Technology is an unavoidable facet of learning in most modern classrooms. For many students, it can be frustrating and even hinder any willingness to learn. Mr. Young, a math teacher at McCaskey East, is trying to change that. 

In Mr. Young’s classroom, assignments are part of a game facilitated by tech. He creates a game board every week, and students are put into groups to collect coins, “[its] pretty much dungeons and dragons-like, and technology is used to organize it”.  For many teachers, tech oriented classrooms were largely an involuntary result of the pandemic, and for students, it was an abrupt change in learning style, “students were kind of thrown into using them.” For the most part, classroom tech was and is “just a quick way to have kids do stuff” and used as “filler”. However, it can be massively helpful for learning if used correctly. “It is a way to more easily cater to a student’s individual needs”, the teacher said. “You just have to be willing to frontload the work and then it basically runs itself.”

iPads are a major source of frustration for a lot of students. Young understands the frustration when it comes to classes that require mostly typing, but for math, he says, “they are very handy”. Oftentimes inefficiency when it comes to iPads is a skill issue, “students need to be properly trained on how to use them.” 

Even though his classroom revolves around technology today, Mr. Young was not always in favor of students using computers, “I was completely anti tech with math.” Now, he has not only accepted that education is evolving around technology, but embraced it. “I know it’s frustrating. Even the way I used to teach was not [using] technology, so it was frustrating for me, like ‘oh now I have to use these’, but it comes with practice and it comes with the idea of the future of jobs.” 

Whether we like it or not, the world is becoming more and more technologically oriented. This is part of why Young believes proper technological training is so important; every job requires computer skills of some nature. Though, Young makes it clear that technology cannot be used for everything: “Sometimes I lock the assignment so they can just see it, and all work must be done on paper, because for the Keystones and SATs, you have to physically be able to do it. The way the brain works, you have to understand, it’s not just seeing and hearing. If you physically do something you learn.” 

Balance must be established when using computers, Mr. Young argues. “You need the foundational skill to do things without tech.” Too much time on computers also has an effect on mental health, so it’s important to disconnect at times. “You can’t just do tech all the time, you really can’t. Students will burn out, teachers will burn out, anyone will burn out just staring at a screen all day.”

In the contemporary classroom, it is important to find a happy medium, “You can’t go archaic, because things are evolving.” Even though it can be tedious and frustrating to grasp, Mr. Young encourages other teachers and students to give technology a chance.  “You can’t be afraid of it, you have to take chances.”