Take a moment and think about the cellular phone in your hand or pocket. What can it do? Just about anything right? Now, think about laptop in your book bag or on your desk. What can it do? Literally anything and everything.

What is technology?

Technology has changed immensely over the centuries, and even the last couple of years. Our phones can achieve the same basic functions of a home computer and even more. But what does this mean for new educators and the old ones who have been teaching for years?

Technology has evolved all over the world. In Turkey, Fethi Kayalar of Erzincan University did research to examine and compare teachers’ views upon integration and use of technology in classroom. In his research, he found that the BYOB (Bring Your Own Device) strategy was something that was implemented in countries and classrooms around him, but actually helped. This allowed students to bring materials that they were familiar with from home. Why use a school devise that you're not familiar with, when you can use the laptop you use at home to do homework on.

In New York, 1992, Neil Postman wrote a novel, Technopoly. Postman wrote his novel structured around the idea that technology and the rest of the universe are separate but friendly to one another. Technology is both a friend and an enemy. Postman’s novel draws the line where technology becomes a dangerous enemy. Technology for the youth is an adventurous thing. There's so much you can do with it, but be careful, it can become an evil.

When you look around nowadays, all you see is people so engaged in their cell phones, tablets and laptops. Do we want our youth to be so obsessed with technology that when they apply to their first jobs, they cant even look their interviewer in the eyes? No. Technology is needed in many aspects of our lives, but in others, not so much.

I went to a very small high school and my junior year, we got a grant from the state of Georgia to do a trial run on how iPad’s work in the classroom. The whole school was issued a brand-new iPad with a case and a charger and it was personally issued to us with our student id’s. It was an interesting trial and error. When we first got them, they came with applications that the school district wanted us to have like Word, Prezi, and Evernote. They also came with very little restrictions on websites and application you could visit and download. It provided students an easier way to take notes, view grades inline, use Dropbox to submit papers and upload projects, and PowerPoint to do quick group activities and display them on the projector.

For teachers, it meant, no more making printouts or wasting tons of paper that they knew were just going to be thrown out at the end of the class or figuring out how to grade eighty, five page physical paper reports on the Odyssey. It made life easier for both students and teachers. It was a fantastic idea, but like everything in life, it had some bugs in the idea. Some of the older teachers had no earthly idea how to operate an iPad, let alone how to turn on the projector. They hated the idea of iPads and these were the classes that they saw your iPad out during their class, you would find yourself a spot in detention that afternoon. Another issue was without the super controlled restrictions, students were on Facebook, or on YouTube during class and teachers were getting very aggravated.

After the initial year was over and after the last couple days of school, you had to return your iPad and they would be wiped clean an updated and fixed for the next year. My senior year came around and we were issued an iPad, only this time around the restrictions were extreme. On the school’s Wi-Fi, you couldn’t access anything that wasn’t already on your iPad.

Technology gives students a new way to learn. Students of different learning types can all benefit from technology in their classrooms whether it’s in middle school or college level, right here in Georgia, to even around the world. It gives students a new way to understand difficult material and use different types of programs for when they reach college or career level. In the end, technology will continue to grow and advance. It’s going to take students learning how to use it now so when it does advance beyond, they will know how to operate it. Technology is a great tool to have in your tool box.

But, never underestimate the power that technology holds in its motherboards.