When was the last time you put your phone down, and kept it away whilst doing something more active? Most people would say not in a long time. Why? Because of our fast-growing society. Technology has had both positive and negative impacts on our lives. But at what cost does that come?
Technology has always advanced with the purpose of making our lives better. It has helped businesses grow faster, social media to become more popular, and allowed people to communicate across the globe. However, it has particularly helped to improve education and there are many ways it has helped us do that:
The availability of online courses.
Not everyone can attend college or university. Many people who would love to continue their education cannot do so because they are working, taking care of families, or live too far away from their local college or university campus to be able to commute. Online classes have changed all that. Now students can enrol into online courses or take single classes, without having to leave their homes and at their own convenience.
The access to web seminars.
Students and professionals alike can benefit from seminars, however, they cannot always make it to them because they live too far away, do not have access to transportation, or cannot fit their schedule around the seminar to make it on time. The schools themselves may not be able to afford to send their students to a seminar during school hours. Web seminars make it possible for them to watch the seminar streamed live from their classroom or their home. For example, NASA has a course in which students can watch an online seminar with astronauts in space from their classroom. During such an online seminar, students can not only watch and listen to what the lecturer may say, but they can also ask questions and interact with them in real time.
The ability to research any topic.
Before the internet, you would have to go to a library to do research. Even then, the library may not have had the books you needed. You would then have had to order the books through the library, which could take some time. Doing research was cumbersome and time-consuming. With the internet, you can find information on any topic you can think of. You will have no trouble finding multiple sources to verify that the information you obtain is as accurate.
However, there are also negatives to this. One, it costs a lot to pay for. With more interactive whiteboards, laptops, and tablets, a lot of schools spend a lot of their budget on these items. Before, if you wanted to succeed in college, you would have only needed a pen and paper. However, now almost every single college and university student has a laptop as it is seen as an essential part of further education. Two, having technology has made it easier for pupils to cheat from small lesson quizzes to even GCSE exams. Many more rules have been put into place to prevent any sort of cheating or plagiarism. Three, many schools have been putting in safety measures to prevent online bullying. This has been a huge hit for schools as many students have been impacted more online than physically. This also makes it harder to find out who did it as the accuser is behind a screen and can remain anonymous.
By Eelana V - 8ABW