One of today’s pressing issues is the assimilation of technology into the classroom. But as keyboards become nothing more than extensions of our limbs, an entirely different angle on technology in the classroom is emerging resolutely. Rather than considering how we can best use technology to teach, the true question now is: How can we, as a society being catapulted into the information age and beyond, best teach technology? 

Dave Molta, director of the information management and technology undergraduate program at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, believes the integration of technology into the school curriculum is a topic that deserves consideration.

‘Reading, writing and arithmetic are still important, but technology is important as well. If you look at where the jobs are in the 21st century, there are a lot of opportunities for students in technology.’

As evidenced by the sheer volume of commercials advertising distance-learning programs in information technologies, these opportunities are boundless, and the skills needed to take advantage of them are not being adequately taught. 

Christopher Azar, a senior graphic design and policy studies major, also recognizes this need but is cautious about how to best approach a K-12 education in technology.

‘There’s no doubt that there’s a gigantic demand for computer science that we’re not fulfilling,’ he said. ‘But programming is a very variable culture; there are so many different languages you can learn.’

Isaac Budmen, a senior policy studies major, thinks otherwise.

‘I think the way technology is developing, the more people that can come out of high school with the skills to program and code, the better,’ he said.

While the current initiatives taken by the U.S. government and companies like Hewlett-Packard and Samsung to get technology into classrooms to subsidize teaching are a step in the right direction, this approach may not be all that relevant to how tech-savvy a student emerges from the public education system. 

Today’s youth is exposed to technology at increasingly younger ages. To them, its basic use is second nature.

‘In most cases, students are learning technology because they’re living it. I think that in a lot of areas, we probably don’t need to worry that much about students developing general computer proficiency,’ Molta said. 

We live in a society that may advance to the point that its illiterate and ignorant population will not be those who cannot read, but rather those who cannot properly employ the use of technology. Basic comprehension of technology will no longer be the point the insidious line is drawn. Instead, it will be the ability and drive to innovate that will separate these groups.

The success of the upcoming generation in technology, and effectively the ability of the United States to be relevant and cutting edge, will be in the hands of its visionaries. 

Azar believes future innovators are crucial to how we develop as a forward thinking nation and the best approach is to make educational opportunities available without forcing them. 

‘What professors need to do is open doors and open as many doors as possible so that people can step through them if they want to.’

Molta, though explicitly conscious of the need for a more effective approach to teaching technology at a younger age, is also wary of seeing this executed in the public education system as a mandate handed down from the government.

‘There’s a lot of variation at the local level in terms of the needs and the capacities,’ he said. ‘This is something where people should have more flexibility to be innovative.’

Although the teaching of technology may have a place in the public education system soon, it’s impossible to plan for a future that has no discernible outline.

In the meantime, those best attuned to technology may be those borne of an innate passion for it, those who pursue it of their own volition. As the future changes, the holders will be a very different kind of person — an innovator, a visionary, a designer, storyteller, caregiver, creator, those made of their own desire and opportunity. 

The generation born holding iPads will grow up to see opportunities that a lifetime of exposure to the wall-less rooms of technology have afforded them, boosted by a public education or not.

Jessica Smith is a senior information management and technology and television, radio and film major. Her column appears every Tuesday. She can be reached at jlsmit22@syr.edu.