Chapter 7: What may be gained? What May be lost?

One thing America takes pride in is its great diversity among each other.  Going across the country there are a great amount of different cultures.  As teachers a big part of teaching and classroom management is teaching the acceptance of diversity.  However this concept of teaching different cultures might be challenged with the development of cultural based education systems.  A Hispanic educational system might use Spanish literature however never even cover a different culture.  Teachers have worked hard to have students accept each other for who they are, only to have technology to diminish the progress.  I feel that online schooling which is based culturally should have a set standard to help teach the diversity and pluralism with in other people. 

Schools that jump on to the technology bandwagon, however, have a lot to gain.  For one students will be more engaged in their work.  Technology allows students to choose topics that interest them, and teachers will be able to have a broad topic range to accommodate the interests of every student.  Today teachers are accused of teaching a mile wide and an inch deep.  With the incorporation of technology teachers are able to deepen the depth of their teaching to allow students to use their own interests.  Technology also allows students to become more accountable for their learning.  In the past teachers needed to engage their students but working hard to create lessons that targeted individual students.  

I believe that technology has its pro’s and cons as well.  My biggest fear is that our world will become very individualized that we will not need the help from others in our daily life.  Right now computers are man’s best friend but what happens if the internet is down or your computer breaks.  Students will need to learn how each individual element of technology works as a backup method for technology.  If we have technology does that mean that writing and cursive is going to become outdated.  What about math facts or dictionaries? As long as students are able to use technology and understand the background behind the technology there are many powerful items teachers can use to incorporate technology in their classrooms.  School districts can save money by incorporating online textbooks and printing less paper which allows money to be put into hiring good teachers and allowing technology in the classroom.  Teachers can step out of the box in their teaching methods to provide teaching methods to many different learning styles.