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 * Criticisms:**
 * **Research on the effectiveness of the use of technology as a teaching tool is often times based on circumstantial, uncontrollable elements.**
 * Teachers now rank computer skills and media technology as more important than the study of history, biology, chemistry, and physics. Likewise, dealing with social problems often take a back seat to the importance of technology.
 * Due to the high cost of implementing technology into schools, many other programs, such as music and art, are faced with severe cutbacks or total cancellation to offset the cost.
 * With increased computer usage students are more likely to develop medical issues, such as headaches, sore eyes, and wrist pain.
 * Research promoting the positive impact of technology on teaching is especially weak in measuring intangibles such as enthusiasm and self-motivation of the students being studied.
 * Some research might not take into account the effectiveness of the new teaching approach (project-oriented learning); instead they are praising the inclusion of technology as being the only attributable factor in increased learning results.
 * Many schools assume that if the technology is present it automatically means that students want to learn using technology; learning styles and preferences might not be considered.
 * Those students who do not have regular access to technology tools outside of the learning environment will fall behind very quickly.
 * Many types of technological tools being used in the classroom are fairly outdated, as opposed to new trends in technology made available in the last few years.
 * Teaching with technology can easily become a crutch for teachers who move away from in-depth discussions and hands-on learning experiences.
 * The use of teaching technology has had severe impacts on the costs of learning at the university level. The escalating costs of tuition can be attributed to the cost of IT infrastructure to enable distance learning to take place.
 * The availability of distance education courses has threatened the integrity of the university system. It has shifted the focus from the quality of education to the quantity of students who can be taught.
 * Many distance education courses are being taught by 'contingent' faculty members to offset costs and create a greater profit margin.

Additional Resource Citation:

Oliver, M. (2011), Technological determinism in educational technology research: some alternative ways of thinking about the relationship between learning and technology. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27: 373–384. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00406.x

Additional Article:

This paper's main claim is that research shows that the influence that educational technology has on enhanced learning abilities is frequently overemphasized. (Oliver, 2011, p.373). The article claims that most research is based on assumptions, as opposed to clearly empirical data. The author states that too much rests on the opinions and variables as they are related to the learning systems put in place or examined by researchers (Oliver, 2011, p.376). The article talks about 'technological determinism' and supporting theories as to how technology was put in place in various contexts where absolute results could never truly be measured (Oliver, 2011, p.379).