Technology in Classes

What should be the role of technology in the classroom? How much should kids use technology?

A few decades ago, American educators were getting nervous about American students and their performance on the global scale, particularly as compared to Japanese students. So, funding was put into increasing the amount of technology in the classroom because many assumed Japanese students simply had a lot more technology at their disposal in the classroom. However, a few few years later, a study was done, and it turned out that Japanese students used technology much less than American students did. Therefore, it wasn't an increase of technology in the classroom that made Japanese students so advanced.

I agree that technology does not need to play a large role in the classroom. The lady I tutor for uses her smart board a lot to write things - like the agenda for the class or assignments - that I believe could just as easily be written on the board. True, typing is often easier than writing, but why spend so much money on something that could be accomplished with an extra dry-erase marker or two?

I do, however, think that teachers should have a fairly easy way to project their computer screens onto a bigger screen to show videos and websites. I think it is particularly good when this is done onto a white board (I'm not a fan of chalk boards...), especially for math and science teachers, because a powerpoint or problem can be projected onto an area where the teachers can write things and solve problems on top of the slides.

Computer labs are important in the school and sometimes laptops.