I wholeheartedly prefer reading physical books to e-books. Don’t get me wrong, as a DTC major, I love working with and using computers and technology. However, I think there’s a certain romance, if you will, about holding a book, feeling the ink on the page, and being able to smell the paper. While there are obvious shortcomings for books, such as not being able to jump immediately to a page or instantly find what you’re looking for, I think that books give you something physical to hold, which to me, makes them seem much more user friendly.
While I love books, I think that technology in the classroom has made lessons and learning much more interesting. In my high school, we had “Smartboards”, which served the same purpose as a traditional whiteboard or chalkboard, but was completely electronic. Using these smartboards, our teachers could save all the notes from the day’s lesson and send them out so that in case we missed something in our notes, we could reference what we learned in class. In addition, since the smartboards were essentially giant touchscreens running Windows XP, we could use them to watch videos, or have a calculator displayed for the entire class to see.
However, technology hasn’t always made learning easier or more entertaining. I think that websites such as Zzusis or Angel make learning more difficult since they’re often poorly made, and are lacking in usability. Beyond course websites, technology has the tendency to fail. Whether it’s a Youtube Video not loading, or a DVD that has a scratch, technology can let the users down, which in my opinion, severely impacts the quality of education. I think it was you, Dr. Edwards, who said that one day’s lesson was “a wash”, after Angel wouldn’t let you access the lesson you had planned.
While I think that technology has profoundly impacted the modern education system, I think that there’s a long way to go before it can truly take over traditional methods of education such as books, paper, and pencils. I do, however, think that we are heading that direction. If you had told me four years ago that I would be taking classes that actively encourage me to use my phone or tweet about what is happening in the lesson, I don’t think I would have believed you. In my opinion, that is where the future of education is going.
DTC 375: Jesse Pearson 
I also had smart boards in some of my classes in middle school and high school. When my teachers used these effectively, it really made the class interesting and the information was easier to understand. However, like you were saying, it can be very hard to learn when these technologies fail. Several times her at WSU, my professors have tried showing a video or some type of media and it completely fails. Whether it be the projector not turning on or the computer not cooperating, it makes learning hard. The teacher will have to cancel class or simply just explain the video they were going to show which becomes ineffective. I love when technology is incorporated into classes, but professors should have to really know the technology they are using before they use it.
I remember using Smartboards in my middle school and high school for a time, but they quickly became extinct. While they were an interesting new interpretation of the whiteboard they were often times too complicated for the teacher to use when they only wanted to write a couple sentences on the board. It also became more difficult when students came up to write something and accidentally pressed something wrong and caused some sort of problem. Because of this I completely agree that technology can sometimes hinder the learning process when it does unexpectedly fail. However the document cameras the schools started using were more successful because they combined old technologies with new ones. While technology was used to project an image up on the board, paper and pen/pencil were still used to write with to create the image that was projected. While I prefer to take notes on my laptop I still believe that writing with a pencil and paper is still a valuable tool that I don’t want to see completely disappear from the education system anytime soon.
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