Teachers Find Technology Mostly 
		Helpful in Classroom 
		
		 
		New opinion studies have found a majority of teachers believe technology 
		is helping them do a better job in the classroom.  
		 
		But the research also shows that many educators are concerned digital 
		devices can cause physical and mental harm to students. 
		 
		One study asked higher education teachers to give their opinions on the 
		use of technology in the classroom. The study involved higher education 
		teachers at public and private colleges and universities across the 
		United States. 
		 
		The 2018 Teaching with Technology Survey was published by the website 
		Campus Technology. Of those questioned, 44 percent said technology made 
		their job easier, while 29 percent said it made their job much easier. 
		 
		While overall feelings about technology were good among college 
		educators, an increasing number said technology could also be harmful. A 
		total of 19 percent of those questioned said they felt technology had 
		made their job harder or much harder. 
		 
		The study also looked at how technology helped teaching effectiveness. A 
		large majority of educators, 87 percent, said technology had positively 
		affected their ability to teach. 
		 
		Eleven percent said they felt technology had no effect on the quality of 
		their teaching. Just two percent said technology had a negative effect 
		on teaching. 
		 
		Results of the survey also found teachers had good feelings about 
		technology’s effects on learning. Eighty-three percent said they felt 
		technology had positively affected their students’ learning. Just nine 
		percent said technology did not affect student learning, while eight 
		percent said they believed it had a negative effect. 
		 
		In releasing the study results, Campus Technology reported that some 
		teachers had expressed mixed feelings about the use of technology. These 
		opinions came in the form of open-ended questions answered directly by 
		educators. 
		 
		The educators were not identified. One noted that the learning process 
		can suffer if students depend too much on their devices. “People can 
		easily get addicted to their devices, and using technology can change 
		the way the brain develops - not always in a good way,” the teacher 
		wrote. 
		 
		Another educator wrote: “Technology is accidentally increasing students' 
		weakness in reading and figuring things out (or critical thinking). They 
		confuse clicking with learning.”  
		 
		Another expressed that while technology had improved learning in some 
		areas, it had also created “a false sense of security” in others. The 
		teacher said more research should be done on how the use of technology 
		compares to traditional teaching methods. 
		 
		“For example, several recent studies have shown that taking notes with 
		pen and paper improves student learning over taking notes on a laptop,” 
		the educator wrote. “For some students, the laptop is necessary. For the 
		majority, it's a detriment to their learning.” 
		 
		Research organization Gallup published a study earlier this year on the 
		use of digital devices by students in grades K-12. 
		 
		In that study, 42 percent of teachers said the effects of devices on 
		students’ education was mostly helpful. About 30 percent of educators 
		said they were neither helpful nor harmful to students. However, 28 
		percent said they thought the use of such devices was mostly harmful. 
		 
		Earlier research has shown that a large majority of students at all age 
		levels own a smartphone. An estimated 53 percent of elementary school 
		students have their own digital devices. About 65 percent of middle 
		school students are thought to own them, along with at least 82 percent 
		of high school students.  
		 
		The Gallup study also asked teachers to give their opinions on the 
		possible harmful effects of digital device usage. 
		 
		About 55 percent of K-12 teachers said the effects of digital devices on 
		students’ physical health are mostly harmful. Forty-two percent said 
		they felt the devices are neither helpful nor harmful. 
		 
		And about 69 percent of teachers said they feel digital devices are 
		mostly harmful to students’ mental health. 
		 
		Parents were mostly more supportive than teachers of digital devices and 
		their effects on school-age children. The Gallup study found that 87 
		percent of parents believe such devices are mostly helpful, while 13 
		percent said they are mostly hurtful. |