Chapter 2 Digital Badge 2

             There seems to be two opposing sides in the debate over technology in the classroom and it’s quick increase over the years, those that believe that the technology will teach the youth and ultimately eliminate the need for teachers, where students are all “plugged in” to their schools. We’ll call this group Neo, as they are hoping to save us from the machine that holds us hostage. There’s, also, a different group of people who see technology as a tool to use harmoniously in unison with the teachers, much like a katana to a samurai, they intend to use the technology as an extension of their being to help them teach in ways that could never have existed in the past. That group will be called group Motoko, because they believe in a teaching environment that is a step down from the extremes of the Japanese Cyber Punk Thriller, “Ghost in the Shell” (in which mankind and machine draw a dangerously fine line between one another).

                A very group “Motoko” way of thinking revolves around the concept of balance in the classroom of every aspect of a student’s extracurricular life to implement aspects of said extracurricular life into a learning setting that is quick to response to the needs of the student in a way that ranges from instant gratification on a high test score to quick access to appropriate resources necessary for the classroom assignments. In the long run, the rate at which children and toddlers are learning how to utilize technology is alarmingly on an increase, so it would be of the best interest for humanity to teach these new generations that will pop up over the next few years how to use technology in a way that brings harmony and development, as opposed to what the “Neo” group fears; the machines using them.

                On the off hand, group Neo has very good reason to be scared, as we are in a key stage of development in human history of almost evolutionary proportions, and our youth are what will decide the road that humanity travels into the future. If they’re cut off from human connection even when within a few feet of one another, and are sat in front of a monitor for many hours of the day, they’re going to have a bad time. Seeing as to how that is more than likely not the issue, given the advancements of our technology that would make more sense to enforce otherwise, it goes to show that while group “Neo’s” fear still exists, it is a declining outcome due to the combined effort of teachers everywhere to strive to educate their students, not vegetize and zombify them. 

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