Technology enters college classrooms

There is little debate that innovation and technology is constantly evolving, redefining, and shaping the everyday world in which we live.

Since the introduction of the personal computer in the 1980s, technology has had a tremendous impact in classrooms across the globe; yet there is significant concern that the integration of technology into academic settings results in an increase in reliance on technology to provide solutions.

As a result, student educational and creative growth becomes stunted.

Too often a school's approach to the use of technology is established in the fear that technology might have a detrimental effect, becoming a substitute for human rationale and logic, rather than an enhancement to the learning process.

While items such as iPads, Kindles, Nooks, iMacs, and even iPhones are generally accepted in the workplace and in daily life, their use in the classroom differs.

The issue then, isn't whether or not students use technology in the classroom, but how to adequately introduce and manage such usage.

Dan Prater, director of The Center of Nonprofit Communication, uses technology in the classroom whenever possible because he feels that it enhances the learning process. Prater adds though that, "technology can be an asset or deficit, depending on how or when it is used."

As facilitators of knowledge, professors can teach students to become active learners in the 21st century.

With an abundance of information, education does not stop at the lecture hall. Today's society continually educates itself beyond classroom walls.

Therefore students must be prepared to self-teach in order to be prepared in the 21st century job force.

Thus educators must prepare their students by using technology as both a teaching and learning tool.

Greg Renoff, Associate Professor of History, thinks it's inevitable that technology will continue to become a central part of the classroom experience. "That being said, I think that many students who use laptops in class end up spending time distracted by web browsing rather than focusing on the learning that's going on around them."

Unfortunately, there is no way to control how students use technology during class time.

Besides serving as personal distractions, technology can also pose as temptations for students, making information easily accessible without having to cite a source. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating have been studied, and in some cases, are on the rise.

Prater notes that the university has taken steps to catch cheating. Although faculty utilizes resources such as www.turnitin.com, he admits that even with these precautions, those who want to cheat will find a way.

Not everyone is hesitant about the future of advancing technology in the classroom. Sophomore, International Political Studies and History major, Juan Franco, feels that technology will not only make academics easier, but increase the quality. "With a borderless world of information, knowledge walls will collapse."

Despite one's stance on technology in the classroom, its integration into academic settings is unavoidable.

By utilizing technology in the classroom, learning can be enhanced and expanded, yielding better performing students, more satisfied teachers, and students who will be competitive in a global economy.