Technology in the Adult Classroom

Technology has drastic effects on daily life. It has brought up the standard of living of most people significantly, taking mankind from living in caves to a world many of our ancestors would never believe. A world in which people can travel the globe quickly, debilitating diseases can be cured, and knowledge is widely available at the click of a button. Technology touches nearly every aspect of a person’s life and has limitless opportunities to benefit humans in the future. While technology can be an inconvenience at times, it’s important to keep perspective on what life would be like without it. One of the many exciting ways in which technology may be applied is in education, benefiting it through convenience, economics, effectiveness, and its ability to tailor learning to individual student needs.

One of the major positive impacts that technology has on higher education is its effect on accessibility and cost. There are many people in the world today who lack access to higher education due to where they live or the jobs they have. For example, an over-the-road truck driver cannot take classes at a traditional institution when they are constantly hauling freight across the country. A high school graduate in a small-town cannot further their education if there are no colleges in the area. Someone in the working class may not have free time available when college campuses are open. Moreover, people in developing countries cannot receive an education if their country’s education system is broken, nonexistent, or simply beyond their reach. Technology can be used to address these problems through its ability to expand educational opportunities to anyone that has an internet connection. The Economist states in its report The Future of Higher Education that “the greatest potential benefit of technology is something far more straightforward—namely, the expanded access to educational and reference resources that it provides”. Using technology, access to higher education can be greatly expanded, allowing any person with access to the internet to receive it. This increased access has been shown by the United States Department of Education to have far reaching effects, improving the lives of everyone in a community: “Over the course of a lifetime, the average worker with a bachelor’s degree will earn approximately $1 million more than a worker without a postsecondary education” (United States, Department of Education). This increase in earnings of a student benefits the community at large through increased taxes and increased economic spending.

Another benefit increased access can have on higher education is its effect on education’s ballooning costs. Prices for an undergraduate education have more than doubled between 1985 and 2016, even after accounting for inflation (United States, National Center for Education Statistics). While this increase in price can be attributed to a variety of causes, technology’s ability to increase access can be utilized to combat it. In her paper “Effective and Cost Effectiveness of Online Education,” Insung Jung, a professor of education at the International Christian University reveals that “many educators or decision-makers believe that the primary benefit of online education is that costs can be distributed over many students, resulting in economies of scale for educational institutions”. Using technology, a smaller group of administrators and professors can educate many more students and, because of this, the financial burden of education can be spread out over a larger student body, lowering the cost each student must pay. Of course, there are roadblocks to implementing technology in this way. After all, many people do not have access to the devices they would need in order to take advantage of these types of courses. This is largely a financial problem, one which can be solved using another benefit of technology. Its ability to reduce the costs of administering a school directly. Another revelation in The Economist’s report is that “automated, self-service [programs] reduce administrative requirements, streamline course registration, and enhance academic life” (The Future of Higher Education). These savings can be passed on to students through reduced costs or reinvested into the college itself, allowing the college to provide devices to those who need them. Further, an allotment could be invested into research to raise the effectiveness of services they provide.

Another reason many people hesitate to embrace technology in education is the belief that it may not be as effective as more traditional methods of learning. Using this logic, one might expect online classes to be less effective than in-person classes, given that they rely so heavily on technology. However, studies have shown that this is not the case. Leisi Pei and Hongbin Wu, researchers at the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences found in their paper “Does Online Learning Work Better than Offline Learning in Undergraduate Medical Education?” that “none of the included studies concluded that online learning was less effective than offline methods, regardless of the statistical method used” (Pei and Wu). Both researchers were not able to find any real difference between the effectiveness of online education versus  traditional classes, indicating that technology itself has little effect over the effectiveness of education. Technology is not inherently positive or negative, its simply an additional tool an instructor can use to teach his or her classes. In fact, there is even evidence showing that technology in the classroom can have positive effects on student education. Dr. Hamdi Serin, lecturer at Tishk International University, noted in his paper “Augmented Technologies in the Education” that “studies have shown that the use of [technology] has increased the level of success of [students]; it has made the process of learning amusing, active, and effective”. Serin found that technology not only has no negative effect, but it has a positive effect on the education of students in the classroom. This is not to say that technology does not have its downsides, as everyone has experienced frustrating technical glitches at one time or another. Devices can be glitchy, and they always seem to stop working at the worst possible moment. Donald A. Norman, director of The Design Lab at the University of California writes: “On the one hand, [humans] are far from the science fiction, movieland world populated by autonomous, intelligent robots that always work perfectly. On the other hand, [humans] are moving rapidly away from the world of manual control, one with no automation, where people operate equipment and get the task done” (Latterell).  Because of the state of modern technology, people find themselves in a world where technology is not smart enough to seamlessly solve all life’s problems, yet it is a daily reliance. Even though technology can hinder people, at times, in its current state, the pace of technological progress is inevitable and not showing any signs of slowing, meaning technology is inevitably becoming a larger part of everyday life. If this is the case, it is better that humanity prepares itself for it. Hatice Durak and Mustafa Saritepeci, researchers at Bartin University found that the “use of technology in education is of great importance for both realization of effective learning-teaching processes and raising individuals possessing competences necessary for being a member of the 21st century society” (Durak and Saritepeci). Using technology in education prepares students for the modern world, one where technology is used in nearly every aspect of life. It’s better for humanity to maximize the benefits technology can bring (tailoring education to individuals) rather than leave students unprepared to function in a technologically dependent society.

Another benefit technology in education provides is its unique ability to allow an instructor to develop classes to each student’s individual needs. Through the proper implementation of technology, an instructor can allow a student to learn at his or her own pace, focusing time on improving their weaknesses rather than going over material he or she may already understand. For example, a student who is a native English speaker might not need an intensive education on English grammar, so they could work through the grammar portion of a curriculum quickly, spending the time saved on an area of study where they require more help. Sarojani S. Mohammed, Ph.D. in educational psychology, writes in her article that “a 2018 meta-analysis…indicated when education technology is used to individualize students’ pace of learning, the results overall show ‘enormous promise’” (Is Technology Good or Bad for Learning). This shows that when technology is applied to create a curriculum unique to a student’s needs, there is a great benefit to that student’s education. Technology could also be used to tailor K-12 education or to an individual student’s needs, and it may be useful in closing the growing gender gap between students in K-12 education, improving their performance when they enter college. Claudia Buchmann and her associates, found in their paper “Gender Inequalities in Education” that “In 1972, 53 percent of males and 46 percent of females enrolled in two- or four-year colleges immediately after graduating from high school; in 2007 the comparable figures were 66 percent of males and 68 percent of females”. This growing gap in college enrollment can be traced all the way back to kindergarten (Buchmann et al.). Technology can allow each student the same academic opportunities as his or her classmates later in life. There is growing research suggesting that male and female adolescent brains tend to mature at different rates, with females maturing more quickly than males. Joan Stiles and Terry Jernigan, research professors at UC San Diego, detailed the process in which the human brain develops in their paper “The Basics of Brain Development” that early brain development involves the overproduction of neurons (Stiles and Jernigan). These neurons are then pruned back through a competitive process known as “Synaptic Pruning” or “streamline reductions” in late adolescence (Stiles and Jernigan). These synaptic reductions have been shown to affect the behavior of adolescents (Stiles and Jernigan). While these changes happen in everyone, it has been shown that they do not start at the same time in everyone, with females beginning the process before males, on average. Sol Lim and her associates at Seoul National University, found in their paper “Preferential Detachment During Human Brain Development” that “streamline reductions occurred at an earlier age in females than in males, suggesting sex-specific maturation of connectivity patterns during human brain maturation”. This shows that female brains tend to streamline, or begin pruning off, underused neural networks earlier than males, which may explain why females tend to do better in K-12 education then their male counterparts. Technology can be used to address this problem and close the gap between the outcomes of males and females emerging from the K-12 education system. Some may say that these differences can be explained by socioeconomic and demographic variables, however studies show that “the standard set of socioeconomic and demographic variables cannot explain gender differences in social development” (Buchmann et al.). This leads to the conclusion that there is a more innate reason for these differences in development.

Technology in education has immense potential to benefit education. With opportunities to change the way students learn forever. The opportunities technology brings to education are exciting, from its effect on convenience, enabling a student to learn wherever and whenever they choose. Its effects on the economics of education, spreading the financial burden of education amongst many more students. Expanding the reach of education to people who may never had had the opportunity before and preparing them to live in our digital world. It even allows students access to more information to aid them in their courses. It even has the potential to tailor learning to individual student needs, closing gaps in the outcomes of people emerging form the K-12 system. All these benefits without hampering the effectiveness of an educational institution.

By Eric Lin, Los Angeles, California

Ericlin827@gmail.com

+17145952886

Professor Russell Boyd at Golden West College