Negative Effects of Technology in Education - Essay Example

Summary and Response to the argument of "UNPLUGGED The internet is one of the most collaborative forces within the education system, but despite this, the sheer involvement of any form of technology does not guarantee significant effects on the quality of education. The inclusion of technology in education is producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis; thus, “As technology continues to evolve, it brings with it new opportunities and challenges for educators and students (Donley). In fact, it can be said that reading for gratification, which has declined among youthful populace in recent decades, is among the things that enhance thinking and helps to engage the thoughts in a way that visual media such as video games and television cannot achieve. One of the most fundamental golden rules that have to be observed when using technology in education is that moderation is everything and this is because of the fact that technology can easily be overused within the classroom, and this can cause a negative effect on the entire learning experience. It is true that some of these effects are already being seen from student texting and internet usage during class and there are also increased prevalence of plagiarism for coursework and general deficiency of respect for accurate language usage particularly when writing essays. This is a clear indicator of the consequences that technology usually has on the intellectual abilities of the current generation and is a display of the overall power of the internet. According to David Gelernter, “computers are our worst educational nightmares come true.” While it is a fact that independent thought has greatly been encouraged through the reading of books and has ensured the development of new ideas, this ability would be immensely diminished if there were no books in the world because it is only through the study of old ideas that new ideas are developed. Technology that is used in education, such as the internet will inevitably lead to the extinction of books from the education system because it is the source of plenty of information. However, despite the large reserves of information within this technology, the internet does not have the qualities which books have because most of the information gotten from it is often instant and shallow. The internet does not allow individuals to contemplate on the information which they have just received, as books do and the lack of independent thought because of the absence of books is likely to put the human race into a dark age of intellectual stagnation. The ability to think through the study of the previous work of scholars is what has helped the academic advancement of many children in the past and the inability to think and the reliance on shallow sources of information such as the internet is likely to see the end of the academic system as we know it. Students are able to learn about their past from books and with this knowledge, the take action to avoid the mistakes of their past. The use of technology in education has to be moderated because it is a fact that books have been and still are the most credible source of academic information for centuries, and without books, one would conclude that there can be no history. Gelenter further states that “teaching children to understand the orderly unfolding of a plot or argument is a critical part of education and this is why the study of stories and arguments is only possible through books and because of the developing lack of interest in them, slowly but surely, students are likely to end up without a culture of analyzing their environment. This can clearly be seen when most of the children today prefer watching television, playing video games and even social networking on the internet to having intellectual discussions. The power of the media has become so great that many students in the education system do not have the will, or the inclination, to live a different sort of life. When individual students are asked what they learned about in class on a certain day, the most likely answer would be that he or she does not remember (Nora and Blanca 5). In fact, individual students does not seem to show any more interest in the matter despite the fact that it is supposed to be one of the most important daily occurrences in their academic lives. Their obsession with the use of technology and the belief that it can helped them do anything academic has really hampered or even damaged, “their development in the personal growth, communication and educational department” (Martin). The amount of time that children spend on the internet has been found to be most detrimental to their mental development because it has made them become too lazy to be creative. Studies that have been conducted show that children who spend too much time online tend to have low scores in the tests they are given in school. In addition, it has been found that many children who spend most of their time online are not able to concentrate on one issue at a time and because of this, they tend to swiftly shift from one subject to another. Without focus, these children risk not being able to develop the academic skills necessary to thrive in the world. Instead, they will end up becoming too involved in a confused world of their own making without the guidance and patience that reading books involves. It has become essential for there to be close parental supervision of their children’s internet activity in order to make sure that they not only get to live a healthy life by not spending all their time online, but also not being able to access sites and games whose content might harmful to their academic development. The fact that technology may be detrimental to academics and that it needs to be controlled should also involve the communication process being upheld between the parent and child as well as its teacher. Therefore, all interventions may end up seeming meaningless unless the parent takes an active role and teaches the child as they grow on the responsible use of technology. Setting up these guidelines by parents when children are still young makes the child aware of the ill effects of the use of technology in academics and this will enable him to refrain from overusing it. In addition, it will enable the child to develop personal responsibility over the time they can spend online and encourage this child to participate in activities which are not related to technology. This will ensure that the child’s academic development remains well balanced, knowing the limits to everyone of the technologies they use for academic work. As has been the way for many ages, it has been found that, “one cannot teach a child anything unless he or she looks him in the face” (Gelenter). In conclusion, it can be said that the main effect from technology may be that the children of the future may not be overly concerned about the details of their studies. However, it is hard to say if this is a good thing or a bad thing in the future especially with the universal availability of the academic technology and it is possible that the students of the future will prioritize where the information can be found rather than what the actual details of the information that they are gathering. The constant stimulation that comes from the internet has also taken away the ability of students to generally focus in the classroom and studies have been done detailing how constant stimulation by email, text messages, and online video games have come to create a profound obstacle to the focus and productivity of both young people and adults, all of which can also be used for e-learning purposes. Therefore, “while technology is a necessity to survive and flourish in this age of advancement, however, parents should control their children by keeping an eye on its excessive usage” (Martin). Works Cited Gelenter, David. “Unplugged”: The Myth of Computers in Classroom. n.d. Web. July 22, 2013. Martin, Alice. The 4 Negative Side Effects Of Technology. Edudemic 2013. Web. July 23, 2013. < http://www.edudemic.com/2013/05/the-4-negative-side-effects-of-technology/ > Donley, Megan. Technology’s Influence on Education. South University n.d.Web. July 23, 2013. < http://source.southuniversity.edu/technologys-influence-on-education-76874.aspx > Nora, Amaury, and Plazas Snyder Blanca. "Technology and Higher Education: The Impact of E-Learning Approaches on Student Academic Achievement, Perceptions and Persistence." Journal of College Student Retention 10.1 (2009): 3-19. Read More