Paper or Electronic
Paper or Electronic: The Effects of A Digital Classroom
ED 503
July 22, 2011
Shakia Sullivan Prude
Professor R. Holden
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On a typical summer Tuesday I sat in a park during lunch hour. Aside from a tasty
sandwich I noticed how much technology can bring us together to learn, connect, and
express our ideas from anywhere and like never before. Texting, tweeting, editing
photographs, making calls, sending and checking emails, and spying on ex-mates via
Facebook were keeping people of all ages at laptops and thumb hurdling on mobile
devices. I thought to myself: “What if students had some type of device to be connected
and immersed in a digitally content rich environment as in-class enrichment?”
It seems that South Korea has beaten me to that answer, at least on a wide scale
implementation level. They have committed $2.4 billion dollars to eliminating textbooks
and paper in favor of tablet computing devices by 2014 (website). ‘Tablets’ as they are
called are digital devices similar to smart phones with larger touch screens, smaller more
powerful processors, and installed with wireless or cellular connectivity to the internet,
local area networks and with each other. Stateside, innovative utilization of technology is
being tested, both by children in the classroom and in theory by researchers. Researchers
have raised alarm to governments about the benefits to students with special needs,
linkage to and preparation to higher education and steep cost reductions (3 notes).
One group of researchers has acknowledged the benefits of the virtual classroom
model along with distance learning (Grubbs, Pate, Leech 2009). Media-rich academic
presentations provided in a structured model and a delivery system that can connect home
bound students to educators and classrooms anywhere in the world via a camera equipped
personal computer or mobile device are some of the highlights associated with
implementation of technology in the learning process (Silverstone, Teatum 2011).
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Technology also helps to balance the promise of an equal opportunity learning
environment (Hyungsung 2010). There are many providers advertising accredited online
kindergarten through high school educational programs. In the past, these programs may
have had a negative perception related to minorities, teenage pregnancies and troubled
adolescents. Today online educational programs are growing in popularity due partially
to decline in attendance at expensive private educational institutions and instability in
public educational funding. Also, new technologies are being developed and used to
assist students with audio, visual and communicative disorders in expressing themselves
and problem-solve type learning in the inclusive classroom (Singh 2010).
In a cash strapped economic climate where many school districts are still paying
hundreds of thousands of dollars in paper alone, correlated with the ever-inflating costs of
textbooks, technology seems to be the affordable adjustment (Whisler 2010). Besides the
financial aspect, technology has changed the ways we as a society communicate, learn
and have access to unlimited resources. Utilization of technology both in the physical and
virtual classrooms seems to be the future of education whether we like it or not.
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Bibliography Page
1. Singh, V. (2010).Technology as it relates to Special Needs Students Learning
Community: An International Journal of Education & Social Development;
Jun2010, Vol. 1 Issue 1, p78-83, 6p.
2. Whisler, V. (2010).Going Green in a Paperless Classroom. Journal of Technology
Integration in the Classroom; Summer2010, Vol. 2 Issue 2, p45-56, 12p, 6
Charts.
3. Hyungsung, P. (2010). Improving In Social Problems Solving In Game-Based
Learning. Journal of Technology Integration in the Classroom; Summer2010,
Vol. 2 Issue 2, p103-115, 13p, 2 Diagrams, 4 Charts.