Megan Humphrey

English Comp. 2

Lindsey Slanker

1 July, 2019

Does Technology in the Classroom Benefit Your Child?

Many parents go through the process of wondering if technology in the

classroom is actually benefiting or harming their child's academics. Think about how

much technology was in your classroom while going through grade school. Do you think

it was helpful in your learning process? Placing technology in the classroom can be very

expensive depending on the devices. The higher the quantity, the more expensive it can

be. Technology in the classroom can be both beneficial and harmful to your child's

education. Both parents and teachers have one thing in common and that is they both

want what is best for the students' academics. Having technology available to the

students in the classroom can be more beneficial than harmful to children. All this being

said, technology can have an effective role in the students learning process.

When it comes to technology in the classroom there is an outrageous number of

different types of technology that is designed to enrich a child's academic skills. Within

the classroom you can see computer monitors, clickers, smartboards, chrome books,

and iPads. However, not every school will have access to these types of technology in

the classroom. This is because not every school has enough funding to spend on new

devices in the classroom. This can be a downfall for students in the classroom as they

would not be exposed to the devices others may have access too.
 Clickers in the classroom is a creative way to assess students over a particular

lesson in a relatively easy way. The way clickers work in the classroom is the teacher

will use a presentation software such as PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation with

various questions over a subject matter that was just taught in class. Each student will

receive a clicker that has various buttons on it. Each button will reflect each student

answer to the question and allow the instructor to view the students results. This is a

great form of technology in the classroom because it can allow the teacher to get results

over the lesson they taught quickly and can also be used with a large group of students.

(Moratelli)

The picture shown above, is what clickers look like being used in the classroom.

The teachers will give a series of questions, while the students use the buttons to

answer.

Kaitlyn Moratelli, a ​Response to Intervention teacher in the Vineland Public

School District in New Jersey, ​completed​ ​her own study that was done with clickers in

her fifth-grade classroom covering literacy rates. She began to notice that some
students were not getting the material they needed to know after the lesson. This is

where she began to think of ways that she could help the students retain the

information. After she was given the set of clickers she decided to try them and see if

they would help her students. After every lesson she taught her students over literacy,

there was an end of the lesson review that was completed with the set of clickers. The

final results of completing the end of the lesson review with the clickers in her classroom

showed that student literacy rates began to increase.

Another commonly used device that is seen within elementary classrooms are

iPads. IPads can be used by both the teachers and the students in elementary

classroom. Teachers can use iPads as a source of mobile internet. Therefore when they

have recess, lunch, or hall duty they can take their iPads with them to enter grades or

complete lesson plans. (Hedge) Stephanie Hedge shares with us that iPads in her

classroom is a convenience to her. It helps her with remembering things, instead of

writing notes on a piece of paper she will type it into her notes on the iPad. Not only

does it save paper, she is able to take it anywhere she goes. Teachers can also benefit

from the use of iPads in the classroom from the app store. The app store gives teachers

a wide range of apps that can benefit the teachers. IPads also have the ability to hook

up to projectors through Apple TV. When teachers are able to connect to an Apple TV,

they can then project apps that are on the iPad to the class. However, students can also

benefit from the use of iPads in the classroom through the apps on the device. With the

school districts technology department to help limit the website that students are able to

use. The students can benefit from the apps that can be downloaded onto the iPad. For
example, a teacher can download a math facts app that can help students with their

multiplication, division, etc... Teachers can use this as a source of teaching or for

students to get extra practice.

Finally, the most commonly seen technology in the classroom are computers and

chromebooks. Computers are something that teachers are typically dependant on.

WIthout a computer in their classroom, they would struggle in creating lesson plans or

projecting their lessons to the students. Furthermore, without computers or technology,

teachers would not have access to enter student grades. Chromebooks are a smaller

sized laptop and are typically for student use in the classroom. These are good for

students to use when teachers create a Google Classroom online. Google Classroom is

used through Google and is an easy place for teachers to share important information to

their students. Google Classroom can also be used for students to receive and turn in

homework assignments to the instructor. This can help each student improve their

technology skills for use in the future.

Which brings me to my next point, by placing technology in elementary

classrooms it can bring all different types of learning styles. There are many ways that

students prefer to learn. Some like visuals, some are more auditoral and others learn

better with hands on learning also known as kenistic learners. Those students who like

visual learning typically means they like things right in front of their face. They can get

their information from reading books, looking at homework, or flipping through charts

and studying them. Sarah Meade shared with her readers that visual learners, “can

often be found at the front of the classroom, soaking up whatever they see their teacher
write on the board.” (Meade) Often when visual learners are trying to learn something

new, they might ask “Can you show me how to complete that task?” Teachers can help

create an effective learning environment for their visual learners by providing handouts

throughout the lesson, such as charts or tables.

However, for auditory learners they best understand things that are being

explained to them aloud, even if they recite the information to themselves. Often times

this can be seen throughout the elementary classrooms when teachers pair important

information to a song or beat. Teachers can notice auditory in their classroom when

students prefer to read aloud rather than to themselves in their head. As well as when a

student asks the instructor to repeat instructions multiple times until he/she understands

the assignment. Teachers can help these students excel in their academics by stating

directions more than once before allowing the students to begin their individual work. In

a fourth grade elementary classroom I observed while taking Teachers Academy in

highschool. The teacher that I worked with for eight weeks had many students that

perfect auditory learning. She would record the directions for each assignment before

hand and would allow the students to relisten to the directions if need be after

explaining them once to the entire class. This is a good resource for the teacher to have

for the students to listen to over again until they understood the material.

Many other students like hands on learning also known as kinesthetic learners.

This means students would rather have the problem in their hands observing and

moving it. Except the issue with this is that not every lesson in class will be able to

provide this learning style. For example around the fourth grade, students learn the
difference between comparing and contrasting. With this material they can't physically

hold the answers in their hand. However, in the first grade students are typically

learning the basics in adding simple numbers. This can be done kinesthetically by the

instructor providing small chips or blocks for the students to use. Not only does this

example help those who like to learn hands on by the visual learners who like to see it

being done. Teachers can notice students who are kinesthetic when students fiddle with

objects in their hands. Teachers can help those kinesthetic learners by Meades advice

of, “Whenever possible, offer your kinesthetic learner things to hold in their hands.

Physical math manipulatives, such as pattern blocks and base ten blocks, can help

kinesthetic learners internalize a new math concept.” (Meade) Ethan Dickens is a high

school student whom shared how his algebra teacher uses different technology devices

throughout the classroom. Dickens supports his teachers use of technology in the

classroom because it enriches all three of the different types of learning styles.

(Dickens)

Although, not everyone believes that technology can help students with their

academics. Some believe that technology becomes more of a distraction to students.

Once students know they have access to technology in their classroom. Students may

begin to rush their assignments to have the chance to get on some sort of technology

device. However, its can become more of a distraction to some students than others

due to the fact that some parents provide some sort of technology to their children at

home. Therefore, if they have an iPad at home and know all the different types of tricks

and websites, students may then try to do the same thing in the classroom rather than
using it for the educational purpose on the device, which then distracts them from what

they should be doing and learning with technology.

Students are not the only ones who can benefit from having technology in the

classroom. Teachers can benefit from the use of technology in the classroom too. Some

may ask, “how so?” Some current teachers have been in the field of education for

many, many years. However, some may not have the same knowledge over technology

as others. Which means when technology is brought into the classrooms, the teachers

have to know how to use it. So basic training over the usage of different types of

technology is required for teachers before bringing devices into the classroom. With

technology becoming more and more advanced in the world, the newer the teachers,

the more technology based knowledge they may have to share with other

co-workers.(​Ochoa)

Ellie Knapp currently finished her third year of teaching in the Clark County

school district. She provided valuable information during our interview. Ellie mentions,

“With technology evolving year after year, my first year of teaching I was not sure how I

was allowed to incorporate technology in my classroom. I attended many different

conferences and meetings with my superiors to find different ways for the use of

technology in the classroom.” (Knapp) Mrs. Knapp was informed by others how to use

technology effectively in her classroom which then helped benefit her students once she

was able to figure out ways to use different devices.

Let's say that technology does benefit students in the classroom. What if you are

teaching a room full of students whose families cannot afford technology in their homes.
Students can learn and benefit from it in the classroom but the second they leave the

school doors they may not be able to practice what they learned in school because they

don't have access at home. “One example of this challenge is playing out in Madison,

Wisconsin. A Tableau survey of over 27,000 students found that ​around twelve percent

of students in the Madison Metropolis School District do not have access to the

Internet​.” (Lynch) This is an important thing to keep in mind. Not everyone can afford

the miscellaneous devices, so not every child will be able to practice what they have

learned in the classroom, at home. Therefore not every child will learn things at the

same pace.

In conclusion, technology in the classroom does more good than harm to

students. The students will have the chance to learn about all the different types of

technology and how they can use them for education purposes. They will also be able

to learn with the different types of preferred learning styles. Technology can have an

effective role in students learning process.

 Works Cited

“Clickers.” ​Hunter College,​ ​ ​www.hunter.cuny.edu/it/it-services/clickers​.

Dickens, Ethan Talks, TEDx. ​YouTube​, YouTube, 2 Apr. 2015,

Hedge, Stephanie. “Teaching with Tablets.” ​Education Digest​, vol. 78, no. 6, Feb. 2013,

pp. 50–52. ​EBSCOhost​,

http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?d

irect=true&db=a9h&AN=85157974&site=ehost-live

Knapp, Ellie, Personal Interview June 20, 2019

Lynch, Matthew, et al. “The Dark Side of Educational Technology.” ​The Edvocate​, 16

Aug. 2018, ​www.theedadvocate.org/dark-side-educational-technology/​.

Mead, Sarah. “Auditory, Visual & Kinesthetic: Helping Kids Succeed Through Different

Learning Styles.” ​Whitby School​,

https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/auditory-visual-and-kinesthetic-

helping-children-succeed-through-different-learning-styles

Moratelli, Katelyn, and Nancy K. DeJarnette. “Clickers to the Rescue.” ​The Reading

Teacher​, vol. 67, no. 8, May 2014, pp. 586–593. ​EBSCOhost​,

doi:10.1002/trtr.1261.​http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscoh

ost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=95772270&site=ehost-live

Ochoa, Amanda. “Http://Ljournal.ru/Wp-Content/Uploads/2016/08/d-2016-154.Pdf.”

Contingent Faculty: Helping or Harming Students? ​, 2016,

doi:10.18411/d-2016-154.