by Michael King

Created on: April 15, 2009

Technology, progress and advancement; the way forward. Regulation, caution and care; also the way forward. These modern new gadgets and technologies give us capabilities we never had before, the ability to travel through the infinitely huge depths of space and study the minuscule atom and technology is giving us a wider breadth of capability in the classroom as well. Instead of writing on the blackboard teachers these days can utilise interactive whiteboards, bring up messages on the screen of every student and set them online worksheets; teachers can set students online tasks, check their completion online and even mark it all, with feedback online. Technology and digital cameras and microphones can allow teachers to embrace their students artistic side with projects to be uploaded onto the computer and then tinkered with via clever software. No-one worth listening to would deny the potential of technology in the classroom.

However we are already seeing the problems to be associated with the word processer children, how can a student be expected to improve their own grammar when they can just click the spelling and grammar tool? Why would young children develop their ability to draw and paint when instantly they can produce a fully lifelike image and bring it up, tinker with it and add all sorts of amazing effects upon it in just five minutes? When a student is brought up in front of a computer why should they even learn to write.

Depreciating literacy is a problem this country is facing heavily with the increase in technological advancement. Technology can make things all the more easy for us to deal with, but surely a balance must be found with making it too easy? When computers can save us the effort of writing in day to day life, when we will eventually need to write something, for whatever reason, how will this new generation of children survive without the grammar tool?

The answer, of course, as it always is, is a balance. While the beauties of technology in the classroom must be embraced, rather then inhibited, we must also realise that for the moments when technology is not there to aid us, we must have the basic skills ready and waiting. The interactive whiteboard, a tool which allows the teacher to write, bring up pictures, scroll down, rub out, move on, like flipping a flipchart and then simply flip back and even save all the annotations for future use, this tool is clearly ideal for use and should without a single doubt be rolled out nationwide, but perhaps the use of individual computers, no matter how useful, should be looked into more deeply before they are used more widely. The issues with this technology more evident. A balance, that is the key.

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