Is technology as an enabler or a hinderance?

Technological advances is happening whether we want them to or not. When technology is used effectively it can be a great learning tool and resource of information. The great things about technology and the Internet is that it can connect people from around the world. People can collect data of our ever changing world and make it readily available for the rest to see. This makes our world seem smaller and smaller. When technology is used effectively in our education system, it can better prepare students for the real world outside of school. To not incorporate it in the classroom so that students can get their one hour or hundred hours to ten thousand hours etc, of practice working with technology to learn its problems and how to solve them, would be detrimental to the students ability to cope with technology when it is needed. Effective integration of technology that was described in the classroom where the teacher got their students to solve the problem as to why the tulips were not blooming when they should. Using of the vast array of information stored by the Internet and user friendly weather forecasts and past records, students were able to understand the weather was cooler than before, thus the students thought to document their findings and continue to monitor their findings in the future to find patterns of change. This went above and beyond what the teacher expected of his students because in the past the information and resources were not available in the past and technology can help propel students into higher levels of application, synthesis, evaluation and creativity of curriculum.
Though there are many advantages to technology, it may have its disadvantages in the classroom if it is not enabling. Technology may not be enabling in the fact that teachers have to learn the proper way to implement it before presenting it to their students. In an every changing technological world, it may seem very daunting to constantly play catch up and take courses to familiarize themselves with technology. This can also lead to other problems such as who can afford to constantly bring in new technology and/or update it? Having students use PowerPoint's in their presentations may turn into them standing there reading off of the slides verbatim, like they read information off a piece of paper will not be improving students use of technology. Another problem that may arise from technological integration is that there are Internet predators out there. This may be very detrimental to students learning and not accessing factual information for their studies. Teachers, students and the community need to be properly educated in this to prevent anyone from harm. In the article where they discuss how technology will advance human abilities by 2045, this is a very strong likelihood and what then will this do to jobs in education and people being able to do things on their own. Will humans become too dependent on technology? Overall I think that the way the world is changing, we have no choice but to incorporate technology into the classroom. There may be times in the present future where technology is not always enabling, but with constant change and upgrades, there might come a day where technology maximizes students abilities to learn.