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Samantha Gross
Mrs. Cramer
College Comp. I Pd. 6
20 January 2017
#whyaremygradessolow
Technology is a part of education everywhere. Humans rely greatly on technology and

sometimes it can be beneficial, but most of the time technology is detrimental. Technology is

beneficial in a few ways such as "blended learning," which is learning that is half face to face

education with a teacher and half being taught online (Shirky). Also there are some apps and

online services that are useful when dealing with education (Herold). Technology is also

beneficial when its used for important tasks, such as in the medical field or for agricultural.

Other than that, technology isn't a huge help to our education for several obvious reasons, some

of which include, being a distraction, being unreliable, and effecting long term memory.

Technology can be both helpful and harmful to our education. However, most studies show that

technology has negative short term and long term effects on test grades, attention, and reliability

plus more.

To clarify, technology can have multiple short term influences on education, such as

being a distraction inside of school. As said in the article "Why a Leading Professor of New

Media Just Banned Technology Use in Class," the practices of Clay Shirky show that the level of

distraction grew worse over time when Shirky was allowing technology inside of his classroom

(Shirky). Another short term effect when using technology in school are poor grades. Studies

show that students who used computers for testing scored worse on an international reading test

rather than the students who tested on paper (Shirky). A study similar to this says they "found

participants who multitasked on a laptop during a lecture scored lower on a test compared to
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those who did not multitask" (Shirkly). Therefore, these studies show that the distraction of

technology is affecting grades on tests.

Technology can also be unreliable. For example, some schools including those in

"Florida, Minnesota, Montana, and Wisconsin have experienced some big problems with online

testing, ranging from cyber-attacks, to log-in problems to technical errors (Herold). This is once

again a big problem, especially since individuals are turning more and more towards technology

for almost everything. We are especially dependent on technology and rely so habitually on it,

that if something were to happen that we had to go without technology, it would be hard to say

what life would be like. Think about it; we wouldn't have email, social media, texting, electronic

based cars, televisions, computers, and more. We are definitely spoiled to have all of this fancy

technology in our lives, but honestly, where would we be without it? Another fact that was used

in Shirky's article tells us that an update on a phone or other device may be irresistible, but when

combined with a visual alert in one's peripheral vision it is actually, biologically impossible to

resist (Shirky). This strongly shows how hardware and software are professionally designed to

distract (Shirky). Even though one can somewhat hide these distractions with software that

prevent people from logging into certain sites, or using the internet at all. These are rear-guard

actions that work against the prevention of technology device distractions (Shirky). All these

short term influences could be turned around if we didn't rely so abundantly on technology

within our education.

To go along with short term effects, technology can also have long term effects in

schools. One major issue is all the money that we use for technology. Schools cannot always

afford access to high-speed internet, or wireless connectivity (Herold). When schools cannot

afford high speed internet and wireless connectivity this lessens the chances of being able to use
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technology effectively, because it will not always work efficiently. This can cause problems in

schools because numerous schools base their education off of online classes and testing. Without

technology, what would these schools do? Schools also spend more than $3 billion per year on

digital content (Herold). This is a waste, especially when devices only last for a short few years

before breaking. Another long term effect includes multitaskers degrading their abilities through

over-consumption (Shirky). Over-consumption is a big deal when it comes to education, because

people need to stay focused; however, they cannot remain focused with the distraction of

devices. Technology degrades the ability to learn by being distracting. Lastly, technology affects

long term performance because multi-tasking causes negative effects such as "declarative

memory" (Shirky). Declarative memory is the memory of facts and events, and refers to those

memories which can be recalled. This effects memory and makes it into a short term memory.

Not being able to recall memories is bad because that means that students dont completely

understand what was taught in the first place. Wouldn't it be easier just to put aside our

technology devices and actually learn what's being taught to us? This way what we do learn

without distraction or multitasking would stay longer in our brains. The saying "learned the day

before the test, forgot the day after" is one example of an effect of multitasking with a

technology device (Herold).

In conclusion technology is an immense part of everything, it is a big part of our

education, and most importantly in our everyday life's. Technology has some short term

problems that affect our education, such as being a distraction, causing poor grades, being

unreliable, and effecting memory. These are all short-term issues that could simpl be changed if

we did not depend immensely on technology devices in everything, but most importantly, our

education. Our technology also has long-term effects in education, which include money,
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degrading abilities with multitasking, and effects on our declarative memory. All of these enforce

the problems that cause long term issues. As for short term problems, this just means that it will

be a simple change without as much technology use in a negative manner. Even though

technology has allowed humans to advance and develop, it may not be the best suited for

educational settings. However, now technology is used in everyday education and if we dont

change anything about our use of technology, its going to keep affecting our education all

around in an unsatisfactory way.

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Work Cited page

Herold, Benjamin, Technology in Education: An Overview, Education Week,
February 5, 2016.
Strauss, Valerie and Shirky, Clay, Why a leading professor of new media just banned
technology use in class, The Washington Post, September 25, 2014.