Technology as an Academic Tool by Joao

Technology as an Academic Tool by Joao - January 2020 Scholarship Essay

Technology has become something so common in everybody's lives that it is really hard to try to separate and deny it from any area of our lives, and is not different when we talk about education. Although in the past years technology has become almost a taboo when related to education because of the use of cell phones in the classroom, it can actually be something extremely useful, and if used correctly, can be one of the most valuable tools a teacher can possibly use.
People that are against the use of technology in the classroom, usually claim that students get distracted by cell phones, and it is bad for their academic performance. In fact, the culprit for the distraction is not the cell phone itself, it is the student that does not properly use the cell phone.
The use of technology in the classroom can be beneficial for everyone involved with it, students, teachers,schools, and even the environment.
According to Cartridge World, more than 38 billion sheets of paper are used in schools yearly. It just contribute a massive deforestation that is already starting to affect this generation and will affect the next ones much more intensively.
There is a huge impact to schools too. According to Cartridge World, 10% of a school's annual budget is spent on printing, so it would be the school save money to eventually be invested in something else in the school that would contribute to the students even more. Besides that, it would save a lot of time for administrator and teacher from printing and stapling everything, making their jobs more productive.
The use of technology in the classroom is also great for teachers because it can save them a huge amount of time. Teachers can present the same slide show to all her classes, what would save them a lot of time not having to write or draw anything, making classes more dynamic and efficient, and also making sure that all classes will have the exact same lesson with the same information, what is good for the quality control of the lessons.
There are different tools in the internet that can help teachers with corrections. Grading and correcting essays or automatically results of activities or tests online are some examples, it would save the teacher a lot of time and avoid human mistakes to corrections. There are other tools that can assist teachers in keeping track of all the work that their students are doing, how long their are taking to conclude the tasks and what are their biggest weaknesses and strengths in that particular subject, what would contribute to the teacher have a better understanding of the class, to be able to make more accurate adjust on their lessons, to help the understanding of their students.
Technology can also help lessons be more interesting and attractive for students. With just a few clicks, a teacher can cross borders and take students to the other side of the world, or the space, or undersea, or even show microscopic experiment that most kids would never have the chance to see. This immersion in the content just contribute students to enjoy and learn even more about what is proposed by their teachers.
Teacher and students can also be benefited by technology using outside sources to explain something really complex, using animation, or showing a video of another teacher explaining about the subject so the students can have another explanation to understand the subject better, or even showing a movie or and documentary that can be discussed in the classroom. If schools did not have access to these sources of information, it would never be possible.
Finally, have technology in the classroom is a great opportunity to teachers and students learn how to use it correctly, so it does not become the culprit of anything, but actually contribute to the learning process of the students. Because technology is already extremely present in most people's lives, if used with good intentions and consciously, can make a positive impact everybody’s lives.