Technology in Colleges

If we look at the impact of technology in today's time, I wonder how our fathers and forefathers could live without it. The younger generation just cannot think of a single day without the word 'technology'.

Consider the area of education; technology has become very essential in the lives and educational skills of college students.

Within few years may be 10 or so, technology has caused a complete transformation in college campus life and college experience. Since its usage is extremely comfortable with the thought of technology and are tech savvy, college students form Generation Y.

Daily the technology changes and this causes a change in lives of students as well. Gone are the days of walkie-talkies and cassette walkmans. This is the age of apple phones and iPods. Forget about blackboard teaching, as this has been completely replaced by PowerPoint and webCT, such is the aura of digital technology.

A college student's life in the class is primarily spent on computers and other digital programs while time in between classes is either on cell phones or their iPods. Due to this large impact of technology, this Gen Y group cannot think of their lives without technology. Blackboard teaching is now the thing of past and now classroom teaching is majorly done on either PowerPoint or OHP presentation.

Technology plays a pivotal role in giving new definitions to what and how a student learns. It would not be wrong to say that it can be implicated in almost every dimension of a college education. Below are enumerated few ways by which technology has changed the meaning of education in a positive fashion:

1. Because of usage of extensive resources and media, students are equipped with strong skills in information, communication and analysis.
2. Because of the introduction of technology in college studies new, creative and research projects come into picture which helps the students with the ability to transfer knowledge from one setting to another and thus better integrative thinking.
3. Students undergo a better preparation for their work as they build collaborative problem solving skills.
4. They learn conceptual knowledge due to the hands-on experience.

Whatever the technology may be, college students are obsessed with it. More than half of college student population have laptops where they spend their maximum time on; be it thesis paper writing or checking of email or some leisure activity. Thus technology has become a part and parcel of daily life of college students. The most common technologies used by students are e mail, presentation software and spread sheets and these Gen Y students are definitely able to adapt better in their classrooms.

Students that are better learners of technology have an upper hand in post college life as even business empires are looking for computer savvy and proficient employees. Because of the wide variations available, student's attention is captured in a better way and they seem to enjoy the classroom teaching. To summarize, a college student's life and technology goes hand in hand and seems like it will go on.