Technology And The Impact On Instruction

Asking oneself what kind of impact technology has on the delivery and development of instruction is valid considering the great advances technology has taken the last few years and how it continues to make strides into teachers' classrooms and lesson plans. In the following paragraphs I will review both points of view on this subject; why technology has a positive impact on instruction, and why it could have a negative impact.

It is possible that technology can be beneficial to classrooms at all grade levels.

There are many points that could be made to argue in agreement of the positive impact technology has in the classroom, but I will focus in on three.

First, let us focus on the 21st century information access phenomenon we call the World Wide Web. One can not argue that when given access to the Internet, children can contact and derive information from places and on subjects that they would have never been privy to before the Internet infiltrated our lives. The options are nearly endless. Ancient documents can be read, maps can be looked at from multiple angles, activities are interactive, people from across our globe can be reached- and all at our children's fingertips. It is a fact- the Internet enlightens our students in ways no teacher ever could.

When speaking to a fellow future teacher about the benefits of having technology in the classroom, she told me of a classroom she was in that contained an autistic child. This boy was not able to learn in conventional ways, he was, in fact, failing because of his disabilities (it was not made clear to me what exactly those were). Eager to meet his needs, the classroom teacher began to give the autistic child his lessons on a computer and the boy was able to learn curriculum that was required of him. I am going to assume that there are other cases like this in our classrooms. Taking this into consideration, one can see that having sufficient technology in the classroom allows for more differentiated instruction, something that is beneficial to all students, not only those with special needs.

Lastly, I would like to point out that "technology" is many objects that teachers would consider a basic necessity to have in our classrooms. Examples of this could be; whiteboards, overhead projectors, and even the chalkboard. To most teachers having a classroom without these necessities wouldn't be a classroom at all.

While technology can be seen to have a beneficial impact on our classrooms, one can also see how much of a negative impact technology has on the development and delivery of instruction in our classrooms. The reader will be able to see this as I discuss the following three reasons.

Many benefits of having the Internet in our classrooms as part of our instruction were listed above. One must also consider, though, the negative aspects associated with having this world of information coming into the classroom via wires and screens. Along with wonderful resources the Internet provides a link to every appalling aspect of our society. Many ethical issues arise here, and education administration and legislation has and continues to instate rules and regulations to help prevent this material from infiltrating our student's eyes and minds, but the problem continues to exist.

Though technology can provide many new resources that can enhance differentiated instruction, one must ask oneself what would happen when that technology fails. Will the special needs child not be able to learn anything for that day? Or will a lesson that revolved around a now broken projector not be able to be taught? These are valid questions, considerations, and points that those that oppose the integration of technology in the classroom could make.

I have personally witnessed some teachers taking advantage of technology to reduce their student-teacher interaction time. Though embarrassing to teachers in general, it would be an injustice to this paper to avoid a point simply because it makes our educators look bad. If abused, video and computer time can greatly decrease the amount of time educators actually spend teaching their students. This causes a number of problems including bad classroom management and lack of differentiation. If this abuse happens, one can clearly see how great the negative impact technology can have on our classroom instruction.

In my opinion, the advancement of technology has changed the foundation of the above debate. As technology expands and advances, and the accessibility to it for classroom teachers increases, the two sides of this debate only become more defined and are given more arguments. The pros become more positive and have more advantages, and the cons become more negative and threatening. John D. Ross was more specific with this issue in the article "Toward an Effective Use of Technology in Education when he said, "For technology to have a positive impact on student achievement, school leaders must envision, direct, and support the successful integration of technology into teaching learning, and school management."

One can not state, in my opinion, whether technology alone impacts the development and delivery of instruction in a positive or negative way. Given above are many reasons as to why technology is beneficial to classroom instruction. Though these positive aspects are encouraging and easily found to be true, one can not disregard the negative aspects of the ever increasing use of technology in the classroom and how that impacts the most important thing in our classrooms, our students. As with many aspects of teaching, this argument is not black and white. One person can have the opinion that while both sets of arguments give good points, technology should neither dictate nor be completely withdrawn from our classroom instruction. I have come to the conclusion, therefore, that technology (based on the benefits given above) can positively impact both the delivery and development of classroom instruction only if used properly and appropriately. The positive impact depends on the teachers and administration. If teachers do not realize the power of the Internet we are given and give our students, and if teachers abuse and exploit the benefits of technology in the classroom it could only become detrimental to the education system.

Katherine Schnaufer graduated from Anderson University in 2007 with a B.A. in elementary education. She is passionate about using all of the tools at her disposal to help students reach their fullest potential.