Learning in a Digital Age

Our advancements in technology are continuing to increase at a steadily fast pace and our advancements in the way we learn are increasing along with it. Students, elementary to college, are using technology, not only for social purposes, but also to do daily assignments or projects in school. Sometimes it is required to use technical resources, but other times technology is used because students in the technological age are accustomed to these resources.

This picture, from http://www.cartoonstock.com/,  resembles today's students in the classroom. The students confusion with the simple math problem is humorous which appeals to pathos, the audience's emotions. Although this cartoon exaggerates the extent to how much students need to use technology, it does have some truth to it. In every math class I have taken, since high school, it was required to have a calculator. Now whenever a time comes that I am not allowed to use a calculator it takes me twice as long to figure out a problem, but with that I also stress out about having to manually solve something.

This picture also shows the generation gap between those born in the digital age and those that weren't. They first of all accentuate the gap by showing a young boy and an old lady. Also in the past, the way students learned  math was by working out problems on a chalk board. Now students learn how to use a calculator in order to solve math problems. I remember when I use to get math homework in print and all of my work had to be shown, but now homework is online and any resources are useable.

The world has definitely changed since technology has been invloved, and classrooms have been strongly affected. The way students learn have advanced negatively and positively, but will continue to change alongside technology.

Information Overload !!!

Imagine a place with the delicious wings and other kinds of food, and televisions covering every wall with each one having a different channel covering sports news. Yes this place does exist, its called Buffalo Wild Wings. This place is a utopia for any sports fanatic, but it is also a great example of information overload!

I have already talked a little bit about information overload, but I thought this was a great time to give another example of how much information surrounds us. Anyone who does not believe we are overloading our heads with information relayed technologically, should believe after this.

Buffalo Wild Wings is a great place to go to catch up on sports games and sports news, but in my opinion it is ment for people with short attention spans. I went this past weekend with my boyfriend and would you believe we did not speak one word the entire time! His eyes moved from one television to the next, somehow not missing anything. He was being informed on basketball, football, soccer, golf. I didn't even know he liked golf. It was as if every time he turned his head he was in a new world. And then when I thought the televisions were distracting enough, he pulls out his phone and looks up a football player that he thought played at A&M. And no exaggeration but he liked a song that was on a commercial and shazamed it.

Anything we need to know is now only a click away or a turn of the head. It is so easy and more convenient to know anything. Yes sometimes it comes in handy, but other times it takes away from a normal conversation. What happened to back and forth talking?

Information Overload

Technology is everywhere in this new digital world. It is at our reach continuously in many shapes and forms and does not look like it is going away... ever. In fact technology is growing at a fast rate even with all of the advances we have made today. All of the information available to us now a days, with increasing convenience, is more than most people know what to do with. A result of this is information overload. People are concerned with what is going on constantly, whether it be with Facebook, sports, news, or music. On their phone alone people can look up a sports game every five minutes and text or chat on Facebook all while watching TV or listening to music. People are overloaded with technology on a daily basis. The convenience of having technology at our reach , I believe, is sometimes being misused. For example, when learning in school there are computers and technological instruments that can advance a persons learning experience. But these sometimes get misused by using the computers for reasons that do not relate to school. We need to realize that technology, though overwhelming at times, is here to help us when used correctly. Also, even though there is a lot of information that is available to us, it does not mean we need to constantly be aware of it. Technology does surround everything we do, but there is a world outside of it.