Technology's Negative Effects On Student Learning

The notion that the new defining technology of the current age negatively affects the practitioners of that technology is a common idea throughout human history. It is a belief that is as wrong today as it was 2000 years ago, especially when applied to the current applications of the Internet. As humans develop adoptions to their current world, there is always a non-negligence subset of the population that decries the changes as decedent and detrimental. The focus on increasing efficiency through technology is to increase productivity, just as the focus of the Industrial Revolution was. Being more efficiently does not mean people are any stupider or lazy than the more “hardworking” ancestors. Indeed as of technologies past, the knowledge and …show more content…
Cheung and Slavin address a similar argument by stating, that the idea “the impact of technology on student learning was due to instructional content and methods, but not technology per se”, is not able to be measured as “in practice, technology, content, and method are often intertwined and cannot be separated.” Carr cautions about the negative effects that technology can have, even so, he would most likely agree with the statement by Cheung and Slavin “Technology is there to stay, and pragmatically, the question is how to make the best use of the many technologies now …show more content…
No good is without its drawbacks, however, Carr in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” seizes on the negatives to believe the increasing usage of the Internet is to the detriment of society’s mental abilities. Just as Socrates “bemoaned the development of writing” fearing it would cause people to become lazy and forgetful, Carr does the same for the new digital technologies (537). By focusing on pre-Internet benchmarks unsuited to the new fast paced world of instant communication and the deluge of information, Carr, and many others can come to the wrong conclusion that new technologies spell the end for humanity’s intellectual curiosity. Certainly, if technology were to the mental detriment of it’s practitioners it would be obvious in the education system with its increasing integration of technological in classroom instruction. Cheung and Salvin reveal in their meta-analysis that, at least in K-12 American mathematics, technology in the classroom helps children learn more. Google may be causing us to dull once valued skills as speculated by Carr, but the human brain is adapting to the new Age of Information. If the tenure of human development reflects anything, it is that societies are very good at successfully adapting to new achievements to use to forge a