Journal #1

"Professors Adjust Their Methods in Order to Reach Technology-Savvy Generation"
By Eleanor Yang Su

In this article, Yang Su writes about the increase of technology in the classrooms and the different ways that teachers can incorporate technology into their lessons. After reading this article, it is clear that technology can either help or hinder students’ education. Beth Simon, a professor at UCSD struggles to keep 140 students’ attention. With the rise in technology throughout the “Millenials”, multitasking becomes a necessity. The majority of college students, while completing their homework, are also carrying out three to four other tasks simultaneously. These tasks may include talking on the phone, text messaging, instant messaging, browsing popular websites, etc. Other students, while in class, chose to bring laptops in and use them to their disadvantage by ignoring the lecture or class activity and browsing the web, checking email, and instant messaging.

What are two ways to incorporate technology into the classroom?
If the resources can be provided, many college professors use devices such as electronic clickers in order to submit answers, or web access and text messaging services. For schools that do not have the resources, or for grades K-12, it is important to set up their technological knowledge in a positive way. We need to always be reinforcing the advantages and disadvantages of the internet and continue to incorporate email, web access, and blogging through classroom activities. It is very important to engage students in the classroom with technology and not only entertain them.

Is multi-tasking an advantage or disadvantage?
Multitasking, though seeming to be a complete advantage is a disadvantage as well. Research shows that while multitasking, you are much more likely to have errors and actually take longer to complete a task. It is coming down to “quantity over quality” in this world today. If making constant mistakes, eventually quantity wont matter, and though students see this multitasking as an advantage right now, sooner or later our mistakes will catch up to us and we will realize that quality is more important.