A Students Perspective On Education Techology

Comments from the Cisco Blog:

A Student’s Perspective: We Need More Technology – Faster

Tom Patton | August 22, 2011 at 8:25 pm PST

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My name is Tom Patton, and I am a student at the University of Oregon. 

 I have watched as technology has become more prominent in teaching and learning. In elementary school, I can recall scribbling down long division notes from the overhead projector and taking weekly trips to practice typing in the school’s computer lab ....  During my middle school years, friends and I would write and upload journalistic articles to the school-sponsored website. For three years in high school I took drafting and photography classes. These classes taught me to use AutoCAD and Photoshop programs: utilities that allowed me to design and build model houses and edit, enhance and manipulate digital photographs. These experiences, where I was immersed in technology, were by far the most memorable and engaging aspects of my 14 years in our formal education system.

..... the next five years will bring more change in education delivery than in the last twenty. Soon, there will be no middle ground between technology and education. Ultimately, technology will become education. Students will be able to attend office hours via online software, take video field trips to places thousands of miles away, and re-watch lectures online. .. This shift will bring about an unparalleled rise in student engagement, attendance, collaboration, communications, participation, and outcomes.

“If we teach today’s students as we did yesterday’s, we are robbing them of tomorrow.”- John Dewey

Why does the education system need to evolve? Frankly–students are bored and frustrated with the current pace of technology’s use in the classroom. The education system has changed little to none since the turn of the century, and consequently it is less relevant to the everyday lives of kids. Yet, students are immersed in a world of technology from the time that they wake up in the morning, until the moment that they go to sleep at night.

The only period of time when they are not completely surrounded by technology is when they are sitting in the classroom.

As students and the classroom evolve – hopefully teachers, administrators, school board decision-makers and the community will unite to accelerate the pace of technology in teaching and learning.