by Erica Edman ’21, Staff Writer

As time goes by, technology grows more and more advanced. Over the past several decades, technology has grown rapidly and Newark Academy has changed as a result. Mr. Parlin commented about how technology was used when he first began working at Newark Academy: “In 1959 the only technological gizmos were the telephone, the typewriter, and a thing called the spirit duplicator. You type a master and then make copies of the spirit duplicator. That was it, that was technological.” Over time, Newark Academy has changed in both positive and negative ways because of the world’s technological advancements.

Technology has enhanced Newark Academy in many ways and has advanced the way classes are run. Ms. Pursell has been teaching Geometry at Newark Academy since 1979. When she first began teaching, the extent of technology that she used was a graphing calculator. Now, her entire class is done on an iPad, and the course is dependent on visuals made possible by technology. Ms. Pursell comments on how her class has advanced over the years: “I do think it is funny when I look back at the days when I would present a demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem with snippets of paper on an overhead projector and get applause.  Now, students don’t even flinch at a fancy demonstration where the picture moves. Technology has simply become a part of every class.”

Not only has technology become an essential resource in the classroom, but outside the classroom as well. After every school day, it is easy to find homework and all the resources that a student would need for studying or homework on Canvas. Without the help of all the technology each Newark Academy student uses on a daily basis, it is impossible to imagine how to get through the day. However, only a couple years ago, these resources were not a part of the Newark Academy community.

Many forms of advanced technology are used everyday at Newark Academy, but some teachers believe that not all of the technology is necessarily a good thing. Dr. LaPadula, an English teacher who has been working on and off at Newark Academy since 1997, talks about how technology has changed her teaching experience. She says, “When I first started working here nobody had laptops. So we all faced in together, and then everybody started turning their backs on each other. I love technology, I think it’s really important, but it has metaphorically made us all turn our backs on each other.”

Dr. LaPadula believes that even physical classroom changes that have occurred because of laptops have shifted the Newark Academy environment. Laptops have slowly become more prevalent at NA and it has recently become mandatory for every student to own a laptop. Members of the community spend significant amounts of time on laptops or phones, which takes away from time that could have been spent in face-to-face interaction. When Dr. LaPadula says that time spent playing computer games or looking through social media has made us decrease our these interactions, it causes the community to grow apart. Whether for better or worse, technology has had a significant impact on the way we learn here at Newark Academy.