Technology in Education

            There's no arguing that as technology evolves, schools must also evolve. However, I do question to what extent education should follow contemporary forms of communication. Personally, I remain skeptical as to whether social networking sites belong in education. It blurs a line between personal lives and the classroom is in a way I am necessarily comfortable with.  Yes, yes, I realize that most of these web sites are available to the public. I’ve heard the horror stories of people losing a job over Myspace profiles. I don’t post personal or compromising information about myself online – but there’s still a layer of privacy surrounding my Facebook account. What I did over the weekend, pictures of my high school graduation, inside jokes between my friend and I – these are things that teachers don’t really need to know. My life and my education are in many ways separate worlds. I’m fine with keeping it that way.

            On the other hand, I can’t deny the usefulness of checking assignments whenever I sign on to Twitter, and the more channels of communication, the easier it is to receive help and clarification, and to discuss ideas with the teacher and with other students. I wouldn’t want to deprive other students of these admittedly useful resources. In that sense, I do think social networking can be a good thing. I think the way our Materialism and Idealism class uses social networking sites is an effective method – joining using your personal account is completely optional, and if you’re comfortable with that, you get easier access to information. But when the compulsory friend adds start, I’ll be unhappy.