Emma Bishop
Social Media Director
Technology is quickly becoming more essential for education everywhere.
If you were to ask me two years ago if technology was necessary for teaching, I might have said ‘No.’ If you asked me last year, I would have absolutely said ‘Yes.’ Today, I believe that technology in the classroom is still needed and will continue to be in the new, post-pandemic world.
Looking back on this past year and a half, I realized that, without our computers, we would have been doomed. Before the virus, technology was more so a convenience than a requirement. Although typing a paper is much faster than handwriting one, it was possible to graduate without the use of a computer. But if we didn’t have computers when we went into quarantine, I can see that alternative situation going one of two ways: we either would have been sent home with no way of finishing our spring semester, or we would have remained on campus and prioritized our education over our health and safety.
We’re quite lucky to be living in a world of rapidly evolving technology, because it enabled us to continue schooling when the world shut down. With the ability to have virtual meetings and digital assignments, millions of students were saved from needing to repeat the entire semester, if not the whole school year.
Even now, as many students are back to learning in-person, teachers and professors continue to utilize the tools that they had no choice but to adapt. Why write on a whiteboard when you can project a drawing application from your iPad and save the completed notes for future reference? Many educators continue to use these modern resources in their curriculum, and I believe that this convention won’t change any time soon.
However, this dependence we’re slowly building for our computers has its drawbacks. For example, it’s much easier to go ask a professor a question during their office hours than it is to wait for them to respond to an email, if they even see it to begin with. It also affects the way in which we learn and retain information. A common example is how handwriting your notes is a better way to absorb what you’ve learned, compared to mindlessly typing them. Not to mention the cases where technology fails us. All it takes is a power outage from a storm, or an important file corrupting, or even just your computer dying, to put someone behind on hours of work.
Although there’s no fix for a handful of these problems, most of them are not an issue with technology, but a person’s self accountability. If you’re likely to be distracted by your computer when taking notes, put it away and grab a notebook and pencil. If you missed an email that’s already lost its relevance, be more responsible about checking your email regularly. If your computer freezes often or frequently damages your files, start saving up money and purchase a more reliable computer that will work at a higher quality for a long time to come.
Many people, especially of the older generation, complain about how technology is ruining our lives and that the world would be better off without it. While this may or may not be true, we need to accept that there’s no turning back time. Computers, cellphones and the internet won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. So, instead of complaining about what we can’t change, we should embrace the advancements we’re fortunate enough to have.
Emma Bishop can be contacted at:
ebishop@kscequinox.com
