Pellerito 1

Jack Pellerito

Marisa Enos

ENG.101.W02

23 March 2017

The Unique Benefits of Technology on Learning

In recent years, the percentage of people in the United States that own a smartphone has

nearly doubled. According to a 2015 article by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of

people who owned a smartphone has risen from 35% in 2011 to 68% in 2015 (pewinternet.org).

There are many people that would strongly argue that this is a bad thing, however, the benefits of

technology increasing in the world actually outweigh any negatives there may be tenfold and

there are just as many, if not more, intelligent people who strongly support this viewpoint. One

specific area that technology strongly aids is learning. Technology benefits learning because it

allows for easy access to information, it gives everyone an equal opportunity to learn, it makes

communication and collaboration much easier, it can save money and other resources, and it

even creates a whole new area of study for the world.

For many years the world has had technology. There has always been some form of it,

whether it was a spear made by cavemen long ago using a sharp rock for the spearhead, a stick

for the shaft, and some vines to connect both, or maybe it is a smartphone of today, which is

composed of countless circuits and chips and wires and other fancy parts. These smartphones

have computing capabilities equal to or greater than the computers used to send man to the

moon. Both of these things can be qualified as technology, but until recent years was the impact

on learning really noticeable. People were always taught in classrooms with books and lectures,

and this is still the case today. However, now there are always computers, calculators,
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smartphones, or recording devices being used in classrooms across the world. Before laptops

were invented, computers were not portable enough to be used in classes unless they were the

school's computers. Nowadays, people have the computing, calculating powers right there in the

palm of their hand in the form of a smartphone or laptop. Many classes require activities that

take place using the technology in some way. There are even online classes. Because of

technology, someone can take a class online and never have to be present to any classroom or

building. It can all take place from behind the screen of a computer. All of these changes in the

world due to technology have made educating the masses both easier and more efficient.

Technology is used today in learning and learning is better with technology. One of the reasons it

is better is because it is so easy to access information today.

With all the new technology today, it has never been easier to access any type of

information. The internet can always be used, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-

two weeks a year, to find whatever kind of information someone is looking for. If someone

wants to know what kind of tree they have discovered, the internet has it. If someone else wants

to know what illness his symptoms match, the internet has it. In his article "Attention as a

Cultural Problem", Matthew B. Crawford talks of how technology is everywhere and no matter

where a person looks, they can always see some form of it. He says that "the media have become

masters at packaging stimuli in ways that our brains find irresistible"(Crawford 45). Crawford

means here that through technology, information is always being forced upon people. The media,

or the main attraction of public technology, has become adept at drawing people's attention and

throwing information their way, helping them learn without much effort at all. In addition to the

media being able to influence learning so easily and being everywhere, Cathy N. Davidson

provides some more insight on this idea in her article "Customized and Participatory Learning".
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When Davidson is talking about how technology plays a role in education these days she says

"the internet offers unprecedented access to an enormous range of information and the possibility

of an extraordinary range of learning modalities"(Davidson 51). This means that no matter who a

person is, they always will have access to any type of information using the internet. Even for

those people that don't have as much technology as wealthier families, they have access to some

sort of it and no matter the type, learning will take place because of it. Both Davidson and

Crawford would agree that technology is readily available and distributed around the world.

There is more technology today than ever before. This makes it easier for information to be

accessed by anyone who truly wants to access it. Whether it be some sort of gaming console a

child uses or a smartphone an adult has, information can always be accessed using technology

and the logical next step after finding the information is learning it. On top of information being

readily available to all through technology, through this same idea, technology gives everyone an

equal opportunity to learn.

Across the world people go to school and attend class regularly. This has been the case

for hundreds of years. However, there has always been difficulties in achieving this for every

human being. Some children are not physically able to attend school while others have mental

problems that make it difficult to attend school. Because of technology, students are not forced to

physically attend school and yet they still have the opportunity to learn. In his article "The

Biological Basis of Learning and Today's First Year Students", Robert Leamnson talks of the

issues facing first year students when it comes to the new environment of college. His main

focus is on this topic but much of what he says also carries over to any level of schooling. When

Leamnson says that "typical college freshman have had nineteen years to structure their brains,

imbibe their culture, and discover their centers of satisfaction"(Leamnson 74), he doesn't take
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into account those with disabilities. What if a child is born without the ability to walk? They will

have most likely grown up differently than a "normal" child and their brain will have formed

differently because of this. Not all children will have the same brain when they are ready to enter

college. There might be similarities, but there are also extreme differences. Another issue that

might cause a need for students to have to be taught unconventionally is through their

experiences at school early in their lives. In the article "Language: Teaching New Worlds/New

Words" by bell hooks, hooks talks of the effects that language can have on people. She says that

"words impose themselves, take root in our memory against our will"(hooks 56). If this is true,

this means that if a student is bullied, simply through the use of words which is common among

younger children, this bullying can have a large impact on a child, so much so they might not

want to attend school because they are afraid to. Although both of these author's ideas are

slightly different, the underlying message is the same. Not all students learn in the same way,

and certain issues can affect some students while not affecting others. However, in this day and

age, students all have an equal opportunity to learn because of technology. A child unable to

attend class daily because of trips to the hospital for health reasons can use some sort of video

chat to basically be in the classroom through a screen. A young adult afraid to attend classes due

to social anxiety or other terrible problems can take courses online and gain the same knowledge

as someone attending class daily. This is a huge benefit for learning because of technology, but

another benefit of technology is that it allows for communication with nearly anyone on earth.

One main factor of learning is communication. Whether it be face to face or emailing,

some form of communication is always required for someone to learn. It could be the words of

an ancient philosopher talking to a young college student through a textbook, or it could be an

email from a preschool teacher to the parent of a child in the class. Communication has many
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forms, but it would not be possible today without technology. The use of technology makes

communication much easier. In hooks' article, she says how "shifting how we think about

language and how we use it necessarily alters how we know what we know"(hooks 59). She

means that communication is the true way people learn, and the way people have knowledge is

because of the communication they have had with others throughout their lives. If

communication didn't exist, neither would learning. In his article "Story Skeletons", Roger

Schank talks about how communication and the way people use it can change the true meaning

of what someone is trying to say. Through the use of technology, when two people construct

their "own version of truth by reliance upon skeleton stories, two people can know exactly the

same facts but construct a story that relays those facts in very different ways"(Schank 129).

Schank says that story skeletons are basically points of view on a subject. However, because

everyone has a different point of view, sometimes simple communication can be difficult.

Sometimes a meaning not implied is picked up on and thought that is the main meaning of a

story. Because of both hooks and Schanks' explanations of the importance of and issues with

communication, it is easy to see that learning can not take place without communication, but

communication cannot always take place without technology to allows these messages to be sent

long distance or for someone's message to be researched to be sure they aren't using the wrong

story skeleton to get their point across. Without technology, communication wouldn't be as easy.

But also, communication has to be truthful because of technology always being available to do a

background check on information. Two scientists can conduct an experiment on a topic and

never see each other face to face because of technology. It opens doors to new forms of

communication and in turn, more learning. On top of these many benefits technology brings to

learning, it also brings a whole new area to learn about.

In addition to bringing many benefits to learning, technology also adds a whole new area

to learn about. It is a constantly growing area and every day new technology is invented. What

better way is there to help learning than giving people a new thing to learn about? There are

always many people out there that can never decide what they want to learn about. Technology

gives them the ability to learn about anything they truly want to, but maybe the thing they

actually want to learn more about is technology itself. Leamnson explains many of the mental

processes involved in learning, and when he says how "it is experience and sensory interaction

with the environment that promotes and stabilizes neural connections"(Leamnson 67), it is easy

to see that in today's world, many children grow up to fancy technology being a large part of

their lives and therefore many of the strongest neural connections in their brains have to do with

technology. Neural connections are the pathways our brain takes in order to do actions and make

sense of the world. Therefore, if someone has grown up and is extremely comfortable with

technology, they can now go into a field of study to learn more and create more technology.

Davidson also speaks of this topic when she says how in "this multidisciplinary learning world,

where play and learning are inseparable"(Davidson 51), children and adults both come to learn

through play using technology, so once they are trying to find an area of study to enter, studying

their area of play and learning can be very intriguing to them. Both Leamnson and Davidson

agree that a person is more likely to truly learn something in an area where the brain enjoys the

learning. Something familiar to a person is easier to learn more about than something unfamiliar.

Because so many children grow up on computer games and other video games, the field of

computer programming and coding has grown in recent years because so many people feel

familiar with this topic and enjoy pursuing it. Technology has given these people an area of
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study to pursue that never existed before and they can thrive here because they will truly enjoy

the learning.

Overall, technology brings many benefits to learning. Learning would not be as easily

accessible to all, and it wouldn't be as advanced either. Technology benefits learning because it

allows for easy access to information, it gives everyone an equal opportunity to learn, it makes

communication and collaboration much easier, it can save money and other resources, and it

even creates a whole new area of study for the world. Through all of these benefits and the

insight provided by Crawford, Leamnson, Davidson, Schank, and hooks, it is easy to see that

technology is definitely needed in the world and the benefits definitely outweigh any negatives,

whatever they may be. The world would be a different place today without technology. It would

be about the same as it was a couple hundred years ago, when news took months to travel to

other areas, when letters took weeks to travel a few hundred miles, when everything was at a

slower pace. Because of technology, the world is a better place. People need technology.
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Works Cited

Anderson, Monica. "Technology Device Ownership: 2015." Pew Research Center: Internet,
Science & Tech. Pew Research Center, 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.
Crawford, Matthew. "Attention as a Cultural Problem." Exploring Connections: Learning in the
21st Century. Pearson Education Inc., 2016. Pp. 36-48.
Davidson, Cathy. "Customized and Participatory Learning." Exploring Connections: Learning in
the 21st Century. Pearson Education Inc., 2016. Pp. 49-54
hooks, bell. "Language: Teaching New Worlds/New Words" Exploring Connections: Learning
in the 21st Century. Pearson Education Inc., 2016. Pp. 55-60.
Leamnson, Robert. "The Biological Basis of Learning and Today's First Year Students."
Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21st Century. Pearson Education Inc., 2016.
Pp. 65-85.
Schank, Roger. "Story Skeletons." Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21 st Century. Pearson
Education Inc., 2016. Pp. 128-140.