Technological advancements seem to have come in spurts over the past several decades. When the latest and greatest thing comes along, many believe they are seeing the future only to find that when the future arrives, the supposed transforming technology has faded away or more likely replaced by another. Films gave way to radio and television, but they played their part for a time. Educationally speaking, television hasn’t played the major role in education as once believed or hoped it would. Computers, as they decrease in size and price and increase in speed, capacity, and capability have found their way into an increasing number of classrooms and training environments. The Internet, which was once only available to those in the military and higher education, is now available to the masses. It seems to be increasing in its scope and ability to reach into our daily lives every year. Bulletin boards and chat rooms have given way to blogs and sites like Face Book where so many share their lives with anyone they can befriend. Email is so common that it has had an impact on the US Postal Service. In my opinion, the Internet is here to stay and will continue to grow and permeate our various educational systems.
The K-12 setting may be the area of least impact for the Internet for the time being. I believe that there are still barriers that prevent the Internet’s influence in this educational venue. The digital divide still exists which inhibits teachers’ ability to assign work requiring use of the Internet. Teacher preparatory institutions may or may not be providing adequate training in the use of online educational resources and how to blend their instruction to take greater advantage of the Web. Older teachers who are not as computer literate struggle with the use of technology in general and therefore would not be motivated or willing to explore and incorporate Internet resources into their instruction. Districts who block various content on fears of exposing children to inappropriate material also impede the potential use of the Internet in the K-12 setting.
Colleges and Universities, as described in the text as, “…a recent study…revealed that during the 2004-2005 academic year, nearly two thirds of all colleges and universities in the United States offered online courses as well as accredited online degree programs.” indicate a strong impact of the Internet on this area of education. Online educational programs afford people the flexibility and convenience to study as their schedules allow and grant them more time with their families or to their jobs. Travel costs are eliminated as well as textbook costs in most cases. Enrollment in programs that ordinarily would be out of the question for many due to distance from the offering institution are now free to take advantage of a broader array of opportunities thanks the Internet.
I believe that business and industry will utilize the internet more and more. I cannot imagine, with the ever-increasing demands on businesses with regard to health care costs, taxes, and other regulations, that they wouldn’t want to take advantage of a cost effect way to train their workforce with the use of web-based instruction. Communication within the business world is greatly enhanced with the Internet as well. Why pay per diems and other travel expenses to gather together people for conferences, when tools such as Skype can still get the task done.
Every so often we hear hints of governmental regulation of the Internet and/or taxation on its use. If this were to take place, the impact the Internet can have on education would be greatly reduced. It is my hope that it has grown to a point of permanence and popularity that such control will never occur.
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Edith, a 14 year-old girl in England, explains why she thinks she is being 'under-taught' as far as ICT (educational technology) is concerned, and what she thinks teachers should do about it.
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