From what I have read, the effectiveness of technology is a much debated and discussed topic among educators. There are many myths and misconceptions that even I myself have held regarding the use of technology. For example, I always thought that because I was a young and new teacher and used technology, most teachers who used technology were new and young like me. According to the article Research Dispels Common Myths About Ed-Tech, this idea is not true. Veteran teachers are just as likely to use technology as new, younger teachers (eSchool News Staff, 2010). A 2009 survey by Grundwald associates found that as many as 34 percent of teachers rarely used technology, compared to 22 percent who said they used technology frequently—more than a third of the time spent in the classroom. This number amazes me. The research in this article appears to support that even among those who use technology in the classroom, many use it for activities such as email, word processing, or gaming. Very few classrooms appear to be using technology for actual learning and teaching. There are critics on both sides of the effective use argument when it comes to technology. Some argue that test scores have not supported the idea that technology use increases student learning, that this technology movement is simply another fad. For example, the New York Times article, Grading the Digital School: In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores, talked about a school in the Kyrene School District in Arizona, where technology is used frequently in the classroom. In the article, a teacher uses technology in a lesson on Shakespeare. His students write blogs, build Facebook pages, and even create music lists to support the information in the... middle of paper ......n because of the ability they present to measure student knowledge at any time. Before using the Technopedia site I didn't know there were so many different types of student response systems. I always imagined the basic student response system with four buttons A, B, C and D. However, having student response systems that allow for open-ended questions makes this a technological tool even more useful and effective. With so much pressure on standardized tests, this tool allows teachers to question and grade each individual student's knowledge. Additionally, due to the capabilities of current smartphones, the cost of student response systems goes out the window in a classroom that allows cell phone use. I really believe that both of these technologies can really change and have a positive effect on education.