Technolgy and education

Reading Susan's blog about the technology in education made me also want to think and blog about it. Education is becoming, more than ever, an amorphous living organism that evolves with the times and technology. The key is to coexist with technology for technology cannot be stopped. A statistic at UNC shows that 95% of the students utilize Facebook. These same students, in all likelihood, went to a high school that does not condone the use of Facebook. The point here is clear; you cannot stop students from doing what is popular. Thus, we must search for ways to coexist with social networking technology. Social networking sites are useful because they are just that: social networking made easier. Many students who wouldn’t have shared lunch let alone ideas in school may be “best friends” online. Many students may find that instant feedback on their pieces of writing or problems are extremely useful to their education. Furthermore, many students who feel that they cannot approach a certain teacher about a problem they didn’t understand could approach these same teachers easily in an online community. Of course I’m mentioning some of the more ideal educational ideas here. However, at the very least, the schools must recognize that social networking and their popularity are not going to go away. Therefore, schools must teach the students how to utilize these networks without exposing themselves too much to potentially dangerous individuals.