Technology In High School
A huge increase in the amount of information high school students are exposed to has occurred in the last few decades. It has been suggested the amount of information is doubling every two or three years. Students coming out of high school have already been exposed to more information than their grandparents faced in a lifetime. With this much information, it is difficult for educators to know exactly what students should learn. There is agreement on basic skills, such as reading and mathematics, or on the basic principles of physical and social sciences. However, finding common ground on what the bulk of student learning should be is proving difficult. For that reason, many educators are looking not only at what content students should be exposed to and taught, but also at giving them the tools they need to be self-motivated and lifelong learners. This constructivist approach to teaching allows students to have ownership of their own learning. High school students construct their own understanding and create mental models that help them understand content in their own way. Technology in general gives people many powerful ways to interact with information. Not only does technology give high school students visual representations, but the use of audio, simulations, multimedia, and hyperlinked information also facilitates critical thinking skills. Learners use complex thinking to interpret the information to be acquired and develop their own knowledge through the use of technology. This paper critically examines the use of technology in high schools, focusing on the costs and benefits of using technology for educating learners and depicting the most effective practical application of technology in the classroom.
Using handheld computers in high school settings
It has been observed that often schools employ technology inefficiently. In such cases, the use of IT is limited to drill and practice, word processing, or teaching computer literacy. Even though these practices definitely benefit students, they are restrained in the effect and scope, discarding the benefits of the modern technology. In the book Computers as Mind Tools for Schools, David Jonassen (2000) explains a better way to use technology. He defines mind tools as “computer applications that require students to think in meaningful ways in order to use the application to represent what they know” (Jonassen, 2000, p. 23). These mind tools engage learners and “scaffold meaningful thinking” (Jonassen, 2000, p. 23). Such characteristics are what set computer technology apart from other learning tools.
One of the great examples of technology application in the high school learning environment is handheld computers. These devices can be used as mind tools. With the right instructional framework, hardware, and software students can use the highly mobile devices for learning at the point of inquiry.
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