Greg Wolcott

Ms. Caruso

UWRT 1103

3, April 2017

Technology in Schools

With the advancement of technology in modern day society, there has been a very

comprehensive debate as to whether schools should start integrating more technology based

learning. With some more in depth analysis and research into the topic, I could find valuable

information to put in my product about why technology is good or bad in the classroom.

Instead of choosing one side of the argument to display, I chose to point out the main parts of

why schools should or should not use technology based learning programs. I decided to make a

twitter page that would outline both sides of using technology based learning programs. With the

twitter page, I figured that the profile name needed to be something catchy that would show the

users what the page is about. I decided to put a play on words and make the username techorno.

It shows both sides of the argument, as tech or no tech. I was going to use the username tech(no),

but sadly twitter does not allow for those characters to be used in usernames. For this product, I

chose to make my target audience the students that are currently enrolled in school. They are the

ones who are most affected by this topic, since they are the ones who are in school, learning

every day. I figured that with technology being at the forefront of this argument, I should make

the product technological. I wanted it to be interactive, and something that my teenage target

audience could understand and connect with Twitter is a social media platform that is used by a

clear majority of teens in the United States. It is an application that most teenagers are very

familiar with and comfortable using. Given this prior knowledge and interest in Twitter, I feel as
though my product will be able to convey a message to them in a way that they will be interested

in. Given the ability to produce polls in Twitter, it will give the product a certain amount of

interaction amongst the target audience. Towards the end of my presentation I will allow my

fellow classmates to go to the twitter page and participate in the poll or reply to the tweets and

memes that I provided. This will allow for interaction from my target audience that will show

what the popular opinion is, as well as make the presentation of the product one that is

interesting due to the interaction that is available.

Throughout the twitter feed, I use the sources to provide a main point, followed by the link to

the source. I do this for both why schools should use technology, and why schools shouldnt use

technology. For using schools in technology, I have a tweet that says, An Italian geometry study

that was conducted with technology based programs yielded results of students learning better

than with books!, followed by a link to the study (Angela Piu, 2016). This gives the user a

general overview of what the link is about, and whether it is for or against the use of technology

in schools. Another tweet I have is According to an article by Jennifer Lee, not all schools can

afford the technology programs!, the link to this study (Jennifer Lee, 1999) is included as well.

This tweet informs the user about a negative side to using technology in schools, and for more

information the link is included. I included 5 tweets that were on the side of the argument that

technology should be used and school, and 5 tweets that argue the technology should not be used

in school. I needed to use a plethora of tweets so that I could display many different points as to

why technology should or shouldnt be used in school. The page is aimed to be unbiased, which

is why I used the same number of tweets and sources for pro-technology as I did for no

technology. Due to the character limit provided by twitter, I had to just outline the main point of

what the source provided. I think that this worked to my benefit though, because one sentence
that outlines what the article is about is more likely to hook the teenage audience, rather than a

full paragraph summary or synopsis of the source.

Also, memes are a huge part of twitter that make tweets memorable for the users. I made

memes for pro-technology and no technology to give a little bit of comic relief to the users of

Twitter that are viewing the otherwise strictly-informative page. Twitter pages that are strictly

serious will be a lot less likely to be viewed and enjoyed by the teenage viewers, so the use of

memes will help make the Twitter page more effective and fun. The meme that I created for the

side that is pro-technology has a quote on it that says So technology is having an adverse effect

on children? Tell me more about how you are not addicted to your mobile phone., which is

followed up with a tweet that says, Some don't want technology in school, yet are addicted to

using their technology. This meme and tweet outline the fact that people are addicted to using

technology because it is so useful to them, but think that it is having a terrible effect on the

children. It points out the hypocrisy of the people who are saying no to technology in schools.

The meme for no technology in schools is a picture of a bunch of students taking a picture of a

blackboard and it says, note taking in the 21st century, and is followed by a tweet that says,

Have fun studying the notes picture when you are getting texts from your group chat, snapchats

from your bff, and peeps sliding in your dm's. This picture and tweet show the users of twitter

how much of a distraction the technology can be inside of the classroom, and that just taking a

picture of the lecture is an insufficient way to take notes.

This Twitter page will be a tool that will help teenagers see both arguments as to whether

technology should or should not be used in school, and with the poll it will allow them to voice

their opinion. With putting in all the links to my sources, users that visit my page will have ample

opportunity to become more informed (if they want to) and really be able to voice an unbiased
opinion that will show, at least the twitter universe, what they think is the best way for them to

learn, and what techniques should be used in school.

Sources:

Lee, Jennifer. "A Question of Equality; Some Schools Can't Afford Hardware and Training." The

New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Sept. 1999. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

Piu, Angela. "E-Journals A-Z - J. Murrey Atkins Library - UNC Charlotte." E-Journals A-Z - J.
Murrey Atkins Library - UNC Charlotte. ProQuest, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.