“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master” (The Noble Peace Prize). In 1921, the Norwegian Christian Lous Lange shared the Peace Prize with the Swede Hjalmar Branting. This quote ties in with the topic of technology and the way technology can be used. Technology used for good reasons like teachers using technology in the classroom, students learning from technology, scientists exploring space, vehicles becoming more enhanced, and the different medicines is the reason why technology is so useful and necessary however if technology is not used properly, it can be really dangerous.
For instance, when it is used to bully someone on the internet or when bullies cyberbully others. Technology is used for the good when teachers implement technology in their classrooms. Technology has helped how modern-day classrooms are set up. An instance of this is seen in flipped-classrooms.
According to the description on ASCD’s page for the newly released book, Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, by flipped-classroom pioneers Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann, ‘In this model of instruction, students watch recorded lectures for homework and complete their assignments, labs, and tests in class.’ The authors explain that this model is a mixture of direct instruction and constructivism, that it makes it easier for students who have missed class to keep up because they can watch videos at any time.
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On the other side of the spectrum, technology has some negative effects because bullying has increased through media and the internet/cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has become a great issue which can happen through the use of social media as well as through texting. However, technology has also helped scientists explore space. While advancements in technology and science have some negative effects, the positive effects outweigh the negative.
The advancements in technology have changed education. Technology is everywhere in education: Technology has significantly expanded access to education. In the past, books were rare and only people who were elite had access to educational opportunities. People had to travel to the centers of learning to get an education. In today’s world, extensive “amounts of information (books, images, videos) are all available on the Internet, and there are opportunities to learn online through Khan Academy, MOOCs, podcasts, traditional online degree programs.” (Purdue University) Public schools “now provide at least one computer for every five students … [and] … spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content” (Herold) The country is trying to make an effort to make affordable high-speed internet and free online teaching resources available to even the most rural and remote schools.
In the year “2015-2016, more standardized tests for elementary and middle grades will be administrated via technology than by paper and pencil” (Herold). The individual states are incorporating technology in their study. “48 states and the district of Columbia currently support online learning opportunities that range from supplementing class instruction on an occasional basis to enrolling students in full-time programs” (ed.gov) Additionally, technology allowed schools to have flipped-classrooms.
These classrooms help “students move at their own pace, they can review what they need to, and how the teacher is then freed up to work one-on-one with students on the content they most need support with.” (Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning) This way students are presented with the ability to catch up missed lessons, don’t have to go at the speed as other students or the way the instructor might set it up leaving it room for more enhanced knowledge of the material. This proves the main idea that technology in good hands can be very beneficial. A little anecdotal story that can relate to how technology helps education is my school laptop.
My school laptop allows me to get reflections or reviews from my instructors, the notes that classes took in case I miss a class and need to catch up and also it allows me to use great programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Reflections or reviews from my instructors is important because it allows to see what areas I was strong and confident and what areas I could improve, or it could be that instructors teach me how to do certain things like reviewing documents, conducting research, or using OneNote properly and effectively.
The notes that classes take is critical in my understanding of the material for future quizzes or tests in case I do happen to miss class. These notes allow me to view the work of the instructor step by step which helps me follow how the instructor was thinking and how they handled the problem. My computer also allows me to use great programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint which will help later in my education career and work. Technology like my computer used effectively can be very beneficial.
Some might argue that although technology has helped us in the classrooms however it has also made bullying greater. The history of bullying started “in 1997, when Susan Swearer, one of the issue’s two editors, first started studying the problem, she was one of the first researchers in the United States to do so. Back then, only four states had official statues against bullying behavior, and the only existing longitudinal work had come out of Scandinavia, in the seventies. “(Konnikova)
The most important issue of bullying was the issue of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been bullied which started a nationwide conversation about conversation about bullying, researchers around the country began studying this issue. This research has confirmed that bullying is the result of an unequal power dynamic – the strong attacking the weak. Bullying can occur in many ways which include physical, verbal, or the management of relationships. In rural areas, “there aren’t options” and is known to be “impossible to stay away.” (Konnikova)
Nearby schools might be a few hundred miles apart. The internet has the similar effect because bullying is hard to ignore. This is commonly seen in social media, let’s say “you are harassed on Facebook page, all of your social circles know about it; as long as you have access to the network, a ceaseless stream of notifications leaves you vulnerable to victimhood” (Konnikova). This shows that bullying has increased with the addition of technology because now in the modern day, social media has become similar to the rural areas where it is hard to get away from bullying. Bullying is also seen through cyberbullying.
In a case study done “in Florida in 2013 concerned the alleged cyberbullying of two girls toward a 12-year classmate, who have ended her life at the hands of the taunting.” (Children’s National) This shows the negative effects of technology. Technology not used properly/beneficially will end up having terrible results like bullying. Bullying in social media was made possible because of the advancement in technology. Cyberbullying is a type of bullying which commonly happens through texting. Cyberbullying affects everyone which means that it does not only targets kids but adults as well.
A 2012 study from the University of Nottingham and the University of Sheffield, in the U.K., found that “eight out of ten of the three hundred and twenty adults surveyed across three different universities had been victims of cyberbullying in the last six months; about a quarter reported feeling humiliated or ignored, or being the subject of online gossip, at least once a week” (Konnikova). Adults are no strangers to bullying and the effects victims face are often just as severe if not worse than kids/students. Students could get help from their teachers and consolers in that they could talk with them about the issues of bullying and the situation that they themselves are going through however adults are not given the same opportunity.
Adults who have experienced bullying “tend to suffer higher levels of mental strain and lower job satisfaction than those subjected to more traditional forms of bullying” (Konnikova). This illustrates that adults are even at a worse situation than students who have the opportunity to talk with their teachers to get help. This proves that technology does have its negative effects however in the end the positive effects outweigh the negative.
Technology does have its negative effects with increased bullying through social media and the internet however technology also technology also helped scientists learn more about space. Throughout history, people have developed incredible technology that helps us see beyond our planet into our galaxy and beyond. Technology that was created are machines and different tools that help scientists study outer space. One of the first tools that was developed for space exploration was the telescope. By using the telescope, scientists got their first images of the Earth’s atmosphere.
From the images on the telescope, scientists were able to learn enough information that promoted space exploration. These space explorations include “trips to the Moon, dozens of manned space exploration, teams of humans were able to travel in space and conduct research on a variety of scientific subjects” (How do Scientists Explore the Solar System). Scientists have a lot of curiosity that drove them to learn about the outer space however the more scientists explored about space the more they realized how much there more there is left to explore. The technology the scientists used to explore space evolved.
For instance, the telescope is “no longer an Earth-bound instrument. In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into outer space. In the last 20 years, it has brought us images of our universe that couldn’t have been captured in any other way” (How do Scientists Explore the Solar System). It’s an incredible piece of technology that gets its power from the sun. The Hubble Space Telescope has been highly used by scientists to bring about data collected from different cameras. Statistically, Nasa estimates that data from the Hubble telescope has been used as the basis of over 10,000 scientific papers in the past two decades!” (How do Scientists Explore the Solar System).
Additionally, Scientists wanted to explore how things would behave in Earth’s orbit and indeed “since the late 2000s, scientists have been able to conduct hundreds of experiments in low-Earth orbit thanks to the International Space Station (ISS) The ISS is humankind’s first orbital space station meant to be used for long-term visits from a variety of countries” (How do Scientists Explore the Solar System). Scientists will probably use the information from the ISS to send humans on missions to Mars and even beyond.
Meanwhile, scientists have been able to create unmanned machines that are made for the sole purpose to explore the deepest corners of our solar system. Unmanned probes, such as the NASA’s Cassini probe, have been sent to explore other planets. This data gathered by scientists was only possible due to the innovation of technology. Without technology, scientists wouldn’t have able to figure out that the Earth was round, that we have other planets, or even that there was a galaxy out there.
Technology is a very useful or beneficial tool that could help achieve great things like using technology in the classroom, scientists exploring the different elements of space, vehicles being more enhanced, and different types of medicine has been able to be made because of technology however technology could also be dangerous if not used properly such as the creation of cyberbullying and bullying via social media. It is important to know how to use technology and the effects it could have because it will lead to a safer world that will focus on education and science rather than bullying and mistreatment of other people.
