Potential Benefits
Technology empowers most ethnic, social, socio-economic groups that can afford it or have access to it and use it well to receive its benefits. Technological literacy is as important as basic reading, writing and math. Society has a ways to go before we ensure equal access to technology. Technology provides you tools to share and retrieve information quickly and remotely wherever you have access to internet and a computer. Technology can be used to improve productivity and increase business profits by retrieving information from a remote location with the help of internet connectivity. Wherever people do not have access to technology, they get denied the benefits of technology and progress. For example, in third world countries like Afghanistan and even in developing countries such as India.
In Newberry’s magazine article, he reveals, “how some cultures have had long-term success due, at least in part, to careful technological practices” [6] such as careful internet use. He goes on to touch on the moral use of computers and “this idea-that technologies are inherently value laden…” [6] which can be interpreted to mean that technologies are made by mankind and therefore inherit the values that the inventor or maker puts into building it. For example, Sinbad’s ship, which is a technological vessel, represents the value of freedom to roam the seas. Newberry’s point also establishes the idea that there is a need for technology and technological practices worldwide since people in the past and even today continue to face success by means of technological usage.
Technology empowers students and teachers alike in a school setting too. In Conte’s online journal article, school reformers say “computer networks can link schools to the “real world,”[1] and teach students and children to become “lifelong learners” [1]. This touches on the idea of globalization and the world shrinking by means of internet and people being connected to one another over a vast network of computers which is a pretty amazing concept. As a result of computer networking, “curriculums get up-to-date”[1] and classrooms become “global classrooms” [1] and teaching becomes exciting for people like Patricia Weeg of Delmar Elementary School in Maryland.
Technology empowers society and enables those that have access to it the choice to use it well. With the help of search engines like Google or Microsoft’s Bing, we can search for and retrieve valuable information for satisfy curiosity regarding a particular topic or to help prepare for a school debate. In Conte’s words,” They help students gather and organize information, judge its value and decide how to present it to others” [1].
Internet allows you to communicate with other people and share information using MSN or AOL instant messengers and chatting. Online blogs or journals provide another portal to share extensive or brief information on absolutely any topic such as the advantages and disadvantages of using a web browser like Mozilla Firefox. Apart from that, the internet allows you to be social and network with friends, family and colleagues through social networking websites such as facebook.com which was first intended as a way for college students to interact with each other.Other benefits of the internet and computers include being able to make video conference calls using a hardware video device called a webcam using a software program called Skype. As a result, you are able to connect to a person sitting in a different part of the world for a very low fee. This software and hardware collaboration over a high speed internet, instantly allows a cyber user the chance to connect with a friend, family member, or work colleague in 3D and in real time.
Another potential benefit of technology and the internet apart from gathering information is that one can publish ideas and information of their own and create an online journal as well. For example, Yi-Lun, a high school student from Silver Spring, Maryland posted his resume on his personal website homepage giving other computer users worldwide access to it [1]. All the tools you need to have included is a computer connected over a vast network called the internet and instructions on how to create a web page.
Technological literacy is an important tool, just like basic reading, writing and math. This can be seen in schools and colleges today in America as most universities require students to navigate through and use certain course related software program to do homework assignments. “Math Blaster,” is one such software “with arithmetic problems on a screen that looks like a blackboard” and the student gets rewarded visually by “seeing a rocket take-off” when they get a certain number of correct answers [1].
Technological literacy is the overall idea of being literate or educated and having an understanding of technology. “The idea of linking schools to the computer network has become one of the hottest education topics of the 1990s” [1] and when former president Clinton, in a speech said, “I want to get the children of America hooked on education through computers,”[1] and “we must make technological literacy a standard,” [1] he was actively promoting technological literacy and the idea that technological literacy is just as important as reading or writing in today’s day and age.
More than decade ago, “just 3 percent of the nation’s elementary, middle and high school classrooms had internet connection” according to a Denver research firm Quality Education Data Inc. [1]. This was indeed a very small percentage of the nation’s population. Even though critics would argue that computers are expensive and quickly become obsolete and linking the remaining classrooms would cost about $30 billion or more, [1] there is an underlying need for them and the knowledge of operating them at home and at work.
Distance learning is another way how technology empowers society and students and why technological literacy is important. “More than 1600 postsecondary schools offer some 54000 internet based courses to an estimated 1.6 million students enrolled in online courses and degree programs, not only at traditional colleges and universities but also at institutions that exist only in cyberspace” [4 ] making it a popular method of teaching. According to Hansen’s article, “Supporters say distance learning can make higher education available to “the other 99 percent- all the worlds people who don’t go to college” [4]. This is one way society can ensure equal access to education through technology.
Based on the information provided by the Department of Education, “The use of digital technologies for learning both supports local efforts to educate adult learners and their teachers and extends educational opportunities to reach new groups of students” [8]. Distance learning or taking online courses using the internet and email allows adult students an equal opportunity to study a course a student might be taking at a four year university but in this case from the comforts of his home which is a rare benefit. The benefits of distance learning include “increasing the learning possibilities for students of diverse backgrounds and competencies” [8]. For example, working students would be a target population for distance learning as distance learning would enable them accommodate their busy work schedule and to complete their higher education. Hansen continues to state “Distance learning can be a boom for rural students” [4] in India or Africa who have the aptitude for learning and education but are denied the internet technology because of financial reasons. Distance learning is a good example of why technological literacy is important as online students do their work completely online and have a basic understanding of computers and the internet.
As a global community, we as a global community are still working on getting access to internet connections in several parts of the world specifically the developing nations. Koch writes “The internet is revolutionizing the world economy, but some parts of the global village are being left behind” [5]. In fact, he adds, “Many children won’t be prepared for the work force, because they don’t use computers”[5]. To ensure equal access to internet and technology and to control or lessen the “growing gap between the information rich and the information poor” known as the “digital divide,”[5] in 2009, Hamilton County in Tennessee “received additional stimulus money”[3] to “fund classroom technology and progress for homeless students” [3]. Other counties and states can follow suit and award stimulus money to ensure the underprivileged students equal access to internet and computers. Similarly, the Clinton administration also proposed “the e-rate” program, a digital safety net which “provides up to $2.25 billion a year for schools and libraries to receive internet access at discounted, or “educational rates” [5] in a sincere attempt to bridge the digital gap and provide society with equal access to technology.
