User:Choudhary Kartik/sandbox

American public schools are largely a product of the quest for progress (Cassidy, 2004). Schools are constantly looking for ways to enrich their curriculum for students and provide educational tools for them that will help them with life further in time. Americans were not the first to invent schooling but were the first to believe that if the people are educated to a certain degree then they can rule themselves. The first sentence of this paper could also read that American technology is largely a product of the quest for progress, is this not true also? That is why education and technology or the media go hand in hand in the 21st century. The role of media and technology in education is quite obvious in today’s educational settings. Schools are loaded with computers and even here at Northern Michigan University students receive a laptop to help them with academic studies. This is part of NMU’s Laptop Initiative plan that believes providing every student with a laptop will help improve their academic performance. However media comes in many different forms, such as; internet, TV, radio, and books, all of these media have affected the way students learn. Around the world students are being globally connected with one another via internet (Rolls, 2007). These mass media tools have made the world a smaller place in a way, also called (globalization). The way media affects education are great and varied when you think about it. Back when Columbus sailed the ocean blue the world had the misconception that the earth was flat, and why did they have this theory? Because that is what was printed on every map that was distributed back then making media at fault. Media is such a massive part of our lives and it is everywhere we turn. How could it not affect our lives in terms of education? Before we can dive into all the benefits of media to education it is important that the educators of students and students themselves become what is called “media literate”. This is the ability to decipher the hidden messages in mass media. Teacher education needs media literacy as an essential tool and topic in the new millennium (Schwarz, 2001). Let’s face it, media has changed the world. Media such as internet, is constantly growing and changing, thus educators must stay with the times and keep up by using these tools for their students. With the help of new media power teachers would be more able to offer students information from around the world at an even faster and easier rate.