● To track or stream students into rigid or long-term, standardized learning groups
This would appear to cancel out any benefits from personalizing learning to each student's individualized pace. The goal is to make it more equitable, not reinforce achievement gaps.
The best we can do today is understand how technology can be a valuable tool for educators to do the complex, human work that is teaching by capitalizing on the benefits while remaining fully mindful of the risks as we currently understand them.
I think this is a good way to approach the issue. It's important to see both sides and take both into consideration instead of trusting the first stance that you come across.
In adolescence and young adulthood, the presence of technology in learning environments has also been associated with (but has not been shown to be the cause of) negative variables such as attention deficits or hyperactivity, feeling lonely, and lower grades.
I myself have noticed that my attention span is not as long as it used to be when I was younger (prior to my introduction to technology, and since technology use has become such a huge part of my life). I also notice that my friends also have a lot more issues paying attention or keeping their attention in recent years than before the technology boom.
The truth is that infants, in particular, learn by interacting with our physical world and with other humans, and it is likely that very early (passive) interactions with devices–rather than humans–can disrupt or misinform neural development. As we grow older, time spent on devices often replaces time spent engaging in physical activity or socially with other people, and it can even become a substitute for emotional regulation, which is detrimental to physical, social, and emotional development.
As someone who comes from a psychology background, I take research like this very seriously. This is a huge reason why I get so aggravated when I go out to restaurants or other public places and see families that don't interact with their kids and just lazily throw a screen in front of them the whole time.
Second, the proliferation of technology in our lives had made the previous guidelines almost impossible to follow.
I think it makes logical sense that as technology advances and society becomes more technology-driven, guidelines such as these should be updated to reflect the ever-changing society that we live in.
Intentional, thoughtful inclusion of technology in public learning environments can ensure that all students, regardless of their ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language status, special education status, or other characteristics, have the opportunity to experience learning and develop skills that allow them to fully realize their potential.
This is so important! Bridging the achievement and opportunity gaps between all students is a vital step towards improving education and making it a more equitable place for each and every student.
Technology for learning, when deployed to all students, ensures that no student experiences a “21st-century skills and opportunity” gap.
The use of technology in schools and integration of technology use in school curriculum could help even the playing field for all students. At least in that one respect, students of all backgrounds would have equal opportunity.
In other words, ed tech can improve learning when used to personalize instruction to each student’s pace.
This potential benefit of technology use in school addresses a hugely important struggle of teaching/learning. Students are almost always at different levels of comprehension and cannot all be expected to learn at the same pace. This sounds like it would help teachers personalize learning to the student, and would benefit the students as well.
When technology is integrated into lessons in ways that are aligned with good in-person teaching pedagogy, learning can be better than without technology.
I think the qualifier "when integrated in ways that are aligned with good in-person teaching pedagogy" and word choice of "can be" are both important here. The author is making it clear that technology has the potential to improve and enrich learning if implemented in the proper way, and that just throwing technology at students willy-nilly without any sort of structure or purpose isn't going to cut it.
I have frequently cited the mixed evidence about blended learning, which strategically integrates in-person learning with technology to enable real-time data use, personalized instruction, and mastery-based progression.
I wonder how this research will be affected by COVID-19. I know that many schools, my old high school included, are going to be engaging in a blended or "hybrid" teaching model that pairs in-person instruction with online at-home instruction.
If ever there were a case to be made that more research can cloud rather than clarify an issue, technology use and learning seems to fit the bill.
I think that access to information via the internet and developments in technology over the years has indeed clouded rather than clarify many different issues. Research also cannot always be taken at face value. It's important to examine where the research is being conducted, by whom, and how it's being conducted before just taking the findings as fact.
ll bet you’ve read something about technology and learning recently.
Many of my education classes have discussed the hot button topic of teaching and learning with technology. For the most part, readings have been in favor of the use of technology to enrich and help facilitate student learning experiences. As society changes and becomes more technologically advanced, it is beneficial for schools to be implementing technology use in their curriculum.
there’s no link between adolescents’ screen time and their well-being.
In my psychology classes (particularly adolescent psychology) we learned that there is actually a negative correlation between adolescents' technology use (i.e. screen time) and their social/emotional well-being. Technology can be a way for people to feel more connected but it does not always have the intended effects and has been shown to result in more feelings of loneliness.