Response to USA Today Article

     While reading this article about using MP3s for educational purposes, I immediately thought how great it would have been if some of my previous professors had suggested or encouraged this type of learning. As a college student, one is generally assigned more reading than seems feasible. It takes great amounts of time out of a person's day to simply complete the readings for a class, nevermind the papers or assignments that usually accompany them. Using MP3s to listen to readings can allow a person to multitask while completing assignments. Of course, you have to be engaged enough to actually comprehend what you are listening to, but you might be able to grocery shop, exercise, or do the dishes or laundry at the same time.

     I also thought of how this type of learning would benefit young readers. Children who have no yet mastered fluent reading can still gain the same understanding from a story as the child who has mastered this skill. As mentioned in the article, reading outloud and hearing the words boosts literacy.

     Overall, I believe that the use of MP3s as an educational tool is just another example of our rapidly changing world and the advance of technology to benefit our everyday lives. Some are very against this change and feel that we are relying too much on electronics and things that do a lot of the work for us. I believe that this change should be embraced, for these changes are truly revolutionary and do in most cases strengthen or quality of life.

     If we simply compare the way classrooms operated when we were in elementary school with the way they operate now, we can see the obvious differences. Many more classrooms are equipped with computers, many have smartboards, and these change the way that students learn. I believe that exposing them to technology and teaching them how to use and benefit from it is preparing them for their lives in the real world. We are expected to know how to use technology in many job fields, and by the time our students are in the work force, these expectations will only be stronger. Technology is our future, no matter if we like it or not, and I believe that any kind of technology that is available to us and can make learning easier or more enjoyable should be embraced.