Week #7

The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education

Deubel, Patricia. "The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education -- THE Journal." THE Journal: Technological Horizons in Education -- THE Journal. 08 Nov. 2007. Web. 19 Aug. 2010. .

Summary:
I found this article very intriguing. The article introduction starts off by addressing the "debate" in the effectiveness of technology. The article starts out by saying, "I sometimes wonder why there is debate on the effectiveness of technology in education." In turn, the article addresses how can we just stop all technology and remove it, when technology is apart of us? So is there really a debate? The article then leads right into the definitions of effectiveness, technology, and education. The article asks us as readers to look at a broader view of using technology in the classroom and the effectiveness. Think of how effective technology would be in a country less fortunate than ours. The article then addresses what they mean by technology due to the fact that the term is so broad, and of course finally education. The article also talks about if technology has any chance to be effective it must be integrated appropriately. The technology must be a part of, rather than an add-on to the lesson. You also need to know the educational gap where you think the media or technology would be most effective. The article then says being against technology would be the same as being against food, clearly we need both. The article then makes an excellent comparison. "But to observe that it is dangerous to eat too much food, or to eat food with no nutritional value, is not to be 'antifood.' It is to suggest what may be the best uses of food." Meaning that its about how we utilize the technology, creating new worlds for the better or to worsen. In conclusion We realize that integrating media or technology just because will not realistically better education in any way, but its the way we implement the technology that moves us one step further to ceasing the "one-size-fits all" approach to teaching and learning.

Reaction:
I found this article to be quite compelling. This article allows us to take the idea of integrating technology and gives us some direction in order to effectively do so. I really liked the opening in this article it wanted me to keep reading. I believe that this was due to the fact that the first sentence and the title were almost contradicting. Here we have an article that is called the great debate, and the first sentence states why debate, there should not be one. The article then addresses and gives definitions to what they are talking about. I think this is especially important due to the broad topics that were chosen. This allowed for me to follow the article much better and allowed very little room for interpretation. The article also states that we must integrate rather than add on. I believe that this is so true. This has also been stressed in our IT classes. The technology must be integrated and there is a right and wrong place for technology as well. This was an excellent read full of ample amounts of knowledge and ideas.