Inflating the Software Report Card

     Technology in classrooms is something that I've personally grown up with starting in elementary school and all throughout my education.  I think that technology can be a great tool used in the education process, but I do not think it should take place of a teacher or professor.  We've discussed in class how a great portion of a college education isn't necessarily how many papers you write or what you learn, but more so what you experience.
     In the article, Inflating the Software Report Card, it's easy to see that technology is not yet powerful enough or written correctly to have a noticeable influence on the learning process.  Information from the article explains how a student might complete their work on some kind of programmed tutor.  The student never really has to learn anything.  If they hit the "hint" button long enough, they'll get close enough to the correct answer without having to do much work at all.  In real life, if a teacher would give you a "hint", it still requires the student to think for themselves. Also, there would never be an instance that the teacher would give the student so many hints that the answer would appear right in front of him or her, without doing any work.
      I think that technology should be used as a helping hand when it comes to education. It does not belong in the role of a teacher or professor.  Online classes are even a bit difficult depending on the professors involvement.  Also, human to human interaction is best to work with students, not through technological mediums. I personally have an example of this.  Taking an online math course last Fall here at Kutztown, all of our lessons and homework was all through MyMathLab.  Well, MyMathLab is very picky, and it should be, you're learning math, so everything must be exact.  I kept working out a certain problem and was getting the same answer over and over and MyMathLab said it was incorrect.  Here, I used the wrong "slash" to create a fraction.  If I would have been in a classroom or working on this as a regular homework assignment, I would have answered the problem and move onto the next one.  In our class, we were required to show up to a classroom 4 times during the semester to take exams.  That was fine, but everytime we went into that classroom, the professor looked at us like strangers, which we were.  She never knew anybody's name, interests or major, she just administered the tests and collected them at the end.
     As for society, I think that these companies that are bragging about their amazing technologies need to be held responsible for what they really do.  All they're doing right now is charging insane prices for their not-so-great programs. Our society is so focused on the next best thing and latest innovation and doesn't always take the time to better understand exactly what they're dumping up to as much as $2.2 billion a year into.