Pros and Cons of Technology

In today's changing times, it's often required that technology be incorporated into much of the school day. While this seems to have some benefits, there are often cases in which using such means of enhancement can be a problem. For example, a lesson having students work on computers to interact with a math program may be a fantastic learning tool, until you get them to the computer lab and six of the computers aren't working.

As teacher candidates, we encounter a lot of these problems in our PDS experiences. With different schools having different levels of technology and knowledge of using it, some of our lessons are nearly impossible. However, I can't help but feel we aren't alone; with the 21st Century CSOs in place, current teachers often experience the same problems. Not only can this be frustrating for the educator (teacher or tutor), but the students also can achieve a level of frustration from the problems with executing the lesson's instructions.

My question is this-is technology really always the best way to get our point across to students, professors, or other facilitators? After weighing the pros and cons of using technology as well as the equipment itself, I'm curious to know if others feel the same way I do. Do other students experience the same problems I do when it comes to using the equipment at a school we only attend part-time? Do other teachers or those who have taught in public school before teaching at WVU feel the same anxiety about technology-based learning?