"Technology and Us"
School of Technology
Centennial Symposium
An Extended Celebration

Spring Semester 2003

Impact of Technology on Current Educational Efforts
(we have been here before)

Dr. Charles Rohn
Tom Grissom

The rapid pace of change in the area of technology offers both promise and peril for today's schools that seek to offer the best educational opportunities for students. With the advent of computers and the Internet it is truly remarkable the potential that technology offers for an improved learning experience that may fundamentally change the way teachers teach, and students learn.

It has been only twenty years since computers have become common place in the classroom and just the last ten years that Internet access has become widely available to local school districts. We are in the beginning stages of the transition from an isolated classroom experience to a classroom that is literally connected to the world. How will the latest learning technologies affect our schools?

This paper takes a look back at how previous technologies have faired. Fanciful predictions have been made about numerous technologies over the past 150 years and teachers have reason to be skeptical of the latest technology that comes along that promises to change the way students learn. Over the past 150 years our schools have seen the introduction of the blackboard, magic lantern, phonograph, telephone, radio, silent movies, talking movies, television, overhead projector, film strips, photocopiers, cassette recorders, computers, fax machines, VCR's, satellite communications, cell phones, pagers, Internet, digital video, wireless networks, DVD's, MP3 players, and video conferencing - to name just a few. Each of these technologies came along with promises of how they would transform the classroom experience.

Today's technologies do have the possibility to drastically change the way our children learn. In order for meaningful change to occur the technology must match the educational structure and be economical and effective in producing the desired result of offering the best educational experience possible. Teachers must believe that these technologies can improve not only opportunities for their students but also can be easily implemented by the current and future teaching force. Our children deserve nothing less than the best educational opportunities possible using every available positive tool. The future for our society and all of us depends upon it.