Technology Keeps Learning Exciting

In my 3rd grade student teaching assignment, I was lucky enough to work with smartboards in the classroom. I taught all of my math lessons with the smartboard and many of my language arts lessons. It was fun to incorporate videos, games, and graphics into these presentations, as well as using student involvement. However, I tend to wonder how these students will do when they move on to teachers and or/classes that don't have/don't utilize this kind of technology.

This makes me wonder whether or not students are getting desensitized to technology. With all of these new applications and tools coming out, including video games and ipads, will classroom technology always be able to keep up?

The smartboards were new at the school I was student teaching in, and the students were very excited to be using them. They brought instructional efficiency, as each transition could be planned ahead of time and slides were already prepared. They involved students through games, questions, and elements of surprise-- like a random cartoon popping up in the middle of a slide asking a question.

As overall technology develops and students expect more, I wonder how much classroom technology will be able to keep up and advance in ways that still fosters student engagement. When I was an elementary school student, I remember being excited when my school got a whiteboard in the 3rd grade and the joys of computer typing class. Today, these standards are much higher and keep changing. With constant budget cuts and higher expectations, I cannot help but wonder if classroom technology will always be able to bring the level of student engagement as it has in the past.