One-to-one technology in schools: Good or bad?
When I was in high school, my urban-suburban district received a grant to get us all Chromebooks to achieve a one-to-one technology to student ratio and go paperless. I think that ever since this fateful day in my sophomore or junior year, I have never been off of a computer. To this day, I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing, so maybe you can help me weigh this idea.
Starting to go paperless is better for the environment, which is always a plus in this day and age of global warming; but does it not take away the accountability of having to remember papers and assignments? I have always been a hands-on learner, and being online led to a struggle in my focus and therefore a fall in grades.
Online school was terrible for me, but I was happy to move into college, even with online classes. The age of Zoom has also made it easy for professors to move classes online, which I know I hate, and based on the typical lack of conversation I can only assume that the majority of the student body hates it as well. I had a professor say that our online history discussion went well, when in fact it felt like only one or two people talked. I know I was booking a spring break vacation during that class time.
Anyway, back to when we first got technology. I know it sounds bougie, but my school made this shift because our school district was poor and students needed to be able to do better work in order to make the school look better—or at least that is what I think. However, this new age of technology evidently ruined the younger generations, because now they are on a screen 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a soon-to-be teacher, I hate this—elementary students should have time to be a kid and not have the major responsibility of a laptop that needs to be charged every night. With this you also have districts that force teachers to use technology in the classroom, though I guess that is more of a New York State thing. This does not feel right—as a teacher I should be able to teach the material in whatever way I feel works best for my students, and if that involves paper getting messy with markers, then so be it!
I also personally feel that with the onset of technology, there has been a rise in homework. I have strong feelings against homework which I can get into another day, but overall having a computer has made it way too easy for teachers to assign work to be submitted online whether there is class or not. That feels like cruel punishment, as being a student is a full-time job.
So, now that you know my opinion on how becoming one-to-one with technology about five to six years ago has changed the scope of education, I am curious to know how you all feel about having a laptop attached to you at all times.
Thumbnail Photo via Pexels