Evolving Classroom Education

Summary:
This article describes three examples of a shift of technology that is coming around in classrooms. The first being "BYOD" or "Bring your own device." The author describes that this provides a great benefit to students and schools alike because the students already have the technology, and the schools do not have to spend the money on it. A downfall to this being that some students cannot afford the technology. The second shift is to use "Natural user interfaces." Examples of this is the nintendo wii, and Xbox kinect. The potential of these devices is not described by the author, but the author describes enthusiasm that the ideas will four in throughout the next five years. The last shift is towards "Personal Learning Environments." This idea is centered in that students will essentially create their own future learning success. There are not a lot of details to this idea.

Opinion:
Call me old-school, but the shift to technology in Elementary Schools is happening way too fast, and is not the best of all ideas. It is overwhelming. The use of technology with ideas such as BYOD limits students who are not able to bring/afford devices, and sets them apart from other students. This is a greater limitation to their success in life over the "limitation" of just using a pen and paper. In addition to this, the use of technology may be fun, and it may provide many new resources for students, but this is leading students down a road to limiting physical social interaction. There are so many 4 and 5 year olds who cry at the idea of having to run around on a playground with other students, they would much rather sit inside and play on their iPad. I think using technology is a great idea, but we need to pull in the reigns, take a step back, take a breath, and evaluate the positives and negatives to throwing down so much technology at once.