Q: How do you think technology in the classroom
has affected the average student?
A: The modern era of technology in education started
in the 1990s. The first phase focused on purchasing
computers and more hardware for classrooms and
schools, then we saw a growth in software and
applications available, but they were not clearly
aligned with the goals and needs of most educators.
Then came the third wave—the internet—and with it,
growing experiments about how to connect students
and the classroom with people and resources from
all over the world. This is as social media and mobile
devices became readily available to many young
people. The technology became a means of [students]
communicating with one another, expressing
themselves in various ways, and experimentation with
different forms of creative expression.
Mission-Minded Innovation
AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNARD BULL
Bernard Bull is a speaker, author of Digitized: Spiritual Impli-
cations of Technology, and the editor of The Pedagogy of Faith.
He has studied trends in technology for more than twenty
years. He is president of Concordia University, Nebraska.
4 Lutheran Life
