My name is HyunJung Ko, I am currently attending CSUN majoring in ESM and will be graduating in the Spring '17. I plan to go back to Korea, where I was born, and teach English there.
As someone who wants to be in a teaching field, I do believe that media technology is an important part in teaching; yet it can be very distracting at the same time. For this reason, it is significant to balance that out and make sure to make a correct use of media technology. Technology has taken over many students' lives that it is destroying their education. Barely any of the students in class nowadays are taking notes by handwriting, but taking notes on their laptops instead. This may be convenient at the moment, but many students do not realize that they will be able to obtain the information better by handwriting. Not only students prefer to take notes on their electronic devices, but they do not meet up in person anymore for group works or projects. Instead of meeting up and discussing in face to face, students prefer texting or google docs to make the work easier and they are not willing to invest their time for meetings. And once again, this may be convenient just as much as the note taking on laptops, but it will not allow them to form a unity in group and learn how to work as a group. For reasons like this, I believe technology can be very distracting; yet convenient at the same time. When teachers or professors need to cancel class for any circumstances, technology does come in very handy to upload lecture notes or any other learning materials online for students to still learn what they need to learn. However, it should not be an excuse for students to reduce the time and amount of work that they need to do instead of actually investing their time and effort.
We cannot and should not completely leave out technology when it comes to teaching and education; however I believe that it is very significant to find a balance and make a correct use of technology. Technology should serve as a helping material in teaching, not a distracting source.
Hello Hyun,
ReplyDeleteThe idea of finding the right balance of technology in the classroom is something I agree with. I believe that today there is no escaping the use of technology in the process of learning. Unfortunately, technology has become a strong part of today's students' process of learning. Many find it difficult to think of an alternative way to search for further understanding of a subject. It is difficult to reimagine learning as it used to be, a process of true research through books and note taking in the library. The ease of access to knowledge on the internet has made a lot of today’s learners dependent on technology and because of that they don’t feel the need to truly learn something permanently. By this I mean many find it simple to memorize an answer or definition for a test or academic year, but don’t worry to retain information beyond that because if an answer is needed it can be easily accessed again through the help of a quick internet search. So, finding a balance is difficult when media technology is quickly taking over as a main source of many learning experiences outside the classroom.