1. Technology In the Classroom!
Is it beneficial to students?

2. Introduction
Critics of technology have raised questions about
whether technology is beneficial to the classroom
or not. Critics want to know if the cost of software
is justified. They say some teachers use it to much,
and some teachers do not use it at all.
Educational comities are researching,
varies ways that teaching will benefit
children in the classroom. This
includes video games, reading
programs, and other classroom
software.
.

3. New Alliance To Research Gaming in
Math and Science Education.
By Dave Nagel
Stem: Science,
technology, engineering,
and mathematics
This article is about whether using video games to help
teach the STEM classes would be beneficial to students or
not. Researchers want to especially know if video games
would be beneficial in science. Scientist believe that video
games can be used as a learning tool to keep children
interested and motivated in school.
The issue at hand says John Nordlinger(senior research
manager for Microsoft)is that “ little is known about how,
why, or even if they are effective(Nordlinger,1). These
programs are not cheap and schools are not sure whether
they want to take the funding out of their budgets.

4. Gaming Continued:
The research will be conducted on a wide variety of students, but they will pay
particular attention to the female and minority population. This is because
females and some minority students are underrepresented in both the
percentage of undergraduate STEM degrees received and the percentage of
positions in STEM careers held. Women account for 20% of all engineering
degree recipients at every level. Minorities represent an even lower
percentage. This concerns researchers and they are struggling to find
whatever they can to help solve this issue.

5. What I think!
• I am on the fence on this topic. I do agree that kids love video games, and I even
agree that it might motivate the younger kids, but as for middle school kids I don’t
know. I tend to think that if the games are boring and they do not have blood,
gore, racing, fighting, or some sort of sport, then the kids are not going to care
about playing it. To get me to believe that this is going to work, I would have to
see the video game being tried out by a middle school group. The other thing that
bothers me about this, is the fact that our kids have become a society addicted to
video games. Is it a good thing to get them also playing video games at school,
which might be the only place they take a break from it? I guess what I don’t
understand is why we can’t teach children these subjects and interest them
without video games? What can the teachers do to make this better? What can
we do as educators to ensure that our students want to come to school? This has
to start at a young age. For some reason the kids are getting a bad message about
these subjects when they begin school, and they continue through out their school
years. I think instead of engaging them in a video game, we should get them
engaged with their classmates and teachers, and we should find a way of making
these subjects more appealing.

6. North Carolina District Credits Technology for
Reading Improvements! By Scott Aronowitz
• Definition: Fast ForWord- educational software products to
help children learn to read.
• Teachers are excited about the fact that children with
learning disabilities who used this software, were able to
process information more efficiently.
• Nancy Bricker a Fast Forward coach stated “ we tried all the
traditional interventions but we were not seeing the progress
we had hoped for” (Bricker,2).
• Teachers said that this reading software improves attention
span and focus in all their classes, and they have said that it
finally sparked an interest in learning.

7. Technology for Reading Improvements
Continued.
• Teachers began using this software in the fall of 2007, and they say they have seen
vast improvements in the children, not only in school, but also in there other school
subjects.
• More then 4,400 teachers have reported that their pupils showing improvement in
memory, sequencing and rate of processing.
• “We encourage schools to use the Fast Forword program with as many students as
they can said Michael Freeman executive director” (Freeman).
• They tested this software by having teachers use it in their classroom 40 minutes a
day five days a week for an entire year.
• 52.5 percent of students identified as having disabilities related to reading scored at
or above their grade level on the states EOG reading test in 2008.

8. My Thoughts!
• I think that this could be a good tool for teachers to use in their
classroom. If this is something that can help a child learn how to
read it is beneficial, not to mention the fact that it is helping
children with memory and attention span. I think though that forty
minutes is an awful long time for a child to be on the computer. I
can’t help but ask myself whether or not they are actually learning
reading out of a book. Do they still have time to use their reading
books? I think that the software is something that could help
teachers, as long as they are not using as a way to keep the children
entertained.
• I stick by my original statement that I think that we have to be
careful how much we use the computer in the classroom. Teachers
need to be better trained at how to make their classrooms more
interesting to their students. Computers can not become a
babysitter that keeps them occupied until the bell rings. We have to
stay more involved.

9. Why Integrate Technology into the
Curriculum? By Edutopia Staff
This article talks about why it is important to
integrate technology into the classroom. The
education board thinks that it important to update
their technology, because most schools lag
behind when it comes to integrating technology
into classroom learning. Researchers said
“ properly used technology will help students
acquire the skills they need to survive in a
complex, highly technological knowledge-based
economy” (Staff,1). The article stated that
effective technology integration is achieved when
the use of technology is routine and transparent
and when technology supports curricular goals.

10. Why Integration Continued!
• This article talked about how technology changes the way
that teachers teach. Teachers believe that technology helps
them to reach learners on all levels. Technology also helps
teachers to asses students abilities in many different ways. It
is important to know that technology needs to be more than
basic computer classes and basic software. These
technologies while accurate ways of teaching children are not
accurate ways of assessing children's technological abilities.

11. My Opinion!
• I believe that technology can change the way a teacher
teaches. I am just not sure though how much time is to much
time on the computer. We can not let things like the
computer replace the duties of our teachers. The kids in the
upper grades, have around fifty minutes in each class, and to
use forty minutes of that on a computer seems unnecessary
to me. I am not saying that the technology is not important,
or even that it isn’t effective, but I feel like we rely on it to
much. I know that when I become a teacher, technology is
going to be an important part of my classroom but I want to
make sure that I do not use it as an escape from my
responsibilities to be an effective teacher.

12. Conclusion
It is obvious that teachers and researchers believe that
technology is an effective tool that has brought education a
long way. There are many different kinds of technology and
many different programs that are being used to ensure that
education is preparing our children for the real world. My
opinion about technology in the classroom is irrelevant due to
the fact that when our children get into the real world they
are going to have to deal with technology everyday. As a
society that relies on technology it is our responsibility to
ensure that our children are taught about technology safely
and accurately. Therefore I believe that it should be taught in
the classroom, but only in moderations.