The Technological Impact on Education - Research Paper Example

Technological Impact on Education Distant-learning has become life saving for working students because they can study, work and support their families as well. However, there are some limitations such as lack of psychological relationship between instructor and student; the instructor cannot keep a check on students properly. Nevertheless, it has some significant advantages as well (Siddiqui, 2004). Advantages include: A) Easy access for those who live away from schools and universities. B) No waste of time and other resources on transport. C) Resilience to study in any suitable setting with an internet connection. D) Study at your own pace without waiting for the ones who are slow at learning. E) Easy for those who have irregular work schedules also for handicapped and injured. F) Can enhance your comfort with participation, which would otherwise reserve you because of presence of other students in a classroom (Siddiqui, 2004). How researching online, e-libraries and online journals help students with homework There have been many discoveries and developments in the world since its beginning, but one of the most startling discoveries is the internet. It has unveiled the problems and solutions of entire world. One of the biggest achievements of discovering internet is online learning, which has become a priceless gem for students particularly. On just one click, they can find out the lectures of classes they missed, in just one minute they can find out the ways to solve the most difficult questions. Instead of registering for a library, which is sometimes costly for many students, they can have access to any book they want (Williams, 2002). Online libraries and journals help students complete their assignments without buying expensive books and concerning pricey tutors. Moreover, internet helps students to get connected with international students, share their ideas and opinions with them and get exposure of their methodologies and ways of learning. In this way, students will use multiple dimensions to analyze a problem and come up with various methods to solve it. How Technology can Increase Learning Learning has never been confined in the surroundings of a school, college, university or any other formal setting to gain knowledge. But today, it has gone beyond the formal concepts of learning education, mainly because of technology. Due to the use of the internet, everybody has access to knowledge of the world. Today, people use the internet for many reasons and purposes. The internet has helped students and professional to seek every kind of knowledge from basic to advanced to the current developments in their respective fields, ranging from arts, sciences, sports, fashion, agriculture, literature, and what not (Reksten, 2000). Apart from students and professionals, the internet is being used by people to perform their daily life tasks in a better way. People use it to know about the latest machines and gadgets for their daily tasks, to get advices and tips for health and beauty, to get help in cooking, to know what exercises are the best for them, or to see a product’s review. Today, it is hard to find any topic given to a student for assignment that he cannot find on the internet. The use of the GPS on mobile phones helps people to know their destination and find the fastest route. For business people technology has proved to be very helpful because it reduces the time of their work as huge calculations can be done in minutes using several techniques and software (Williams, 2002). For children it is fun cum learning technology, there are many games that help children learn with fun for example, vocabulary games, pronunciation games, mathematics games and many others. Undoubtedly, technology has increased learning but only for those who have a desire and thirst to learn otherwise its existence has no use for them who do not want to acquire it (Hilton, 2002). How Technology helps Schools with Cost Saving If used effectively, technology can contribute to save a huge amount of money spent on the services that require a lot of money. One of the main savings is reducing paper work, using computers and mobile phones schools can send the assignments to their students through emails and messages instead of printing them on paper and giving them to each student individually. Rather than giving printed notices on holidays, meetings, exams and other such occasions, schools can update it on their web sites and any one can easily access it (Reksten, 2000). Online examination and checking systems not only reduces the paper work but also the amount of remunerations given to teachers for checking the answer papers. For school inventory, online shopping can be very useful saving the time and money to go to shops and browsing them, and it is also easy to find online shops which deliver for free (Williams, 2002). Once schools invest money on automatic security system, the school will be saving from the money needed to pay the security guards. However, introducing technology in the school needs huge investments, it means saving a lot of money in long term. How Technology has contributed to Cheating and how it helps detect Plagiarism Although technology has helped students enormously in their academic works but it also opens up a facet of cheating which is demolishing for their careers. One of the main reasons of cheating is that these days the new settings in colleges have moved the study from classrooms to the websites. Without even entering the classrooms, students can have access to all the lectures given by teachers. Along with this movement, various websites provide students with information pertinent to their research projects and make their works very easy by giving them opportunity to get their assignments done at lower prices. Plagiarism helps students satisfy their psychological needs to be victorious in college life and charming in other peoples’ view. “Some websites permit students to outsource their assignments, and they place them in a bidding manner to ensure the finest prices” (Gismondi, 2006). Professionals suggest ways through which colleges and universities can detect the plagiarism and guide the students not to involve in it. Firstly, there are websites that propose programs that can search articles and compare them with thousand others to check plagiarism (Gismondi, 2006). Secondly, teachers can indulge in practice of examining assignments at random against the works cited to see the proper writing performance. Thirdly, assignments should contain the questions that require discussions pertinent to what the teacher teaches in class and to make it sure that students do not plagiarize, teachers should upload their lectures on websites after receiving assignments from all students. Lastly, we cannot rule out the possibility of being flawed of these methods but an ongoing process of giving assignments, quizzes, class activities, group works and checking all of them regularly will definitely show good results and get the best out of students (Born, n.d). References Born, A. D. (n.d.). “How To Reduce Plagiarism.” Journal of Information Systems Education, pp. 1-2. Gismondi, A. (2006). “The Downside of the Internet: Cheating and Technology in Higher Education.” Journal of College & Character, pp. 1-4. Hilton, M. (2002). Enhancing undergraduate learning with information technology. National Academies Press,. Reksten, L. E. (2000). Using technology to increase student learning. Corwin Press. Siddiqui, M. H. (2004). Distance Learning Technologies in Education. APH Publishing. Williams, B. K. (2002). The Successful Distance Learning Student. Wadsworth Thomson Learning. Read More