Computers and mobile devices have been an asset to everyone live with the ability to search anything within seconds, from home or in the car. Whenever someone needs an answer to a question you can just Google it and find out. But this technology has also been used to help students with projects such as Microsoft office products, Google documents, and many more. This allows students to type their papers or projects online and virtually make them mistake free, using products such as spell check and paper rater. Such products are convenient and are an asset to students but are welcome in the classroom? Recently school districts have been pushing for technology in the classroom, stating that test scores will increase due to laptops being
…show more content…
Penn Manor school district located in Pennsylvania has a 1 on 1 student laptop program that students within the grades of 7 to 12 got free laptops with learning apps and much more. (District Administration) To deal with the ongoing problem of technology breaking or students just needing help with their laptop, Penn Manor has set-up a student help desk. The help desk is run by the students and counts as a class for those who participate in that class. This allows the school to save money by not hiring extra personnel or sending the computers out to a third party. In fact, Penn Manor saved $100,000 in one year and over $500,000 overall just by establishing a student help desk that counts as a class. (District …show more content…
The sources I have seen that have mentioned raising test scores, raising attendance, and lowering discipline have only said these areas would be improved by a couple percent at most. Nowhere did I see a ten percent increase or even a five percent increase in scores. Also from personal experience, I cannot say I got any smarter from using at school or at home completing my school work. Most of my time with a computer during high school was spent online shopping or playing games. Everyone in the class would do the same, including the smart ones because everyone knew the teachers would not enforce any discipline. And to make the situation worse the teachers were forced to use the computers so therefore the computers could not be removed from the class. The computers were just a bust and no one in the class gained any sort of IQ or improved their SAT/ACT scores from using computers. The only thing the computers did was allowed students to play games and have fun in class while not learning anything. Computers also cost a significant amount of money, even if the school had a help desk. Teachers would need to be trained on how to properly teach using computers, with some of the older teachers still struggling to adapt to the new technology. (Weiler) There is a reason why laptops are normally not allowed in a college classroom, and that
Penn Manor school district located in Pennsylvania has a 1 on 1 student laptop program that students within the grades of 7 to 12 got free laptops with learning apps and much more. (District Administration) To deal with the ongoing problem of technology breaking or students just needing help with their laptop, Penn Manor has set-up a student help desk. The help desk is run by the students and counts as a class for those who participate in that class. This allows the school to save money by not hiring extra personnel or sending the computers out to a third party. In fact, Penn Manor saved $100,000 in one year and over $500,000 overall just by establishing a student help desk that counts as a class. (District …show more content…
The sources I have seen that have mentioned raising test scores, raising attendance, and lowering discipline have only said these areas would be improved by a couple percent at most. Nowhere did I see a ten percent increase or even a five percent increase in scores. Also from personal experience, I cannot say I got any smarter from using at school or at home completing my school work. Most of my time with a computer during high school was spent online shopping or playing games. Everyone in the class would do the same, including the smart ones because everyone knew the teachers would not enforce any discipline. And to make the situation worse the teachers were forced to use the computers so therefore the computers could not be removed from the class. The computers were just a bust and no one in the class gained any sort of IQ or improved their SAT/ACT scores from using computers. The only thing the computers did was allowed students to play games and have fun in class while not learning anything. Computers also cost a significant amount of money, even if the school had a help desk. Teachers would need to be trained on how to properly teach using computers, with some of the older teachers still struggling to adapt to the new technology. (Weiler) There is a reason why laptops are normally not allowed in a college classroom, and that