Teaching is a complex and dynamic profession, which encompasses a multiplicity of meanings but no universal ideology - there are many elements which affect schooling and they come from many different directions and this being the case, there are many different ways which one may choose to deal with these elements. One of these elements which I believe to be of primary concern in today's school system is the rapidly increasing presence of technology in the average classroom.

At one time, if a school was lucky enough to have computers incorporated into the curriculum, there were only a few of them and they were confined to one place; students had limited access to them and their inclusion in education took the form of a crash course in "microcomputers" or "word processing" (this, ironically enough is where I learned how to type). Today, computers are being used in almost every area of the curriculum, from math and physics to social studies and English, and they are used at almost every level:

In a recent year, 28 percent of students were using computers at home, and over 60 percent were using computers at school. Amazing as it may seem, about 27 percent of prekindergarten and kindergarten students were using computers at school (Rice, 3).

Some say that we are in a state of revolution - I say that we are in a state of evolution. While I am not an advocate of computerizing society, it is an undeniable fact that our culture has incorporated computer technology into its infrastructure to such an extent that to remove it would be disastrous. Therefore, as it is part of the responsibility of the education system to prepare students to take their place as productive members of society, it is essential that they be prepared to negotiate the technological aspects of it - they must become technologically literate. This, I hold, points to a kind of evolutionary step in human existence, which is neither good nor bad in the extent that computers are a part of our everyday lives, but only becomes a negative component if they become the focus of everyday life. While there are those who think that this is a danger, I do not believe so, not as long as we, as a society, keep things in perspective. This can only be accomplished through proper education - we must teach our children to be technologically literate without becoming technologically dependent.

The idea of keeping ourselves from becoming dependent on computers and technological media is brought out by Barakett and Cleghorn in their section entitled The Reign of Technology where they state that "never before has there been a time when a more human, nontechnological approach to educational change is . . . needed" (Sociology of Education, 119). They go on to mention the fact that with the increase of technology in the classroom, there is also a corresponding corporate presence being felt - take what is happening at St. John Bosco in Shea Heights: they have received enormous funding from a number of corporate sponsors which will result in ten computers in every classroom. While this will greatly enhance the students' worldview and access to information via the world wide web etc., there remains the fact that corporations, no matter how large, do not simply give money away. Logic therefore dictates that these donations are really better referred to as investments - these corporations must expect some sort of return/result of their generous gifts.

Beyond this, there is also the danger of increasing social stratification (another concept which is listed above - indeed, these are all connected):

". . . extensive corporate involvement in education is likely to increase inequality. In the proposal for the extensive use of computers in elementary classrooms in Montreal, parents were "willing" to pay a $15 per month rental fee. But what about the parents who cannot afford this" (Barakett and Cleghorn, 121)?

In addition to possible user fees for the computers in school, there is also the fact that homework will not cease to exist - if computer technology, the internet, etc., become ingrained in the general curriculum, some after-school/home computer work will be expected. What about families who are not able to afford a home computer? While it is true that the PC (Personal Computer) has become a "necessary" appliance like the television and microwave, it is also true that many families do not have one - some may even reject it.

The problem of having students who are less able or who have less access to computers is one which can, and must be dealt with - computers are everywhere. They exist in every facet of society, consider the following example. My father is a home-heating oil distributor for North Atlantic Petroleum (I am also a licensed driver and I have worked with him for most of my life) - in his truck there are the following: a cellular phone; a satellite up-link device for downloading and uploading information to the company's main computer database; an on-board Norand touch-screen computer system, complete with printer; and as if this were not enough, my father also carries a pager. I also ought to note here that the computer system on my father's truck manages a pneumatic/digital metering system which not only meters the amount of fuel, but which also "corrects" the fuel to 15 degrees Celsius (petroleum fuels expand and contract relative to temperature and the truck automatically measures the amount of fuel and puts out a "gross" and "net" amount . . . the gross is the amount that would have been delivered if the fuel were 15 degrees, the net is the actual literage received). This is a very complicated and complex system . . . it looks more like the cockpit of a passenger jet than the cab of an International 4900 series truck.

This example of the influence of technology in the seemingly unlikely profession of oil distribution is part of what the authors of our text book refer to as a sociotechnical system. That is, in a system that is made up not only of computers, but one "which includes people, machines, and other resources . . . [and] a sociotechnical system of use" (Sociology of Education, 120). This is why I do not believe that computers are to become the be-all, end-all of society - they are not developed in a vacuum, but in relation to society. Hence, we have the constant development of more "user-friendly" software, smaller and more convenient machinery and in accordance with that, a more technologically literate culture.