A Brief Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah White. Although I was born and raised in Southern California, I'm not it's biggest fan. I often get mistaken for being Hispanic or Latina, neither of which I am. I am a senior at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). I was suppose to graduate after this fall, but was misguided, and so, as of yesterday, I no longer have any idea whether I will be graduating this semester or the next.

For a long time, I believed that technology wasn't necessarily a good thing below a college classroom setting. My reasoning for this at the time was based off of how often I used to see students using their cellphones in class for a variety of reasons unrelated to their academic education; I felt technology was already a distraction and giving students some freedom to utilize computers in good faith was a poor decision. This is still a plausible downside to integrating technology into the fiber of education. However, being in college and seeing how technology, such as the Internet, laptops, and smart-phones, and be utilized helped me see the true benefit of technology in the classroom; cutting off such a wealth and variety of information would be impractical.

One of the primary reasons I believe technology, especially the Internet, should be utilized in the classroom is to promote inquisitive natures and individuality, teaching students to seek answers to some of their own questions (that is NOT to say they don't have to ask so many questions in class) allowing students to, for example, further investigate something on their own or if they are in doubt of the answer their instructor gives them to seek an alternative answer or check the validity of the given one. My other experience with college, whether directly or indirectly experienced, is often seeing students simply taking notes based off of the instructor's lectures and then regurgitating those notes back onto tests and/or into essays for the sake of getting a good grade. For some subjects, the critical thinking process that is hoped to take place doesn't. Basically, technology allows everyone convenient access to a vaster conglomeration of information, and therefore stimulating educational variety, for teachers and students alike.

There are other reasons for my change in perspective, but most I'm still evaluating. In the meantime, I look forward to being persuaded or dissuaded by the arguments my peers have to offer on the subject.