The Role Technology Plays In Education

There was an era when the advent of technology was considered as the greatest curse to the files of education. Yes, that was around the 1980s and 90s when the growth of the television industry left an in-erasable impact on the youth. Is it hard to hear cases of college going guys sticking back home for watching Tendulkar scoring his century or Pete Sampras winning a straight set? This created a negative impact in the minds of the then elder generation who had it imprinted into them that modern technology would never be a use to the upcoming generation.

Stephen Hawking described this century, the 21st century as the Quantum age. This is true because many fields of science are being suffixed with this magical word quantum and given an entirely new meaning – Quantum Optics, Quantum Computing and what not. Does this say anything about the impact of such in-depth areas of science and technology over the 21st century education? Of- course not. The present educational scenario relies over technology only in an optimistic manner. The role of technology can be visualized in many sub-areas of the modern educational system, which sometimes seems to be even more complex than the administration hassles of the White House, a few decades ago.

One such area is the mode of reach of the teacher to his student. This has been highly facilitated and enhanced now with the help of technology, thanks to the inevitable resource of the era, the Internet. In the early 1960s, Stanford University psychology professors experimented with using computers to teach math and reading to young children in elementary schools. This was the first ever global step taken by mankind to implement of the now, very popular E-Learning. Now, it is hard to find universities not equipped with their localized web servers and e-portals where students get access to the different facets of education apart from bookish knowledge. This also publicized the use of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle) which has been a widely struck phenomenal open sourced educational environment.

The introduction of tablet computing has changed the way man uses technology for his benefits. “The introduction to iPad based education to the first grade students has improved their success rate by 70%”, says John Connolly, Technology Director, and Chicago Elementary School. The advent of the iPad has widely affected the perspective of the modern day education. Students find it easier to carry eBooks on their tablets rather than carrying a whole pile of books over their backs. Off course study has been greatly enhanced by the use of tablet PCs. They can better view the live lectures being delivered by the professors somewhere far-off to reach.

Hence, summarizing, the modern day technology has, by now doubt taken education to a whole new level. But looking at the loopholes and the predictable hazards to switching entirely too electronic education, makes us to careful plan the trade-offs between the two, very intricately.

Data on Hard Drives - How is it stored

Find out how is data stored and organized on a drive:

If you’ve ever assembled a computer, you must have probably seen a hard disk. For those of you who haven’t, hard disk comes in a rectangular shaped case with a magnetic tape. All the data which is modified or written gets stored on that magnetic tape. The magnetic coating on the platter contains the data that you store, and in case on man handling the hard disk, there might be a loss of data. In case the magnetic coating is damaged in a small proportion, you might have a good chance of recovering lost data. In case the magnetic coating is lost to a large extent, data recovery becomes really difficult. One needs to know that information bits are magnetically stored on a hard drive.

When your hard disk is formatted, you will notice concentric boundaries of circles, each defining their space. It is much like your dart board, in case you need a visual example. There are millions of small sectors which divide the hard disk, and each sector has a capacity of storing 512 bytes of information, or 256 characters for that matter. The drive is fragmented into really small clusters, and each cluster has the ability to contain 64 such sectors. Thus, every single time you want to write a piece of data and store it on your PC, your OS allocates one cluster for storing that amount of data. Even if your information is worth two bytes, your operating system allocates about thirty two thousand bytes of space for it. This cluster will remain until you delete your file completely from your computer, and that includes deleting it out of recycle bin as well.

At certain times, you might have what is known in layman’s terms as ‘hard disk crash’. It basically happens due to a lot of factors, out of which some of the most common ones are:

1. Platters: Hard drive platter is rotated with the aid of an electric motor. The velocity is mentioned in RPM (rotations/minute) and higher the RPM, higher the capacity of the hard drive to write the data faster. Direct contact with the platter causes damage, since it contains a magnetic film which can get damaged.

2. Heads: At times when there are no changes being made, i.e. no data is being added, modified or deleted, the head is at a rest position. This head is similar to your audio and video cassette head. If it loses contact, data writing becomes difficult.

3. PCB: This refers to the printed circuit board. These are the parts that control and run your hard disk. Fluids and fire when in contact with the PCB, damage it.

Are Teens Too Dependent on Technology?

It is well known that technology serves a vital purpose in our everyday lives.  But what happens when we become too dependent on technology?  Dependence on technology leads to isolation, obesity, laziness and ignorance.  The point is not to say that technology is ruining prospects of the teens, but rather that nations across the country are losing touch of reality because of their need for a simpler faster way of life.  When we look at all the luxuries that have arose in the last fifty years we can’t help but be proud that we are able to do such great things.  But we rarely look at how this rapid technological revolution has affected us and mostly on teenagers’ social and future prospects.  The obesity rate in children has sky-rocketed, the suicide rate has gone up, and personal time with our families is being replaced with things like the internet and video systems.

Many families in America have decided that it would be cheaper to rid their homes of land lines and adopted cell phones as their family phone line.  This is an example of a positive effect of cell phone use.  There are a number of downsides to cell phones use.  In some cities and states cell phone use while driving has been outlawed.  There have been a number of fatal car accidents due to the use of cell phones by drivers.  Motorists have a tendency to become distracted when talking on a cell phone while driving.  Cell phones distract from families interacting with one another.  The cell phone allows for mothers and fathers to conduct business twenty four hours a day.  Sometimes this cuts into family vacations, dinners, and general nights out.  This type of technology can take parenting time away from the children who need it.  Medically, cell phones are rumored to cause tumors or cancers.  This is not yet proven however the long term effects on the human body are yet to be tested.  This is directly related to the amount of time cell phones have been on the market. 

Cell phones can cause problems in the schools as well.  Some families give their children cell phones at young ages.  This can cause jealousy among preteens and teenagers.  The need for the latest and greatest cell phone model can cause tension and unneeded stress on a parent child relationship.  Stress can also develop in the school and cause children to lose focus of what their job as children and students is. 

So, I conclude to say that it is a two sided coin to be dependent more on the today’s technology. It leads to get benefits and adverse results as well.