Is technology in and out of the classroom cheating our students out of an education?

An issue that has been attracting increasing attention every day is the mixing of technology and education.

Many textbooks now come with CDs and websites for interactive courses. Technology is being used to deliver instruction to multiple classrooms in various locations at the same time. Universities are able to enlarge their classes, creating "megaclasses" . . . and instructors are no longer capable of getting to know each student individually.

According to a writer for the Minnesota Daily paper, technology can be a great benefit in education if used correctly, but inundating our classrooms with technology just for the sake of being "modern" is causing our students' education to suffer. ( http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2008/04/30/72166976 ) According to Quynh Nuguyen, the overuse of technology is frustrating to the instructors because of the technological glitches, and harms the students' education because it takes away the need to "dig" for knowledge. Students no longer have to work to gain their knowledge -- they expect technology to hand it to them without much effort on their part.

Are we doing an injustice to our students? Are we creating a "lazy" generation by handing everything so readily to them via technology? Have we lost the art of "digging for" and "working for" our knowledge? These are questions we must ask ourselves.

Technology is a wonderful thing, but is it always what is best for our educational system?