Whether someone is at home researching a topic or submitting questions via the internet in a college lecture, technology is everywhere. Technology plays a major role in students lives. Teachers and faculty are now learning how to help bring technology into the classroom.The use of technology is helping teachers keep their students engaged and focused in the classroom. Different technology programs are being used and designed to help the learning process. A lot of professors have come to realize that students need to be involved technically. Technology is a part of students everyday lives. All teachers should be introduced to this topic because it is needed for students to stay engaged in today’s time. The technology is getting easier and easier to use. Technology in the classroom is beneficial for both students and teachers because of the aid of technology, people are more efficient, students are more attentive and students can access broader information.  

Technology in the classroom is a new idea. Mobile phones have become the one of the most popular communication resources. Just in 2005 there were over 2 billion phone subscriptions (Campbell 280). The classroom is not usually considered an acceptable setting for mobile phone use, but people still use them. “Despite sentiments against mobile phone use in the classroom, research shows that it is not an uncommon occurrence. For example, one study found that a third of university students in the U.S. play video games on their mobile phones and laptops during class (Gilroy, 2004)” (Campbell 281). If students want to use their phones or technology so much, then why not incorporate it into the learning setting?

Students in today’s world find it hard to not use technology. “According to an Educause report, “students have never known a world without personal access to information technologies, often take them for granted, and integrate them seamlessly into their daily lives” (Caruso, & Salaway, 2007, p. 1)” (Jackson 129). Distractions are prevalent in lectures because students do not know how to turn off their electronics and pay attention. “Mobile devices capable of accessing the Internet have become ubiquitous, creating both challenges to education, as well as opportunities for learners” (Jackson 130). Students feel as if they put down their phone for a hour, they will miss out on everything their friends are doing. 

Teachers are now finding a way to incorporate students interest in technology with learning. “Technology occupies an important place within students’ lives. When they are not in school, just about everything that they do is connected in some way to technology. By integrating technology into the classroom, teachers are changing the way they used to teach (lectures six hours a day) and providing students with the tools that will take them into the 21st century” (Cox). Without this use of technology, students often become bored and distracted in class. Students are not active learners when they are distracted.

Not being actively involved with a class can lead to students being distracted. For students in a class of over 100 other students, it feels like there is no way to interact with everyone. Because of a lack of attention,  students often feel lost. “Students attend lectures, take notes, and generate responses on quizzes, but because of the absence of active learning, they do not gain a deep understanding of the material or the ability to apply their knowledge to analyze and interpret complex economic events” (Ball 469).

Teachers can also feel lost teaching a class of 100-500 students. Because of the larger class sizes, teachers feel as if they can not collect information from each student everyday. “It is nearly impossible to effectively run an experiment in a class of more than 50 students, yet our class sizes range from 100 to 500” (Ball 473). Teachers can not give out work or quizes the way they want because of the lack of time to grade. “Even in the simplest classroom experiments, demands on the instructor for collecting student decisions, translating them into outcomes, and keeping records can be significant” (Ball 470). Even conducting a homework quiz in class can make a teacher get behind on grading. Sheryl B.  Ball says that the instructor ends up getting a real workout even in this simple-to-administer exercise ( 470). With the help of active learning and technology in the classroom, teachers can cut down on grading by hand. 

New programs being used in schools to incorporate technology include STEM. STEM learning combines learning with technology. STEM is an acronym for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. STEM learning is a new idea in middle and high schools. It was created to help students get ready to work in the real world once they graduate. “Technology is an indispensable component of any science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or project-based learning (PBL) activity” (Sahin 77.) This form of learning ties in modern technology to the classroom. Technology is needed to help students research their topics. It is also said to help them learn better. “Project-based Learning has been reported to greatly benefit students. For instance, students learning through PBL retain content longer and have a deeper understanding of what they are learning (Penuel & Means, 2000; Stepien, Gallagher, & Workman, 1993)” (Sahin 78). Students in today’s time are interested in technology. Everything they do inside and outside the classroom evolves around it. Using technology keeps the student engaged and happy while learning. The skills they learn can also help them when they get into the real world of being an adult. “Technology-rich PBL projects help students develop certain forms of literacy and skills such as technological literacy, critical thinking, problem-solving and social skills (Mioduser & Betzer, 2008; Tlhapane & Simelane, 2010)” (Sahin 78). Technology is everywhere. Technology is needed to keep us current in the world we live in today. Teaching students how to use technology is crucial for them being successful in the workplace. 

There are 100s of forms of learning technology out there. But, two of the main ones used in college campuses are Aplia and Veconlab. Both of these technologies can help both students and teacher learn. They are similar but different in many ways. “Aplia lowers the time-and-effort cost to instructors” and “Veconlab is very flexible and offers more choices of experimental software” (Ball 472). 

Aplia uses computer based programs to help students studying economics. It gives access additional learning resources.  “They offer a number of different products such as online homework, computer-aided tutorials, and supplemental readings in addition to active-learning experiments” (Ball 470). These programs help keep students involved in the learning process. They also let students work on homework and projects in an interactive learning setting from home.

This program runs off of the internet on a regular laptop. “Aplia experiments are designed for student participation outside the classroom and do not require computer-equipped classrooms” (Bell 471). One of the main problems with technology in the classroom is the expense. Using this program does not just help the student and teacher be more efficient, but also makes it affordable to use technology. The accessibility is the best part. Students can work on projects from any place and time. “To participate, students sign on from a computer at any location—a public computer lab, their dorm room, and so forth—at a prespecified time.” (Ball 471). Even if a teacher is out of town or sick, students can learn on their own.

“...an instructor might ask students to log into the Aplia system from their own computer rather than report to class on a particular day” (Ball 471).  This program can help students learn everyday no matter the circumstance. 

Students often get lost working on projects and homework at home, with the help of Aplia, students can see live updates from teachers. “At any point during the experiment, the system allows the instructor to post announcements that appear at the top of the student’s screen (“You might want to take notes on what just happened, and we’ll talk about it Wednesday in class.”). Students can also move to a chat screen to communicate with each other (and the instructor) when the experiment is active” (Ball 471). The use of chat room helps students collaborate with each other. When students are in a class of over 500 students they will not have everyone’s phone number or email address, with the chat rooms they can talk to people working on the assignment at the same time as himself. This will help the students have a better understanding of the subject material.

The common concern for technology in the classroom is “Will older teacher be able to implement the technology with their young students?” The answer is yes. Aplia makes it easy for all ages and levels of teachers and students. “...used the experiments feature of the Aplia system with a number of classes and are impressed with how foolproof it is for both students and instructors. Even someone who has no experience with research or classroom experiments will have no difficulty administering these exercises and incorporating results into their classes” (Ball 471).  With this technology, teachers can work with their students in a way millennials prefer. 

Veconlab is another technology program aimed at helping students learn via the internet. This technology uses video games to help students learn. “Veconlab has a wide variety of games available (38 at last count) thereby making it suitable for more academic levels and many different courses in economics and related disciplines” (Ball 472). The games keep students engaged. You can unlock levels to the games by getting answers correct. This method motivated students to do well by giving them a reward.  

Veconlab also allows teachers to interact with students while they work on material. “Instructors can change experiment parameters on the fly thus making it possible to react to experimental results or student questions immediately” (Ball 472). This helps students learn in the moment unlike waiting until the next class period to ask questions. Practice is key for students learning new topics. This program presents different versions of questions for students to answer. “...present several solutions to the commons problem that have different income distribution consequences” (Ball 472). The different values allow the student to rethink the question to learn the correct answer via active learning. 

Active learning has been a popular way of doing online homework for many years. A new form of technology now available is a Wireless Interactive Teaching System (WITS). This system allows students to answer questions in a large lecture. This is extremely popular within economic classes. “Students use wireless-equipped, handheld PDAs to input price and quantity values in the classroom market. The devices communicate data to a classroom server (notebook computer)” (Ball 473). Teachers can then look and give grades to students based on their answer on a the PDA. The computer automatically grades the answer for the teacher which cuts down on time. Just like Apila, the system is not so high-tech that it is overly expensive. “The system is completely portable so that specially equipped classrooms are not required for its use. WITS allows an instructor leverage technology and economically brings many of the benefits of small classes to large lecture courses” (Ball 473). To keep students engaged, teachers can ask multiple questions throughout class. “Because of the speed and flexibility of the wireless system, multiple interactive exercises can be run in large lecture classes. Instructors can answer student questions by immediately conducting a new simulation to illustrate the answer” (Ball 473). This is a great way to incorporate technology while keeping students engaged and focused. 

Even with new systems and technology being created, textbook companies are still trying to compete. “Meanwhile, several textbook manufacturers are currently promoting an inexpensive personal response system (PRS) or clicker system that allows some of the functionality of our system” (Ball 474). These clickers work like a PDA. The cost is lower if the teacher is already using the textbook in class. There is just a small tacked on price for students. The PRS is very similar to the PDA. Teachers can use the clickers to get answers for questions and give quizzes through a lecture. 

There are many forms of technology that can help students. Along with online software and textbook programs, there is presentation software, tablets and course management tools. All of these programs were created to help students be more productive, professional and organized. Presentation software can help students present their ideas to peers and teachers. This technology allows students to attach videos, graphs and pictures into their presentations to back up their ideas. Tablets allow students to take notes, draw graphs, message other students and teachers and much more. All of these documents can be saved through the internet so they are also accessible on any device. This access can help students always be prepared unlike forgetting their paper. Course management tools can help a student's access all course information on any internet accessible device. This way students are not reliable on keeping up with paper to find information (University of Washington). 

Teachers and professors are just now starting to realize the need for technology. This need is not just for keeping students engaged, but for helping the teachers be more efficient. “Recently, some college programs are even making laptops mandatory for their students. As one college Dean remarked, “Having a laptop is almost as necessary as having a pen and paper” (Bergeron, 2011, p. 1)” (Jackson 130). Teachers are starting to have success implementing technology in the classroom. “Some proponents are investigating ways that they can be used to promote learning. Lindquist, Denning, Kelly & Malani (2007) explored the use of mobile phones to submit solutions to exercises in the form of text and photo messages and found them to be a promising technology for supporting active learning” (Jackson 130).

Teachers and students must understand and set boundaries for using technology in the classroom. “The perspectives of both students and faculty are important in understanding the benefits and difficulties posed by mobile devices in educational settings. Faculty would be well advised to give consideration to students’ perspectives as they contemplate how to approach the challenges and opportunities that mobile technologies create. Faculty who have been mindful in advance about their policies, and who have educated their students concerning expected uses, will contribute to a more thoughtful and functional learning environment” (Jackson 137). If used correctly technology can be a very powerful and useful tool in the learning environment. Teachers must set rules explaining how it will be implemented and the consequences of used incorrectly. Doing this will create a positive relationship between these groups of people. 

Technology will always be important in human development and learning. Using softwares and technology can help students be more efficient and productive. Allowing students to access technology will allow them the creativity they seek on an everyday bases. Technology can help teachers grade easier and faster. These advances will help everyone involved in the learning process.  
