Learning with Technology

Prompt: Technology has been hailed as a mechanism to promote learning and facilitate the free flow of information around the world. Reflect on how technology has both aided and hindered your ability to learn. Use an example if you can to illustrate your point of view. In many ways learning has become easier through the use of technology. Peer-reviewed articles are available with a few clicks of a mouse. I can lug my laptop around town and type while my children run or dance. Online classes are certainly a convenience. And yet . . . I still prefer to learn in a classroom. I believe I learn more from the person to person interaction that takes place in a classroom. When I take online classes I spend a comparable amount of time studying, but the lack of possibility for an immediate response that is a natural part of a discussion or lecture in a classroom seems to me to be a less desirable way of learning. Personally, I believe I retain more from the classroom environment, perhaps because it demands my full attention and quick and thoughtful response with the need for constant give and take. It engages my intellect in a way that the online environment does not. Of course, not all classes on campus are intellectually stimulating; a great deal rests on the professor. Incidentally, I took Literary Theory online, a choice that I regretted since it was such a fabulous class. I can only imagine what it would have been like in the classroom. I have even entertained the idea of taking it again in person with the same professor. In any case, the professor was involved in that class in a way I hadn't encountered online previously. He took the time to comment meaningfully on our posts, to teach us from his comments. Each week he wrote a summary of what we had discussed and learned that week. Unfortunately, in other online classes the professors have only been involved as assigners and graders. That is why now I choose only to take classes online such as this technology class that don't require much discussion or lecture and to save literature classes for on-campus learning. Another aspect I wish to point out about learning online is that even though we have a wealth of information at our fingertips, if we aren't careful, and sometimes even if we are, the use of the internet leads to a lot of shallow learning, leaving less time for really exploring a topic in depth. Even typing, though it is so much easier with a computer than a typewriter, demands a different way of using the brain than writing by hand. One of my professors looked into this and found that people write completely different thoughts depending on whether they are handwriting or typing. She required a significant amount of writing by hand in composition books to encourage deeper reflection and processing. In summary, a faster pace of learning and more available information doesn't necessarily lead to deeper and more profound thoughts. Knowledge gained freely doesn't necessarily translate into knowledge retained. The old adage "no pain, no gain" seems to apply to the new era of quick and easy information.