Effective Usage of Technology by Hailey

Effective Usage of Technology by Hailey - January 2020 Scholarship Essay

Growing up in school, technology use by students was more frowned upon than praised. Most of my life, the only technology that was used in school was by the teachers, and an occasional class trip to the computer lab to take an online placement test. Once I started attending my local high school, the use of technology in class was more frequent. Arriving at my sophomore year in high school, each student was given their own personal tablet to use for whatever reasons they needed, because having only a classroom set of laptops was not useful enough. Since that change, many students have been more active in their studies because they have been given more options on their learning styles. Having technology also allows for students to be able to work more efficiently and not waste as much time when they have free time in between classes. It also allows for students to easily contact their teachers/other students when needed. With many more reasons, technology has definitely impacted my high school experience.
Since the recent addition of technology to my school, many students have improved their grades by finding a personal learning style. Growing up without easy access to resources such as Google Docs and PowerPoint, it was very exciting being able to have an application that allows you to write reports or make presentations without having to be at home to do it. Having an tablet at school has allowed me to be able to work on my homework on my free time, which wasn’t always the case without them. It also allows for students to get an earlier glimpse at college; in most cases, college requires a laptop or some sort of technology to take notes during lectures. Many of my teachers have adapted to that idea and have started lecturing to us in similar ways of a college professor. This is also helpful to not only verbal learners, but visual and aural learners can benefit from this as well. Aural learners have access to resources, such as You-Tube, that will provide them with many educational videos that will further explain their topic of interest. Visual learners can also benefit from these videos, as they allow access to different images and useful links to other visual products. I can proudly say that I have discovered that I am an aural learner through the different sources I have been given throughout the years of being in school, and that technology has benefited me for the better in these instances.
Having time in between classes has been something I find happening too often. Being a senior in high school, I do have a lot to do, and I don’t think I’d be able to get any of my work done without my tablet. Many of my assignments are online, whether it's writing a paper, online textbook work, or homework assigned through Google Classroom. Without my tablet, I would have a lot of free time between lectures and wouldn’t be able to even start homework that was given to me in previous classes. Since having technology in my everyday school life, I’ve been able to get my homework done before the end of the day and even be able to start future homework before it is even assigned. I have learned to be efficient with my time given and this has boosted my grades tremendously in the amount of time I’ve had access to technology in school. Another benefit to this is since all students have personal access to technology, computer labs are not essential anymore and are now being changed to beneficial classrooms such as foreign languages, special education, and much more. Having so many classrooms and space has allowed for teachers and students to be able to contact each other through said technology as well.
Contacting teachers throughout the day if needed has always been a difficult task. If you are not in the same room as the teacher that needs to be contacted, it is very unlikely that your teacher will let you go and talk to a teacher that is on the other side of the school. I have found that emailing my teachers has been a great tool to asking questions and getting quick responses when needed. It has allowed for me to save so much time throughout my day and has saved me from a lot of potentially stressful situations. It has also helped the teachers contact students when they have a question as well, which is a lot more convenient than walking to the other side of the school.
Looking back at the many times I’ve used technology in school, I am grateful that we have developed such a magnificent tool for our everyday lives. It has prevented many stressful situations, and as a student in high school, there have been many. Being able to find my personal learning style has been a huge life changer and has made my academics a lot easier to achieve. Being able to find and use my time wisely during class through technology has also been a big help when it comes to having homework. Always having quick contact privileges to my teachers has been beneficial in so many situations as well. Having technology has been life changing, and I am so glad that we are able to use it in ways that can help us the most.