Is the Evolution of Technology for Better or for Worse?

     In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman states, "We are now a culture whose information, ideas and epistemology are given form by television, not by the printed word." I realized that there has been a change of technology used in classrooms throughout my years of education. When I was in elementary school, the environment was utterly different from what I might see in a classroom today. My third grade class had a chalk board and we used very little technology. The only thing I remember is getting the chance to use a television on wheels in order to watch movies on a fun day. Other than that, paper was the only way we contributed to complete our tests and our writing assignments. Today, I would describe a classroom as technology-based as possible. Teachers are asking students to use their smartphones in order to browse the internet. Televisions are either located in every single classroom. The internet is providing most power points and educational videos to teach students instead of reading or using the actual textbook. Tests are also being completed and graded online which gives teachers less work to grade on paper. I agree that using a smartphone for educational purposes is no harm at all; however, taking tests online is not something I like to do because I genuinely do not do as well on test generated by technology. If students have the choice of using an original dictionary, students should also have a choice of wanting to take a test online or on paper.