Stacey Colby

10/4/03

SLM521

Technology In Schools: It Does Make A Difference!

This article focuses on the up side of technology in the classroom. This article counteracts the viewpoints expressed in the article Technology in Schools: Some Say It Doesn’t Compute! This article shows studies that reveal that student scores on both state tests and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) improved as a result of providing students an adequate number of computers and thoroughly training teachers in how to use the computer software (Chaika, 1999). The studies crossed multiple subjects and various age levels. The main point remains that to adequately prepare students for the future, they must be able to use 21^st century methods of teaching in the classrooms of the 21^st century. If technology is not available, students will have no chance of competing in the job market that they will enter – a market in which a huge number of the jobs will require the use of technology (Chaika, 1999).

I agree that technology will be at the forefront of most jobs in the years to come. Unfortunately, the cost of technology in the school system can be quite high. There may not be funds allotted to this topic. I think that the use of computers is key to a students learning because this is the avenue they are most exposed to. Video games, the internet, television, these forms of entertainment hold a child’s attention more than a teacher in the classroom. If it possible to include technology as part of the school curriculum, it can be nothing but beneficial to the student population.

Chaika, Glori. Technology in Schools: It Does Make A Difference! Education World. 1999.