The Power of Sharing by Aurelle

The Power of Sharing by Aurelle - January 2020 Scholarship Essay

"Knowledge is power as long as it is shared." -Baris Gencel

As I look back on my education and observe how it has been impacted by growing technology, I notice a theme woven into nearly every instance of classroom technology: sharing. Of course, the goal of each of my dedicated teachers has always been to share their wealth of knowledge with me and my classmates, but with the help of today's tools, that instruction has become so much more effective. Through technology, students can share learning experiences with their classmates, gain insights from their teachers at any time, and instantaneously access information from all over the globe. These advantages have not simply improved the modern classroom experience; they've redefined it.

One of my favorite things about a classroom environment is the people I get to share it with, and I'm so grateful for how technology has let us take that group learning to a new level. Thanks to shared documents and presentations, we can unite our efforts to craft group projects no matter how many miles apart we live. With the help of online polls, we can hear the voices of far more classmates than we could ever speak to in person, and we can put their opinions into action. The magic of a centralized communication system lets us contact classmates with ease and organize group events. This effortless communication between peers puts more power in the hands of students. We can take responsibility for our own learning and our own social enrichment, all because of the advanced tools available to us.

Even more beneficial than constant access to our classmates, though, is constant communication with our teachers. Technology is the door that lets us contact our teachers for help and advice anywhere, anytime. And this advantage is so much more than just simple messages. The ability to share an entire assignment with a teacher and have them work on it alongside us allows them to help us even on challenging, visually based problems. With the help of electronics, our teachers can send us videos to explain challenging concepts in further detail. Our teachers can keep us all on the same page by sharing calendars and schedules with the entire class. Whether it’s in math, history, art, theater, dance, or any other class or activity, technology allows our teachers to provide us with a new dimension of learning tools that we can access at any time.

Perhaps the most powerful advantage of integrating technology into the classroom, is the opportunity to access information from all over the world at the touch of a button. Our teachers are no longer burdened with passing all of their knowledge on to us. They need only help us realize that we can discover whatever knowledge we choose to pursue. By giving us the proficiency we need to safely and intelligently use technology, they give us the keys to the collective wealth of human knowledge. Through the internet we can learn countless useful skills, find hundreds of published papers, read innumerable discussions on current topics. This unprecedented sharing of knowledge is one of the greatest gifts of education.

The widespread sharing of knowledge that technology provides enriches education on every level. But it doesn’t stop there. Technology allows us to break through all the modern barriers of a classroom and put learning into a context that works for anyone. Today, a classroom can consist of dozens of people from around the globe, all speaking different languages and living in different time zones, and yet collaborating on the same quest for knowledge. Technology makes learning available to us wherever we are, whatever education we’ve had. Through it, the world is our classroom, and there are no limits to the knowledge we can share with each other.