Technology, The best or worst thing for education | Scott Widman | TEDxYouth@BSPR

0:02 I want to start off with the question technology in the classroom is it better or worse for our students today and I want to kind of get your guys insight so let's see it thumbs up if you think technology in the classroom is more beneficial to students all right now give me a thumbs down if you think technology in the classroom is more harmful to students okay good to get you guys's insights listen little secret I must admit I've been teaching middle school for five years now and I have no idea whether technology in the classroom is the best thing in the world or the worst so example if I'm having students use cellphones to do some research I'm always impressed when I see the kid

0:48 who's got multiple tabs open they're cross-referencing sources and citing information all at the same time and I think wow technology in the classroom what a valuable tool but then you see the kid who's streaming Netflix or literally doing a tick-tock mid class and I think wow technology in the classroom what a needless distraction this is the problem right if my job as an educator is to do what's best for my students in terms of technology I don't know what's best for my students so I did what everyone what the question does I googled it right long story short googling did not go well kind of muddied the waters turns out if you google technology in education you're gonna find hundreds of articles that can convincingly argue

1:34 both sides from every angle so admittedly no help there but the key takeaway is this topics debatable right and if it's debatable despite the countless and noble elements and pissing missing pieces to the puzzle there are three things that we know to be true about technology and regards our students number one we know that technology can be dangerous right schools face things like cyber bullying it can bring problems out of the classroom into the classroom whether it be academic dishonesty right it can technology can make it easier to cheat that's true and recent evidence suggests that technology can even mimic symptoms of addiction which is concerning for a lot of reasons

2:21 but either way we know that technology is a minefield and we got to be careful the second thing we know technology can be infinitely valuable it can advance student learning in a way that no teacher or school could ever replicate it can act as a vast reservoir of information that not only can turn any expert into a layman or any layman into an expert but can do so with a few short flips of the thumb right so number two we know technology can be infinitely beneficial so if you keeping score at home we are tied up it's one to one we know technology is good we know technology is bad and admittedly we're no closer to answering our question but the third point that we know to be true

3:07 about technology helps clear it up a little bit third thing that we know is that technology isn't slowing down in fact it's speeding up it's safe to say that technology isn't a fad like bottle flipping doesn't have an expiration date it's not going anywhere and if that's the case and you're a student in 2019 you were born sometime after the year 2000 that makes 100 percent of our student body card-carrying members of Generation Z now Generation Z is most commonly referred to as digital natives and this term says it all because they're defining quality is the fact that they've never experienced the world without the internet without cell phones without complete access to the entire

3:52 world and if that's the case then that means that to our students technology is less of a device that they possess and more of an environment that they inhabit right so hypothetically if school is experiencing cyber bullying issues let's say they may decide to ban technology because this the problem is clear technology has a negative impact on student learning and the solution is simple no technology means no problems but this solutions only temporary when you consider eventually that bells gonna rain right and at that point students are gonna leave the classroom they're gonna open their locker they're gonna take out their

4:39 phones and they're gonna exit that safety bubble at that point students are gonna find themselves in a familiar digital environment with the same risks and dangers but this time maybe inexperienced and underprepared so when we re-examine the question is technology more beneficial or harmful to our students we realize that it's the wrong question to ask because it doesn't matter if technology is more beneficial or harmful to our students when we remember two things number one as schools and educators our responsibilities to do what's best for our students and our students have a device in their pocket that is both infinitely valuable and infinitely dangerous that's why it becomes clear that utilizing technology in the classroom is less of a choice and more

5:27 of a responsibility right because as educators were men's horse and that means it's our obligation to prepare students for the challenges of being digital natives as teachers we have students practice skills all the time but navigating digital waters takes practice too and that's why it's our responsibility to be able to provide students with opportunities to develop their digital literacy skills and become lifelong independent learners thank you