offering courses. Writing materials that were previously used were papers, papers were extracted from trees. Many billions of papers would be used to publish copybooks and new books. Technology has eliminated the era of using books and lessons are availed through computers. Environment is protected, money is saved and time as well, in educational technology.
Availability of free web games helps instructor use games to help students understand class content. A further organizational benefit of technology is the more efficient delivery of education (Selwyn, 27). Games provide students with a way of picturing themselves in careers they may not have considered choosing. They help students in visualizing a process they would not have seen. Some games require high-order reasoning and therefore students have to think. These games contribute to the development of problem skills among students.
With the increased technology pace schools continue to battle to maintain the pace with increasing need to update their technology infrastructure. Educational technology requires a shift from use of books, to digital soft copies. Schools need funds to up their infrastructure which cannot be done overnight since a lot of funds are needed.
Educational technology encourages laziness among students. The internet contains problems with their solutions. A student only needs to search for assignments given by their online instructors through their computer. Students may no longer use books issued as references to the subject studied. As a result, students only answer question as they have been solved without doing further research on the problems.
Use of technology adversely affects writing and spelling skills. With the use of computers, pen and papers may no longer be used. Students just have to type ...