Matthew Delanoy
Thomas Edison State College
Abstract
This paper explores the response that Information Technology ( IT ) has elicited from the small school that I volunteer at. It makes mention of the actual changes made in the school with supporting research as to why these changes were made. And it not only projects a possible IT addition in the next few years, but it also affirms the notion that at this specific school- IT is only going to increase its influence in the future.
Information technology ( IT ) has profoundly affected the small private school where I volunteer. Over the last two years the school has gone from having a relatively mild IT influence to integrating it into almost every facet of academic instruction. And it seems that this IT influence is only going to become greater in the near future. For the use of IT in school has been found to have a very profound impact on students. IT has positively affected areas such as reducing the amount of students that quit school, and it has even helped level out the success of students across the board ( Wolf, 2011). This particular school has responded to the expanding influence of IT by adding digital music players, and internet access to aid in the learning process at the institution.
Digital Music players
One of the IT additions that the school added was a digital music player for each high school student with pre-downloaded songs spanning the scope of the classical music genre. The school administrator realized the benefit of allowing the students the opportunity to tailor a playlist of songs that would best help them to zone out all distractions while completing assignments during the school day. He also wanted to tap into the intelligence spawning benefits that classical music can offer. For classical music is known for stimulating spacial intelligence and d creativity in its listeners ( Jaji, 2009 ). I witnessed firsthand that the addition of the digital music player greatly helped the productivity of the students at the school.
Internet
The addition of the Internet was a great feature the school added to its newly acquired IT arsenal . For some difficult subject matters the internet was a great way for students to research and find a plethora of information regarding the questions that they had. It never ceased to amaze me all the times I witnessed students listening to a professor from a prestigious university explaining an academic concept on a video sharing website right in our quaint classroom. Giving students access to the internet at school has definitely opened up doors for them to obtain knowledge in ways that supersede the abilities of the traditional classroom (Flemmer , n.d.)
I foresee the future of this school integrating even further into Information Technology. During my time at the school I heard rumors about the possibility of recording some of the daily lessons taught and posting them on a school sponsored website for student benefit. In fact, most of the ideas that I heard in staff meetings regarding school improvement all had an IT influence. So further IT integration and modification seems inevitable in the near future. Conclusion
It is rather obvious how Information Technology has dramatically affected not only the small school that I used to work at , but also many schools around the country. When considering the fact that IT has consistently proven to cause an increase in student’s academic success across the United States (Bialo , Sivin &Kachala ,1996 ), it is not suprising to me that Schools all over America are responding to this amazing innovation by embracing it with open arms.
References
Flemmer, C. ( n.d.). Technology’s Influence on Student-Centered Learning Environments. Retrieved March 9, 2013 from