Studies conducted by Concordia University and American University say that technology has made students more actively engaged in class; their creativity has increased, along with their performance in class. Students who participate little in class are given more chances to participate in activities with the use of some technologies.
Other Students with special needs can get the extra help and the education they need if technology is used by their teachers. Technology can help students with a wide variety of tasks, including spelling, writing, reading, and mathematical computation. Technology also allows teachers to make up for the many different ways students can be taught. For example, students are able to pick research topics much quicker by conducting online searches rather than going to a library and searching for information that might not be there.
Technology has made grading easier for teachers, and parents are notified about students' grades at any change or problem. “It’s great for collecting data on what children know,” Tim Kahl, Helix High School English teacher says. Computers have allowed teachers to keep track of students' progress and what they need to work on.
Technology is what surrounds many students' lives nowadays, and will not be going anywhere. “We take for granted the fact that kids are raised with technology and we don’t do a good job sometimes teaching them how to use it,” said Rory Simpson, Helix High School Social Studies teacher.
Students use technology in their everyday lives, and will need to know how to use it for almost any career path. Whether it is for logging information, mapping, planning, billing, paying taxes, writing letters, and many other tasks, students will need to know how to do these things using technology.
Students are more engaged in classes when using technology for assignments, or activities, but some students are only engaged when the lessons or activities are gamified. But some students are not even engaged in more gamified lessons. Both Drexel University School of Education and Grand Canyon University state that students are generally more engaged in their classes before entering high school, a finding that local teachers share. “Kids are more engaged, but not at the high school level, they are more engaged at the elementary and middle school, the engagement level drops off at high school,” said Kahl.
But teachers also say that students may interact with each other less when there is more technology use. Simpson says that, “Kids on technology are not interacting as much, whereas in an activity in class with students with low tech, they are interacting with each other.”
Most of these problems: lack of interaction, level of engagement, knowledge about the device they are using, all can be a result of teachers not being trained in how to teach students how to use technology in a way that will benefit them. “You have to be prepared, and people have to be trained on the technology that they’re using,” Simpson said. “Without the preparation on it, you're just giving tools to people that don’t know how to use them.” If used and taught in the right way, technology can be a valuable tool.