Technology In Terms of Higher Education by Laurel

Technology In Terms of Higher Education by Laurel - May 2020 Scholarship Essay

The world is changing at a historically fast rate and it is both exciting at also terrifying at the same time. While the world is getting very complex and technology is getting faster and tinier by the minute, people are still living their life, having relationships and building homes and communities. Two things which happen to be two major components of my future as I start my college journey next Fall. I can’t wait to meet my classmates, roommates, and professors and while there is an increasing amount of information and data available to us at a touch of a button, I believe that we must preserve these communities of people.
No matter the amount of technology and data that the world runs around in the modern world, it is still a world of people. Technology can be a wonderful addition to a student's life with laptops and research, as well an advantage to the teacher with online homework and teaching videos. Within the next fifty years, I guarantee the biggest change college students will face is the overwhelming amount of online schooling and technology used in their higher education. Despite this, technology cannot replace what teachers do solely, the human connection is what drives the very institution of education. Currently the world is in a sort of fluid state as there are quarantines occurring due to the recent pandemic and many jobs and schools have been put online. My own education is now all online and it has been a very large and unexpected shift. This even extends beyond education; it also stems into the future as more occupations go permanently to online businesses and online schools become more popular.
When considering my own aspiration and goals, which is to become a mathematics teacher, I can see that these changes will affect me. As a teacher, I will use technology both inside and outside the classroom as it can be wonderful and convenient tool. Even now within my degree program there will be an abundance of essay typing and computer work in my long hours of studying. However, I know that teaching such intense and complicated subjects fully online could be very hard for the teachers. Having a teacher in front of you and being able to ask questions and be put in a classroom state-of-mind is an advantage to be considered. As a result of the quarantine placed on my state, my Calculus math class was changed to be a fully online class and it has been very hard to learn and understand the material in this detached manner. Even when I watch the videos and do the work it can be difficult. For college students alike, it is important that we adjust to this new way of learning as the world changes around us. There may be growing pains to the repaid spread of technology, but it is occurring, and we need to understand how to balance the technology with our community of friends, campuses and towns.