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Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography
Collaboration with Ethan Webber, Shelby Scott, and Kelly Samz
Education and Technology: Good vs. Bad?
New digital tools and technologies are being applied to educational learning each and every day. In 1963, The Vocational Education Act funded the usage of technology in schools. From then on, technology has only improved and has been incorporated more and more into school settings. As COVID-19 spread throughout the world, school settings were impacted forever. Online learning has transformed the lives of many students and there has been a higher demand for technology since then. Technology in education has the ability to enhance learning processes and broaden access to academic resources for students and teachers. Distance learning was a huge outcome of the pandemic and it has transformed the need for technology in home settings and not just educational buildings. Furthermore, with all of the change from the pandemic, it has sparked opposing sides to whether or not technology is beneficial or harmful in education. Overall, there are so many intricate connections between technology and the education system. A huge controversy stands on if technology is more beneficial in education or more harmful.
Using technology in education has a lot of good effects. One of the biggest effects is that it helped learning become more accessible. During the pandemic, when everyone had to isolate themselves from the world, distance learning became the new norm. Being able to learn on an online platform became accessible to everyone, even those that were from a low income household. Those that were from a low income household were given a laptop temporarily so they would be able to complete their school work. In doing all of this, it pushed more responsibilities on to the students. They were held responsible for their work and if they were caught cheating, there would be consequences. When everyone was able to go back to in-pearson schooling, blended learning became the new norm. This blended online instruction and in-person instruction, thus creating a new environment that everyone had to get used to again. Incorporating technology can be very helpful for students with disabilities, as it can provide a way for those students to access their courses more easily. There are many different ways that platforms online can be more accessible, such as adding video captions, descriptions of video and images, for people with mobility issues, give them an aid to help them. While the ADA does “prohibit the exclusion of otherwise qualified students to equal education and access,” some teachers, schools, and even some online platforms are not as accessible as they can be. There are some very simple tools that teachers and platforms can add to their online courses to make it more accessible, proving the idea of technology incorporation in education.
Our research is centered around looking to find if technology in education has a good effect on student learning. The main reason why technology was brought into the classroom was to decrease the education gap and help underserved students. Although, technology almost did the opposite. Kids in low-funded school districts have just fallen through the cracks more. A lot of the underfunded school districts happen to be in minority group communities. Even when supplied with laptops and tablets, many students don’t have the infrastructure to get the benefits of technology. A big challenge many underserved students face is having the support at home to use this technology. Not all students know where they are staying for the night, and finding applicable internet is not their biggest concern. Other downsides of technology in the classroom would be as students are less challenged. Now as we shift away from a traditional style of learning it’s easier for students to cheat or misuse the many resources they have at their accessibility. While technology does promote collaboration it does take away from individual things. While it is good to learn how to work in a group it’s also just as important to learn how to work alone.
Technology must be applied with careful consideration to maximize its benefits and minimize the potential for harmful distractions. Despite the many viewpoints, technology is beneficial in education, with blended and distance learning, to a certain extent. Technology allows students and teachers to connect through many levels while teaching responsibility in life skills. Although there are many benefits to technology, over usage of technology in the wrong way can be detrimental to learning processes. A clear compromise should be outlined when schools use technology and all factors should be considered. Using technology is very beneficial in education, as long as it is in moderation.
Annotated Bibliography
“TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM.” Age [Melbourne, Australia], 14 Aug. 2002, p. 11.
Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A286817215/OVIC?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=594254e2. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022.
Cecilia Leung with Fairfax Media wrote about Technology in the Classroom. As of the21st century, the US spends roughly $13.2 billion to fund school districts with technology a year. Technology allows students and teachers to remain connected, no matter their distance apart. Connection from home to the classroom is made in a matter of seconds, and days lost because external factors can be practically eliminated. Even though, on paper, this is easy, it requires teachers and students to learn and adjust to new technology. Parents can now easily contact teachers and vice versa. This new technology allows teachers to monitor students as they work to help prevent cheating and dishonesty. As new technology is implemented, it requires a learning period for everyone involved. Technology allows teachers to view students’ past records and mark them accordingly.
Cecilia Leung, a well-experienced content director, has a history of working in the broadcast media industry. She is skilled in programming, sales, acquisitions, management, media productions, and operations. Working for companies such as Paramount as a Senior Director, ViacomCBS Networks as a director and digital content distribution, and LYNK global. Cecilia has a very well rounded resume making her a credible source.
“How Has Technology Changed Education?” Purdue University Online, Purdue University West
Lafayette Main Campus, https://online.purdue.edu/blog/education/how-has-technology-changed-education.
The article argued technology in the classroom has changed the way one learns. Before technology was so prevalent in classrooms, there was a bigger focus on individual learning. In today’s classrooms, technology calls for the class to communicate and gives us the ability to work collaboratively at once. Technology allows for education to be greatly explainsive for all. It provides for more education to be accessible but the quality of that education didn’t reach the intended target. Technology in education was designed to help the underserved. Technology did help the education system overall, but it didn’t really reach its intended target group. Purdue’s writing allowed us to refocus our research onto the way technology in education has impacted certain minority groups. Towards the end of the article the writers mention the differences of learning styles technology in education provides. With technology in the class, students can be more creative, but it can also cause students to be less disciplined. With all of the resources technology gives students access to it can make it easier for them to cheat.
Purdue University Online is a credible and reliable academic source. Purdue University Online was established in 2018 as a branch of Purdue University located in West Lafayette Indiana. One can find Purdue a credible source with well-respected authors in their field of study.
Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection “Technology and Education” Gale, part of
Cengage Group, 2020
The article, “Technology and Education” by the Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, offers a profound insight into the extensive pros and cons of the progressing integration of technology into education. The first paragraph delves into the depths of the current extent that technology has been introduced into the classroom. The internet and computers are being further utilized at an exponential rate, and although this yields great educational benefits for all of those who have access, it is a major problem for those who are not fortunate enough to have these resources available. This creates a larger difference in the availability of quality education and makes it dependent on finances. The second paragraph goes into the increasing availability of online courses, and its consequences on education. Undoubtedly, there are vast benefits to this increasing availability such as providing education remotely in such circumstances as the pandemic. However, studies show that the testing proficiency of the kids in a purely online environment is far less than those who participated in a mixed or traditional environment. Finally, the third paragraph talks of the countless possibilities opened up by technology for the disabled. Text-to-speech offers new avenues of learning for the visually impaired and closed captioning as well as adjustable audio levels can aid the deaf or auditorily deficient. However, these resources are greatly expensive and not accessible to all communities.
The Gale Opposing Viewpoints Collection is a university-approved resource for students of High Point University. It contains numerous academic works that are utilized constantly as class material.
Gornitsky, Marcelle. “Distance education: accessibility for students with disabilities.” Distance
Learning, vol. 8, no. 3, Aug. 2011, pp. 47+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A284016056/OVIC?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=e62526b7. Accessed 26 Oct. 2022.
In “Distance education: accessibility for students with disabilities” Marcelle
Gornitsky outlines and explains how different disabilities can be accommodated in the ‘classroom’ during distance learning. While distance education and distance learning can provide great opportunities and access, they can also provide barriers to students with disabilities, many of which take online courses to provide some flexibility and convenience to their lives. The ADA, Americans Disabilities Act, “prohibits the exclusion of otherwise qualified students to equal education and access,” but many online courses, tools, and documents are not set up to support people with disabilities and there are laws that all instructors should be aware of so that their courses can be accessible. In addition to the ADA, there is the Rehabilitation Act, specifically section 504. This calls for the inclusion of all students that have disabilities and for them to have reasonable accommodations. Different disabilities have different needs for accommodations, such as the hearing impaired needing captions, and the vision impaired needing screen magnifiers, screen readers, or alternate text for images. The physically impaired might need a physical aid for navigation and people with cognitive disabilities might need different learning structures and/or styles. To help students, instructors could change the format of content and how it is delivered. Different platforms have various accessibility checks and powerpoints should also be accessible. This can be achieved by text transcripts for videos and using a tool like the virtual 508 Accessible Wizard. Collaboration tools, such as synchronous chat sessions, can also pose a problem for the disabled, and there are different platforms that can help with this. Accessibility has gotten better over the last few years, but there will always be more that people can do to provide accessible learning to all, especially in this online era.
Gale In Context, Opposing Viewpoints is approved by High Point University as a credible resource. Students can use this as a resource to research more on a topic.
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Final Reflection
Learning in school has always been hard for me when it comes to concentration on independent work. Since group work was the basis of this Page and Screen course, I have only grown into a more confident and focused writer, reader and speaker. This course has overall enhanced my personal and social skills, especially confidence, by incorporating collaboration into almost every aspect of the class.
Collaboration was a huge part of the final essay and annotated bibliography that the class was assigned to complete. As a group of four, the members of the group and I had to equally split up responsibilities. Normally I would be instructed to complete an assignment independently, but the ability to collaborate has helped me more than I could have thought. While I did learn a lot about our essay topic, technology in education, I also learned many personal skills from the group aspect of the assignment. We split up the work evenly and shared our ideas which gave us a lot of different perspectives on the pros and cons of technology. As stated earlier, I lack concentration and motivation with independent work, however this assignment allowed me to work with my group outside of class on our own time. I learned prioritizing and responsibilities, but primarily it impacted my confidence. I have noticed that I have more conviction to share my ideas and volunteering information in other classes because of the collaboration on this assignment. Other projects in class dealt with group work that helped me, although this final essay undoubtedly has impacted me the most.
The Oral Presentation on “Check, Please!” also strengthened my confidence through group work and public speaking. Presenting in front of peers is not a skill that comes easy to me, and this endeavor allowed me to learn how to manage it better. To stay confident in front of the class, I had to make sure I was properly prepared prior to sharing my group’s slides. The necessary preparation as well as collaboration that this assignment required clearly helped my willingness to stand up in front and share my ideas. I usually glue my eyes to the paper I am reading from, however for the first time, I engaged and looked up at my peers due to this new found confidence.
On Wordplay Day, the class would partake in scrabble games that consisted of two people versus another two. At first I thought this was an exceedingly fun concept and an easy way to pass the class. The more I participated in the Scrabble games, the more I learned of the benefits it had. Playing Scrabble not only impacted my collaboration and confidence skills, it also expanded my vocabulary. I learned a plethora of two letter words that I never had previous knowledge of and I believe this has helped me tremendously. A word that was seen in more than four of my games was “xi” which is a valid scrabble word, despite that being new to me. Learning new words directly connects to the boost in confidence in my oral abilities.
When collaborating with classmates, it is pivotal to respond and offer feedback in a constructive way. I came to this knowledge through the final essay, the oral presentation and WordPlay Day. Similarly, I learned that when working with a group, it is important to put effort into understanding the information your classmates present. While being taught of what your group members found, making comments to better the language can be exceedingly beneficial. Page 41 of Writing Analytically, by David Rossenwasser and Jill Stephen, talks about how to critique an individual’s writing in an honest and constructive manner. It specifically discussed that a critique is not meant to criticize or judge, but it is more of an effective way to see other perspectives. Through all of the group projects I have discussed, constructive criticism was used. I would read over a group member’s writing and provide insight that would vastly improve their writing and strengthen their perspective. This shows how collaboration can be beneficial with not only personal skills like confidence, but in a similar capacity with social skills. Specifically, in the final essay and annotated bibliography, I read through the summaries my group members wrote. We utilized a shared document wherein we all commented on each other’s passages. The comments helped us fix grammar, which ultimately helped improve the overall flow of the essay. This class has taught me that giving helpful feedback when working with a group is vastly rewarding. Encyclopedia of Education section “Group Processes In The Classroom” by Richard A. Schmuck and Patricia A. Schmuck, has only clarified my point that constructive criticism aids in all aspects of life. The writing says, “The more supportive peer relations are…the more likely students’ learning and behavior will be enhanced.” This further reinforces the idea that collaborating benefits social skills as well as educational learning. Feedback is a type of collaboration that is used in and out of schools and allows for more connections.
This class has taught me innumerable personal and social skills through group work. Collaboration rather than independent work allowed me to expand my perspectives and become more confident in my reading and writing. Confidence was a clear trait that was truly strengthened from this class. I also learned that while collaborating, giving helpful critiques allows for a better learning environment. Overall, collaborating in this class has allowed me to better my personal and social skills to an exponential degree.
Works Cited
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen.”How to Write a Critique”Writing Analytically,
8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019.pp.41
SCHMUCK, RICHARD A., and PATRICIA A. SCHMUCK. “Group Processes in the Classroom.” Encyclopedia of Education, edited by James W. Guthrie, 2nd ed., vol. 3, Macmillan Reference USA, 2002, pp. 971-975. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3403200271/GVRL?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=a7529f72. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.
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Analysis
A Moment In Time
“The Falling Man” by Tom Junod is an in depth account of an individual who is falling through the sky. Junord’s writing is based off of a famous photograph of a man who fell from the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks on New York City. The picture captures a split second in time and the article digs deeper into what the picture is and isn’t showing. The man in contrast to most, fell through the sky with ease in a perfectly vertical fashion that lined up with
the buildings. The simplicity of the image is examined and Junod determines the factors that affect how the image is perceived. Junod includes his own interpretation of the image as well as how the photographer was able to capture such a controversial picture. Through strong diction, figurative language, and descriptive comparison, Junod’s, “The Falling Man”, looks into the reality of the man’s emotions by using physical description to figure out his mental state.
The opening sentences in Junod’s article reveal the man’s mental state through physical description of him falling through the sky. The author uses figurative language to express the position of the man in the air. Beginning the article Junord writes, “In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow.” By comparing his presence to an arrow, Junord uses figurative
language, such as a simile, to symbolize the man’s physical state to his mental state. His physical state is simple and that reflects his mental state to be at ease despite the circumstances. Junod allows the reader to see the ease of the man through his symbolically perfect posture that seems
to defy all odds. Junod then continues with describing the man’s physical presence and says, “The man in the picture, by contrast, is perfectly vertical, and so is in accord with the lines of the buildings behind him.” Junod expands on the position of the man and describes him to be aligned
with the buildings in the background. From comparing the man to an arrow to now describing the perfect alignment with the buildings, the author is making a clear point that the man is embracing the last seconds of his life. The perfect alignment of the man in the buildings is highlighted when Junod uses the phrase “by contrast”. Normally, one would be in terror falling
from a tall building before inevitable death, but the man in the picture defies the norm. Through the phrase Junod uses, the author shows the reader the peace the man felt even without having seen the picture. The author is so impressed by the man’s posture, that he describes other people
falling as chaos, and this man’s description is as if he is a comic book hero, like Superman. His geometric balance, the creation of a new flag and the steel bars shining in the sun create imagery, similar to that of a comic book hero. Using symbols and illusions is a powerful technique that the
author uses to make the point that the man is at peace despite all odds.
Continuing the idea that the man’s posture and physical presence is a huge part of Junod’s writing, the perfect and simplistic elements of the picture are portrayed in the language of the writing. The author speaks of the gravity’s divine suction, which could allude to many things.
The author writes, “He does not appear intimidated by gravity’s divine suction or by what awaits him.” Junod voices that the suction of gravity was not a fear for the man nor was death. He alludes to heaven and God through this word choice. The author’s choice of the word “divine” may be hinting towards the man’s afterlife. Divine is a word that is associated with glory and the
language is clearly alluding to the thought that the man will go to heaven with God because of the lack of intimidation of his death.
In the final paragraph and the final sentences of the piece, Junod references the “presence of mind” numerous times, stressing the importance of the mental state of both the photographer and subject of the photo. Although the two do not have the same previous experiences and were
not in the same situation, the moment of 9/11 that they shared forced them to feel the same emotions. Junod stresses this when he talks about their “presence of mind”. He wants to relay that they both decided to take control the best they could. The man himself decided to take his
own life instead of letting the situation kill him. Junod’s repetition shows bravery in the instance of the man falling and the man capturing the image. While doing this he remained calm and truly accepted what he chose to do, further exemplifying his authority over the circumstances seen in
the language. Looking deeper into the meaning of words in this article, the audience is able to illustrate the picture in their mind, not having seen the original. The power the author has with his language conveys the true bravery and selflessness that the man felt, as well as the preciseness
and bravery the photographer must have felt. Capturing a moment in time is rare, but when it is captured there are many conclusions. Using contrast and figurative language, Junod’s “The
Falling Man” describes the meaning behind the simplicity of the image itself.Work Cited
Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man.” Junod, Tom.“The Falling Man.” Esquire, vol. 140, no. 3,
Sept.2003, pp. 176+ Gale Academic OneFile
Select, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A106423422/EAIM?u=hpu_main&sid=book
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Literacy Narrative
Play Our Game
I never realized how meaningful a sport could be until I played on a competitive volleyball club team called Xtreme. My interest in volleyball started very small, but it only grew over the years into a bigger passion as I learned how to play the game. With dedication and pure effort, volleyball became my world and the team became my home.
The summer before my freshman year of high school was when I started learning how to play volleyball. It wasn’t until my sophomore year on the club team when my coach pulled me aside to define leadership. My coach, Andy, defined leadership on the court as not giving up when things don’t go your way and being the voice for the team to rely on. I shook my head in agreement as he told me this, completely oblivious as to what he would add next. After describing what leadership meant to him, Andy then expressed how he wanted me to be team captain. I agreed out of the fear of saying no, and that is when I realized my true passion for volleyball.
In our tournament in Rhode Island, I had to take responsibility and leadership over the team to inspire them to keep pushing. It was our third day of the tournament and we had the opportunity to win the gold bracket. This was it, our final chance to play as a team and give it our all. The score was 25-25 and we had to win by two, so my coach called a time out. We all got into a huddle and Coach Andy gestured for me to speak. With confidence in my voice, I told my teammates that it doesn’t matter if we win or lose as long as we give it our all. I told them to forget about stressors in their daily lives and to just play the sport that we all love. The buzzer rang and it was time to go back on the court and play our final few minutes. Adrenaline and tension filled both the court and the crowd as the ball was served to our side of the net. Bump. Set. Spike.
I never thought that a small team from a small town would win a national tournament, but there we were. Being handed metals after defeating a really difficult team for first place was the moment when I realized what being a leader really was. It was not about leading your team to victory but instead encouraging them to believe in their skills and abilities. Being captain taught me that no matter your position, everyone is an essential part of the team. I learned that I can be respected the way I try and respect others, which improved my overall confidence. Volleyball is a sport that taught me more than just physical skills but social and mental skills that I will continue to expand in all aspects of my life.
https://www.xtremevbacademy.com/
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Rosalie Olsen 