Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
DUPLIN COUNTY — Education in Duplin County has changed significantly since Grove Academy’s establishment in December of 1785, and with increasing rapidity as advances in technology inspire innovation at institutions all over the world. Long-standing classroom implements like blackboards, chalk, overhead projectors and dry-erase markers have been supplanted by online classes and PowerPoint presentations. Where students would once take trips to the library to reference encyclopedias or microfilm, instant access to information through the Internet and the myriad devices that connect to it have rendered such expeditions largely obsolete.
As technology continues to transform the teaching profession, facilitating the creation of creative lesson plans and providing instructors with opportunities they may not have previously thought possible, it has also introduced unique challenges that impact the way students learn and interact in 2025.
“When I began teaching, there were no 1:1 devices,” said Wendy Parker, a teacher at B.F. Grady Elementary School who started in 1996. Parker indicated that teaching was once more hands-on and visual, with students learning through playtime and interaction with one another.
“Today, our classrooms have become more on-demand with technology-rich learning,” she explained. “Students want to ask Siri for answers. When they want to know the time, they just look at their iPad.”
According to a 2020 survey by Pew Research Center, 36% of parents to children aged 0-11 say their child has used or interacted with a voice-activated assistant. The same poll indicated 60% of children began engaging with a smartphone before age 5 — evidence that the dependency of students upon connected devices and the convenience they provide often begins outside of the classroom.
Fourth grade teacher Jessica Villarruel of Wallace Elementary expressed that her students’ needs and expectations for learning have changed drastically since she started teaching in 2005.
“Today’s students are used to immediate gratification. They’re growing up in a world of instant answers, online gaming and quick Google searches. In the past, when students had questions, finding answers took time,” she said. “Now, with the internet at their fingertips, students expect not only to find answers instantly but to understand everything just as quickly.”
While she acknowledged that such expectation can sometimes feel overwhelming, Villarruel indicated that she’s tried to present lessons in a way that encourages students to wonder, imagine and explore by giving them questions with answers that can’t be found through quick search engine queries. “The goal is always to keep them engaged, but also to stretch their thinking and help them develop skills that go beyond just finding quick answers.”
Access to technology has helped fuel student engagement and opened up instructor resource databases for third grade teacher Lindsey Marshall of Kenansville Elementary School, who described it as both a blessing and a curse.
“Students are engaged in technology so frequently it’s becoming too much,” she explained. “As a teacher, I must find the balance between lessons driven with technology and ‘back to basic’ type lessons.”
Cody Raynor, currently in his first year of teaching Earth Science and Biology to ninth and 11th-grade Wallace Rose-Hill High School students, echoed Marshall’s sentiment.
“Children are brilliant when it comes to technology and are capable of using it to the maximum for learning, but they are also capable of being very easily distracted,” Raynor explained. “However, as a teacher, technology has been an enormous blessing.”
According to Tumira Middleton, teacher of Business Management, Computer Science and Entrepreneurship for grades nine through 12 at James Kenan High School, good tech can never replace good teaching — no matter how advanced it becomes. “Technology is just a tool — it’s the teacher’s strategy and relationships that actually make learning happen.”
