Good and Bad Sides of Using Modern technology

Hello!

We, Jakob and Joep, have been assigned on a project work about modern technology. The first thing we  had to do was thinking about of  a main question. Our  main question is: What are the positive and the  negative spects of  modern technology in both Slovenia and the Netherlands?

Our sub questions are:

• How technology is used in schools?
• Which country  is more thechnologically advanced?
• What will the future of  technology be like?

Positive and negative Sides of Using Modern Tech

The rapid revolution in technology affect our lifes  drastically and leaves us to believe that our lives have changed for the better. Today communication with our distant friends or relatives, buying branded products or goods on-the-go and conducting business meeting is possible with just a single click. We believe that all these changes have made our lives more comfortable than before. However, there is a critical concern that is for most parents, whether technology is affecting their children for the good or worse? What are some of the side effects of technology? What are we to do about the tech overload happening right now to students and everyone else? The minds of children are like blank pages. We know that the generation of this era has a high level of dexterity. Their elevated cleverness allows them to fill those pages very fast with the provided information. Such information can be extracted not only from books and other educational materials but also from games, TV shows and texting. A limited use of gadgets can be quite useful for children as allows them to be up to date with the current technology. However, the overuse of these advancements can really hamper or even damage their development in the personal growth, communication and learning. Though we are aweare of that the current era of advancement has provides us with, but like any other thing, we cannot deny the fact that there is always two sides to everything: Good and Bad. Let’s take a look at the that overuse of technology has influenced our children in an adverse manner:

Nowdays, children indulge themselves in internet, games or texting. These activities have affected their psyche negatively, consequently leading to increased frustration. Now they get frustrated whenever they are asked to do anything while playing games or using internet. For instance, when their parents ask them to take the trash out, they get furious instantly. This behaviour has shattered many parent-children relationships.

Deteriorated Patience

Patience is a very precious virtue and its scarcity could deteriorate a person’s will. Determination is a necessity that comes with patience and without it no individual can survive the hardships of life. According to studies, tolerance in children is vanishing quite increasingly due to the improper use of technology. For example, children get frustrated quickly when they surf internet and the page they want to view takes time to load.

Declining Writing Skills

Due to the excessive usage of online chatting and shortcuts, the writing skills of today’s young generation have declined quite tremendously. These days, children are relying more and more on digital communication that they have totally forgot about improving their writing skills.

Modern Technology – Good or Bad, is  this really what we need?

As I scroll through the daily Facebook status updates of all my friends, I noticed yet another friend of mine declared her yearning for an IPhone, promoting and ranting the many uses of it and how will the gadget improve her life meanwhile notifications and ringtones indicate the overflowing of messages and emails into my inbox. One particular email catches my attention. Rather than the usual advertisements and spam mails, this one is special, bearing the title: “Modern Technology – Good or Bad. I strongly believe that modern technology is undeniably good because it makes our lives easier.  But the way, what exactly is technology? Modern technology is machinery that makes life easier, ranging from powerful automobiles to high definition televisions to super computers and tiny microchips. For example, the recently introduced high-speed fibre-optic communication quickening and enhancing the internet speed by folds, microwave ovens cook food easily without using stoves and making a big mess. In short, modern technology plays a vital and important role in improving the quality of our lives.  The never-ending evolving of technologies is the core of our society, making contributions to various fields in the world. It has been a key component for humans from the beginning of time and will continue well into the future. I believe everyone agrees with that. In the field of medicine, technology advances in medical care creates modern treatment methods and highly developed technological procedures. Other than that, rather than just using kinky shovels to dig holes during the olden days, construction technology now already are making breakthroughs by building man-made islands and complex architectural structures. Even in the education field, modern technology works its part by revolutionizing classroom teaching simply by putting computers and gadgets into the classroom.  No one could ever imagine one single day without modern technology.

Why Technology in Schools?

In states, school districts and schools across the country(Netherland and Slovenia), technology has become a vital component for the success of the entire educational enterprise by:

• Improving learning and achievement among urban, suburban and rural students of all ages and abilities and aids all students to meet high standards
• Helping new and aspiring teachers to become “highly qualified” and experts in their subject area
• Providing administrators with better data that can improve decision-making and policy implementation

A review of research, data and case studies published within the past five years conducted by the International Society for Technology in Education and the Consortium for School Networking, confirms that technology use in education yields a broad array of meaningful results:

Technology improves student achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics. Technology makes a difference in improving test scores and helping students reach performance goals. Technology also engages students in learning; improves attendance, decreases dropout rates, increases graduation     rates and facilitates parent involvement.

Technology improves school efficiency, productivity, and decision-making.  School administrators increasingly rely on technology to accomplish their work, capture and make sense of data and focus their efforts on measurable results in student achievement. Technology helps teachers meet professional requirements.  E-learning opportunities make it possible for teachers to upgrade their knowledge, skills, and credentials in core academic subjects. Technology also helps teachers improve their classroom practices. Technology improves learning skills.  Today’s students must learn more than the basics to be prepared for life. Using technology, students develop learning skills, such as thinking and problem-solving skills, information and communication skills, and interpersonal and self-directional skills. Technology can help schools meet the needs of all students. NCLB requires schools to help all students learn and achieve. Technology helps schools create effective, individualized learning environments for all students, making education more inclusive in reaching students with special needs. Technology promotes equity and access in education. E-learning opportunities give economically underrepresented and geographically isolated students access to core academic content, digital information and specialized, advanced classes, a development that brings learning to students wherever they are. Technology improves workforce skills. Students who use technology develop the technical and learning skills, academic knowledge and work habits that are necessary for success in higher education and the workplace.

Which country is more technologically advanced?

Our first opinion was that both Slovenia and the Netherlands were technologically well advanced. In both Slovenia and the Netherlands, most people have a computer and internet connection. Some people and some institutions have more technology than others, but on average the countries are both very well advanced.
Slovenia and the Netherlands use technology in both equal and different ways. The way in which we use technology in similar, is mostly the internet. Both the countries have very advanced technology in for example health care. The hospitals use extremely advanced technology.
A difference between the Netherlands and Slovenia is the pricing of everyday technology products, such as phones, TV's, and computers. Averagely, the prices in Slovenia are lower than the prices in Holland (exception for Apple products). We haven't been able to find a cause for this, but a possible cause is the difference in distance between the country in which the products are produced and the country it is shipped to.
Both Slovenia and Holland are very technologically advanced countries.



What will the future of computer technology be like?

The future is unpredictable. People have speculated about the future, but nothing of this is fully accurate. In movies you often see things such as flying cars, unrealistically strong guns, and things as body modification to enstrengthen a human's body. Which things of these are actually realistic, and which ones are just nonsense?
An upcoming revolution in technology is nanotechnology for sure. Our brains will be connected directly to computer technology to be made more powerful. Sounds like sience fiction, doesn't it?
People who have lost an arm for example, can get a robotic replacement arm and they can move it by just thinking. Those robotic arms can be made stronger than the strongest natural human arm. This might become a reason for healthy people to get their limbs replaced and become stronger than any natural human could become.
Technology will not only be used to enhance human performance. Technology will also be used to make life easier on a daily basis. For example, the Urbana cards in Slovenia, they make daily life in the city easier aswell. You don't have to pay for a bus ticket every time you get in the bus, which speeds up your average traveling speed. That's technology aswell.
The future of for exemple this Urbana will be an implant in your hand which the bus will scan. You won't even need a card anymore. Further in the future the bus will probably be able to scan your eyes (as you could see in the science-fiction movie Minority Report).

The iPad (research in Ljubljana done  by us)

Today, we went around Ljubljana and starting gathering info in tech-stores such as Apple store, BigBang, Compshop and Techno Market. We were looking around what technologic devices you can find in different price ranges and how they compare. On the market there is a lot of technology that you can buy, some good and quite cheap and some bad and expensive.

We have stopped by in the Apple Store and made a comparison of the latests iPad models.

It is quite obvious that the iPad has progressed and changet a lot since the first generation, which was really heavy, thick and quite slow compared to the newest model, which is light, thin and fast. There are even some differences inside the iPads, like the motion sensors and the Retina Display. Apple designers have also replaced the charging cable and the microchip, while the size and shape stayed different in a few generations.

This year the iPad Air has been released, which has buttons and the back fully in alyminium, while the older versions had plastic buttons. The biggest change is that it is lighter and shaped a bit differently and the most important is the internet LTE 4G.

As you can see, visually, there are no bigger differences. If you have a lot of money and you travel a lot, I would recomend the iPad Air 64GB but for gameing or ither work you can buy  iPad whit Retina display becouse is as powerful as iPad air only  the shape has changed, since I think that it’s the best buy out there. I did not want to compare it to other tech companies like Samsung, I wanted to focus on Apple products.

iPad Air, iPad with Retina Display, iPad Mini with Retina Display and the iPad miny comparison. You can see that there are no bigger differences among the models.