Tyler Andes

Connie Douglas
UWRT 1102-025
2/3/2015

The Effects of New Technology on Adolescent life

Technology has become a big role in our society today and has evolved
throughout the years having some positive and negative effects on society and people.
Although this statement is controversial, it is still debatable on whether technology has
had a positive or negative effect on society. The articles mentioned below describe the
effects of technology on adolescent life and learning in schools. These articles were
written on June of 2008 by the International Society for Technology in Education and
September of 2013 by Magwa Simuforosa. Both of these authors had the intention of
discovering the relationship between adolescent usage of new technology and their
academic performance. Their intended audience would be for parents, school faculty,
students, and the media so that they can do something to help reduce the usage of
technology for adolescents. Magwa Simuforosas thesis is to discuss the positive and
negative impact of modern technology on the educational achievement of adolescents.

On the other hand the International Society for Technology in Educations thesis is to
demonstrate that technology is being used efficiently and having a positive impact on
academic performance. Before reading these articles technologys growth has been
seen as taking over our generation for the worst, however after reading these articles it
may seem the other way around.
Magwa Simuforosa made a good point when she stated, Modern technologies
have altered how youth socialize and learn and that raises a new set of issues that
educators, parents, and policy makers should consider. Technology has redeveloped
the way kids learn in a way much differently than the way our parents and previous
generations have learned in the past. She conveyed this message in a matter of trying
to persuade you to believe that modern technology has changed the way kids and teens
socialize and learn in the classroom. This article is structured by the author providing
opinionated statements followed by facts and data found in previous observations
experiments. They discovered in a previous experiment that over 78% of teens own a
cellphone and of that 78%, almost half own a smartphone. Also 23% of teens have a
tablet computer and 95% of teens use the internet of some sort. These percentages
prove how society has changed since we were even born and where we are headed. In
the beginning of the article they stated their thesis and presented their side of the
argument stating facts to back up their opinion. Throughout the article they introduced
the positive effects that new technology has on adolescent life, giving specific examples
as to how technology has helped improve academia. A few specific examples are that
video games on a computer can have positive effects on cognitive skills. Also database
and spreadsheet programs promote organizational skills and modelling software

promotes the understanding of science and Mathematics. This is definitely a good skill
to have in the future considering where our society is headed in the future. Due to the
author showing both sides of the argument with facts, it has helped enhance his side of
the argument by making it more persuasive. The author did a good job of pointing out
the positive and negative effects of technology towards academic performance. She
used a lot of factual information to help support her observations which is a strength in
this article. There wasnt many weaknesses to this article due to the fact that she
covered both sides of the argument pretty well.
The International Society for Technology in Education stated, Michigans
Freedom to Learn (FTL) program provides laptops for students in a number of the
states middle schools along with extensive teacher professional development around
technology integration and curriculum enhancement. This just proves that technology is
taking over our society, giving teens the opportunity to be on their own lap top all class,
when they could be listening to the teacher teach the class. The ISTE conveyed this
example in hope to try and convince you that giving younger kids technology can be a
good thing, because they are learning how to use this technology and will have to use it
later in life. This article organized and introduced their argument in a way to try and
persuade you to think that starting technology in classrooms at a young age is always a
good thing. The way they are stating their facts and forcing you to just think about the
positive ways technology helps our society helps persuade you to agree with them. One
experiment that they mentioned was, In one notable FTL school, 8th grade math
achievement doubled from 31 percent to 63 percent between 2004 and 2005, and
science achievement jumped from 68 percent to 80 percent between 2003 and 2004.

Another example is, Students in one fully engaged TIP middle school saw their math
achievement scores increase by 5 percent among 6th graders, 42 percent among 7th
graders, and 24 percent among 8th graders. This just proves that technology used in
middle schools has helped them with their academics. After seeing these experiments
and facts, it is clear that in these middle schools, technology has helped in a positive
manner. Some weaknesses that the ISTE lacked in was stating the other side of the
argument. You want to give the audience the option to choose what they think is right
but also persuade them enough to agree with the point you are trying to get across.
What the ISTE did very well is that they gave multiple examples of situations in which
technology has helped academic performance.
The International Society for Technology in Education was most effective in
presenting their argument because they only stated their opinion on the matter and
didnt allow the audience to change their decision. Although this was one of their
weaknesses, it also helped them to persuade you by not giving you the other side of the
argument. Magwa Simuforosa did the best job of reaching out to her audience since she
allowed them to hear both sides of the argument, giving facts about both. She pointed
out that in America, people have had negative and positive effects with technology but
for the most part has hurt our society and adolescent life. On the other hand, the ISTE
only pointed out that in America, technology has positively affected society and that
there were no negative effects towards adolescent life. This controversy between
technology having a positive and negative effect could go either way depending on how
much information you have but due to the articles presented above, it is believed that
technology for the most part has had a positive effect on adolescent and academics.

Simuforosa, Magwa. The Impact of Modern Technology on the Educational Attainment

of Adolescents. International Journal of Education and Research 1.9 (2013): 18. Print.

"Technology and Student Achievement." Technology and Student Achievement.

Internation Society for Technology in Education, 1 June 2008. Web. 5 Feb. 2015.