Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

The Role of Technology

  • By Deborah P. Moore
  • 08/01/13

Today’s college freshman has had a cell phone since middle school; learned to use a computer in kindergarten; has a headphone permanently attached to the ear; and eats, sleeps, drinks and drives while sending and responding to emails and texts. In the time it will take each of them to get through freshman year, all the technology they own will be outdated or obsolete! Technology use has become a necessity. I can’t imagine going to work without access to email, my computer or my spell checker. But if I think back not that many years ago, I would have never dreamed of the changes that technology would bring. Roll the clock back just 40 years and none of what we depend on today even existed. It wasn’t until April Fool’s Day in 1976 that Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released the Apple I that started Apple computers, and it wasn’t until 1992 that the “World Wide Web” was released to the public.

These developments were game changers in how we lived, how we did business and how we learned. Today, advances in technology, the need for a higher education and our recent financial crisis all came together to form the perfect storm — an idea storm. How could universities do more with the resources they have, increase the number of students they reach and provide a more individualized learning experience? The latest game changers are developments in the cloud, big data and MOOCs (massive open online courses). A recent AP article outlined the effects in this way: “Higher education is becoming ‘unbundled.’ Individual classes and degrees are losing their connections to single institutions, in much the same way iTunes has unbundled songs from whole albums, and the Internet is increasingly unbundling television shows and networks from bulky cable packages.”

Although a game changer, everything that is not working in education cannot be fixed by technology alone. High tech needs to be balanced with high touch. While some students can be self-disciplined and self-directed, most I know can’t. In fact, most adults I know can’t. Yes… technology is changing the way we teach and learn. No… it is not the death of colleges and universities. The goal is to blend the best aspects that both have to offer!

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management August 2013 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • California High School Opens New Classroom Building for 7th-, 8th-Graders

    Santa Rosa City Schools in Santa Rosa, Calif., recently announced the completion of a new classroom building for Piner High School. As the campus transitions to a Junior/Senior High School, the facility will play home to the school’s new population of seventh- and eighth-grade students.

  • Wyoming District Breaks Ground on New Elementary School

    Laramie County School District #1 in Cheyenne, Wy., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming Mountain View Elementary School, according to a news release. The facility has an estimated completion date of summer 2028, and it will have the capacity for 650 students in fifth and sixth grade.

  • Haws Corporation Marks 120th Anniversary

    Haws Corporation, which provides hydration and emergency safety solutions worldwide, recently announced that the company is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year, according to a news release.

  • URI Cuts Underwater Ribbon on New Ocean Robotics Laboratory

    The University of Rhode Island recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Ocean Robotics Laboratory at its Narragansett Bay Campus, according to a news release. Two students used a remotely operated vehicle to cut an underwater ribbon in a 30-by-20-foot test tank.