Technology, Good or Bad?

Today it seems that technology is literally every where, it is hard to get away from. This means that the classrooms have also seem a fair share of technology being introduced to students. There are SmartBoards, IPads, laptops, and much much more. I know my generation is the start of all this technology but now that technology is so advanced is it smart to have students so engaged in technology?

For me, I answer that question with no I do not think it is safe to have students so engaged with technology. Don't get me wrong, I like technology, I just believe that there is a fine line when it comes to classrooms. I did observations and I noticed how technology was very where. One school had laptops for every student where they did all their assignments, there was very few assignment that they actually wrote out. What I noticed from that was these students had horrible hand writing. These kids that I was observing were in 5th grade and wrote like they were in 2nd grade. To top this off, most schools don't even teach cursive anymore. how will students know how to sign their names?

My Mom recently told me a story of how a women at her work noticed my Mom had nice penmanship and said her signature was beautiful. She then went on to ask my Mom if she could bring in her daughter who was in 4th grade, and have my Mom teach her how to sign her name. When she told me that I honestly could not believe this, I found this to be very sad. This world we live in thinks that technology is the best think since sliced bread. What it really is doing, is making students loose the little things in school, like writing with a pen and paper, and reading from an actual paper book.

I think that technology does have a place in the classroom but not for individual use that I have been seeing. I want for my classroom to have a balance, I want children to know what it feel like to get a hand cramp from writing with a pencil, not cramping due to typing. Balance is a perfect word for what technology in the classroom, I hope I can find my balance in my classroom.