Where are we heading as a society and an educational system? I have been teaching college course for the last 3 years and have been coaching college baseball the last 7 years. One thing that I have noticed throughout the course of that time is the fact that today’s college students and young people in general have as a whole, become less and less dependent on their own abilities to spell, organize thoughts and overall sentence structure have dropped off of the table. In your opinion, has today’s technology assisted or hurt today’s youth and their educational development and ability to organize thoughts?
39 Comments
Heather Kirkendoll
4/16/2012 01:57:27 pm
I do believe, more students are willing to do research than others before on projects, and that has made a benefit to students. But I do believe that skills with memorization are being hurt due to technology. Like we have stated in previous posts, I believe calculators and spell check are being overused by students in classrooms today. Many students feel that they do not need to know this, so with that attitude, it is another hurdle teachers have to deal with in teaching their content.
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Kelli Miller
4/17/2012 12:12:15 pm
I agree with you that the dependence on technology is a hurdle that teachers must overcome. I think we've mentioned it earlier, but I think teachers should devote a little time in the classroom to teach the basics to students. Atleast have time set aside to show students what happened before we had technology.
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Audrey Crabtree
4/18/2012 04:09:04 am
I agree and think that students shouldn't be allowed to use such things until middle school if not high school. You have to build that base for students to understand that the information they are learning is important. If they see technology as an escape from doing it the right way, they will never learn.
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Nick Camp
4/16/2012 10:50:39 pm
I have seen technology really hamper spelling and grammar mistakes. Not have I only seen this in other people but myself as well. I have noticed that I'm quick to go to spell-check rather than sound the word out on my own. You will also run across poor sentence structure every once in a while. I can comfortably organize my thoughts with technology by setting up an outline.
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Audrey Crabtree
4/16/2012 11:16:12 pm
I think that in some cases it has hurt. I also believe that we as a society have not prepared well enough for the technology boom that has occurred. I can recall from when I was in school that we worked on making sure our typed papers were in the correct form. We would lose points if we had grammar issues and I think this is still true today in classes. I think the thing that has changed, is the laziness of the students. Every word is shortened in some way to text faster or to type less. This generation has lost its work ethic I think and as a teacher I think you have to make the students write, type, and communicate correctly when in your classroom. They can do whatever they want outside of class, but once they step in there, they need to know you are serious about correct grammar. Everything they learned is still there, technology just allows them to be lazy. If we don't allow for that laziness in class, then I think we would be better off.
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Christopher Sandefur
4/17/2012 12:05:02 am
Audrey-I agree that work ethic is being lost. I am not sure we can blame the person. I believe technology has helped laziness developing in youth. You can't blame the individual if their is an easier or quicker way. I believe that parents should set good examples and teach character.
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Stacy Crommie
4/17/2012 05:31:25 am
I agree too. Technology has brought a streak of laziness to our children. Work ethic issues are becoming a real issue. I know of several high school graduates that have earned a position in a factory and cannot understand why they got fired because they missed a 3 days in a 3 month period. Or because they are not putting enough effort into their job.
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Heather Kirkendoll
4/18/2012 01:03:13 pm
Good points. I am all about work ethic. Yes, this generation is lazy, and we were lazier than our parent's generation. And our parents were lazier than our grandparent's generation, and so on. Can you imagine what our grandchildren will be like?
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Stephanie Armiger
4/22/2012 08:47:36 am
Audrey,
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George Pincock
4/16/2012 11:55:29 pm
Technology has allowed students to go further than they ever have before. Students can do things now that they couldn't do 20 years ago. However, educators are failing to teach the kids the basics. Educators must take some of the blame for the fact the students can't spell or organize thoughts.
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Jeremy Esry
4/18/2012 12:35:58 am
That is a great point, technology has helped students advance and develop farther that we have ever expected and it is only going to gain from here. I also agree in that we must hold educators accountable for some of the reasoning in why our students cannot spell or organize their thoughts.
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Christopher Sandefur
4/17/2012 12:01:00 am
I believe we rely on technology to much. I am guilty of this also. I believe it is important for teachers to teach the foundation of education first. After a strong foundation is developed, then it is necessary to teach technology advancements. Our nature is to make things easier on ourselves. I remember having to go to the library to do a research project.
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casey costa
4/17/2012 02:57:58 am
I agree that a base needs to be set forth so that technology can enhance it. I also have become more lazy with the convenience especially in regards to research. It used to take me about a week just to get sources for research but now I just sit down and find my resources as I write my paper
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Nick Camp
4/17/2012 11:55:19 pm
Coach Sandefur, we all rely on technology entirely too much. If we started with the fundamentals of learning and built from there we would be much better off.
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Ryan Mansfield
4/18/2012 12:36:52 am
The library? I wish kids nowdays actually knew what the library is and were it is located. I wish kids today had a chance to be tortured like I was when it came time to sit down and research a paper and by reasearch I mean having to look through card catalogs, actually dig through books and magazines in an attempt to find an article for whatever project that you happen to be working on.
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Cara Barth-Fagan
4/18/2012 01:54:06 am
Or write quotes on index cards instead of highlighting it on a copy of the digital record. I hated doing this for my English Comp 2 course in high school!!
George Pincock
4/18/2012 04:12:13 am
Great point. Research is completely different. With scholarly search engines research for a major paper has become so much easier and faster. I wonder what student would do now if you told them they couldn't use the internet to find research. Would they even know where to start.
casey costa
4/17/2012 02:54:05 am
I think that technology has hurt learning in many different ways. Like you said simple spelling has been thrown out the window for so many and why wouldn't it be when it's so convenient to have spell check or just put it in your phone to figure out how to spell a word. I've noticed a lot of confusion with homonyms in the past few years such as write vs. right, there vs. their, than vs. then and this drives me crazy when reading because it completely changes the meaning of the sentence. Technology is good, but definitely needs to be balanced out by checking comprehension of the written and spoken word.
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Audrey Crabtree
4/18/2012 04:10:22 am
I agree and find myself doing it sometimes. I think grammar is one of the main problems schools need to deal with.
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Robert Thomas
4/17/2012 03:06:59 am
Its like alot of things we do what is easier. For the most part that seems how things are going, if there is something that can do the job for me or I have to do less than what I normally do then im going to use it. I dont see spelling getting any better than what it is today. Look at some of the stuff thats on twitter alot of it is short hand. Young kids see that and start writing like that as well. Because the more you see it the more you act like it.
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Ryan Mansfield
4/18/2012 12:39:58 am
Which is one of the main things that frustrates me about todays kids. Some kids are even starting to use the short hand when it comes to filling out homework or writing papers and do not seem to see a problem with it. I am afraid to see were spelling and grammar go within the next 10 to 15 years.
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Robert Thomas
4/17/2012 03:10:43 am
I feel sorry for the english teachers that have to try to break all the bad habits that these kids are creating by not spelling correctly and things of that nature. Its alot easier to teach someone something new instead of trying to reteach whats the right way to do anything.
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Stacy Crommie
4/17/2012 05:27:42 am
I believe technology has hindered the students memory and problem solving skills, but technology has also giving students many shortcuts to cut out a lot of busy work. I currently tutor a 56 year old woman who has decided to go back to school. She told me she remembered taking up a whole page to do a math problem that now with the use of formulas and calculators only takes up a 1/8 of the page. I believe we just need to reinforce the basics occasionally so it is not lost but embrace technology to make further advancements.
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Melea Shimkus
4/18/2012 04:37:21 am
I agree that technology does create shortcuts and busy work. But I'm not convinced that that is always a good thing. I agree that we need to reinforce the basics; we need to make sure that students understand the basics before moving on to something more difficult.
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Kelli Miller
4/17/2012 12:07:54 pm
I agree with many of you that technology is hurting the youth of today. Everytime new advances in technology emerge, our laziness increases. We depend too much on technology to do our jobs for us.
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Jeremy Esry
4/18/2012 12:14:06 am
I believe that today's technology has both hurt and assisted todays youth and their educational development. It has only hurt their development because we as adults are allowing them to get away with the poor spelling and sentence structure and are not holding them accountable. I do believe that technology is enhancing some aspects of todays educational development as well as it is helping make learning more interesting to students and presenting it in a fun way.
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Popi Stevens
4/18/2012 01:23:56 am
Thats a great point about technology enhancing education by making it more fun for young students! I know from experience, i see my two nieces getting on their ipad's or computers and playing educational games and having a blast (lots of fun) while learning at the same time.
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Thomas Buehler
4/22/2012 05:32:20 am
This is a good poing Jeremy. I never thought of using fun assigments to help students learn technology. I wonder if there is a way to use social networking in assignments. We could teach these kids ways of using facebook and twitter as part of class much like we have done for this class.
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Matthew Clanahan
4/22/2012 08:34:01 am
Jeremy hit the nail on the head here. It's not the technology itself that's hurting our students — it's how we're letting them use it. They're only doing what we allow them to do.
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Popi Stevens
4/18/2012 01:21:24 am
Technology like we have discussed during the course of this class can be a huge help. But it can also be a hindrance in education because it can take away from kids learning the proper fundamentals in education. The big question i guess is are we depending too much on education?
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Cara Barth-Fagan
4/18/2012 01:59:47 am
Parents are depending too much on education- and not taking an active role in their kids' schooling. The simple act of sitting down and reading with your child, or checking their homework the night before it's due has fallen to the wayside. Today's parents are so rushed that they don't feel they can get it all done in between dinner, soccer practice, ballet, and scouts meetings. If parents would slow down, take their kid out of so many activities (or on the flip side- take them to an activity instead of smoking weed or doing meth) and just "be" with thier kids, it might actually help our children's educational process. Talking and listening to my sons after each day of school is one of the things I look forward to each night. We talk about what they did, what they learned and how they thought they did (or what they enjoyed). We take walks (when it's warm enough) and we spend time reading books at night. I'm involved in my kids' education and I stay on top of it, unlike many other parents. I support their teachers and model learning in front of my kids. They know that mommy has to do homework at night after they go to bed and that the book I have in my hand is for my class. I model it for them and they appreciate education as well ( at least their behaviors and grades show it).
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Cara Barth-Fagan
4/18/2012 01:52:30 am
I do not know that it is all technology’s fault. I believe that it is partially due to the fact that we have more students in a classroom and less educators per school district. With the growing population and less $ to build more schools/hire more teachers, we are making the classroom sizes larger than ever before. Teachers are not able to get to all students all the time, assisting or correcting as needed appropriately. It is a hard thing to point a finger at technology and blame it- it is not the entire reason kids' spelling, complete thoughts, etc. are poor. The environment plays a huge part in the development of children as well. If a child has been exposed to drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, etc. while in the womb, it can have a direct effect on a child's behavior, learning, and other things. More parents are "hands off" with their children, so we do not have core families like we used to- those who actually take care of their kids, give a darn about grades & behaviors, or discipline them at home. It's not just technology’s fault, in my humble opinion, that "young people in general have as a whole, become less and less dependent on their own abilities to spell, organize thoughts and overall sentence structure have dropped off of the table".
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Melea Shimkus
4/18/2012 04:33:26 am
I think technology has made things too easy for children. They expect everything to be done in an instant and are less likely to put forth time and effort in their assignments. When studnets are placed in a situation where they might actually have to work hard for something, they're not willing to because it is too difficult. This hurts their educational development. Technology has taught children to expect instant results, but that is not always the case. But I also believe that technology has helped children. For example, children can look up research results for anything and it's conveniently located in place. Techology can provide many learning opportunities for children, as long as they use it for that purpose.
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Nick Camp
4/19/2012 12:36:32 am
That is a downfall of technology, expectations become very high. Students expect immediate results and don't want to go through the process that is required to get the answer.
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Thomas Buehler
4/20/2012 12:21:43 am
My opinion is that we are seeing the trend you are talking about. Schools are becoming focused on the new standards based education and forgetting about fundamentals. We need to learn to crawl before we can walk. I too have seen a lot of my athletes having troubles with simple ideas. Speech patterns among my peers leaves something to be desired. A lot of the people I deal with on a regular basis are failing to use proper English and sentence structure. If I was an employer, this would be a huge red flag to me.
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Elyce Lamphere
4/22/2012 07:45:49 am
I completely agree with you, about being an employer and wanting my employees to speak correctly. So many people today I feel like don't seem to think speaking correctly and presenting themselves professionally is important. Being able to speak well and present yourself well is important and shows you are well educated.
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Elyce Lamphere
4/22/2012 07:42:40 am
Thinking back about how it was when I was in grade school, and what it is like for say my younger brother who is only 6 years younger than I am, I see a difference just within that time frame of our youth depending more on technology than their own skills. I think technology as a whole is a good things. However, basic skills should not be left behind like I feel it is. Being able to speak correctly and formulate a correct English language sentence is important and is a skill I feel a lot of people lack in today's society. I think there needs to be more focus on not leaving behind the core basics and just wanting to move on and let technology do things for us.
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Matthew Clanahan
4/22/2012 08:29:01 am
I've definitely seen positives and negatives in this regard. As for spelling, students certainly seem to suffer more than ever before. One could make a strong argument for this being caused by our over-dependence on spell check. However, isn't it possible that our teachers simply aren't focusing heavily enough on spelling in the early developmental years?
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Stephanie Armiger
4/22/2012 08:43:10 am
In some ways I feel that technology has helped students in easily researching topics and finding examples quickly. The advancements with computers and Microsoft word, allows students to easily type a paper, preview it and make edits before printing it. I personally feel that it has helped me because I can just sit down at the computer and just type a rough draft. Then I read through my paper and reorganize the sentences I have typed easily by using copy and paste options within my paper.
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Student BlogThis blog is for class conversations for ED 514 at Central Methodist University. These post are by the students of ED 514. We invite input form other teachers about how they use technology in their classrooms. Archives
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