Technology in School

        Technology is taking over the world, one step at a time. With the new program BYOD, (Bring Your Own Device) occurring at many schools, it forces the debate of whether technology in schools is beneficial or just a distraction to students. 

      Students use technology almost everyday in their daily lives. They spend hours and hours surfing the internet and socially interacting with family and friends. Although incorporating technology in school may seem like it will provide the students a chance to become more interactive and engaged in their learning, it may also provide a way for students to be on their electronics for reasons far from their education. For starters, with bringing their own devices comes several boundaries that require being set by the teacher or administrative. If rules are not set about how, when, and for what to use the student’s technology, there is no doubt that the students will take advantage of having the privilege to bring their gadgets to school. They might text, tweet, or play games in class. I, myself can second that from my own experience. 

     

       Nevertheless, teachers are not the only ones to blame for the misuse of the devices that students bring to school. Students require self-responsibility with their own devices. Not only with how to use it in the classroom setting, but also how to be responsible of the whereabouts of his / her device. Equally important, is that students do not participate in any form of cyber-bullying amongst each other at school, or even at home for that matter. Students may text or tweet each other during classes negatively about another student. By using the now most popular social network Twitter, students can subtweet another person to make them feel bad. Subtweeting meaning when people tweet about another person without mentioning their “@” name. Since cyber-bullying has now become the most popular form of bullying of the 21st Century, it has caused many unfortunate students to commit suicide or hurt themselves physically and mentally. Students must have an amount of self respect and responsibility to do the right thing and use their devices for educational purposes.

     Overall, there are many more chances of technology in school being a distraction than it is being a benefit towards students. Nonetheless, there are still a few key factors that prove that bringing devices to school can improve the way students learn. Students are the leaders of technology. Since they have already added technology as a huge part in their everyday routines, adding the use of technology to school will improve the way a students learns. Dependent on the teacher’s way of incorporating technology as well, the use of devices in class promotes participation to students and engaging activities and lessons that students are actually willing to partake in. Students find technology fun and a form of entertainment, therefore if the staff at the school find a way to make learning fun and entertaining but also educational at the same time, it would be the perfect hybrid for success in students learning habits.

    All in all, there are still many tweaks to be made with the new BYOD policy that is taking place at schools. Just like many people in this world, schools are beginning to adjust to the grand take over of modern technology in society. Its still a working process but requires the effort of teachers and students to make bringing devices to school work in a positive way.