Computers In Education
Education has been changing so much in the last few years with the
introduction
to the computers both in the classroom and at home with the
students. Students
are no longer expected to write papers but type them up;
Papers are no longer
expected to be just writing but integrated with pictures
and graphs; Projects
have also changed from who can learn the most to who can
make it look good.
Computers have revolutionized education, but not
without a cost. The cost is the
quality of education some students receive.
Computers take time students would
normally use reading and researching so
that they can make their project or
paper more attractive. Time is taken away
because teachers have not looked upon
quality lately, and teachers don’t
grade harshly if it looks good. Papers have
such a high expectation of
visibility and a low expectation of quality these
days. This theory has been
tested by both students and experts and has been
found to be true. The same
paper in a different form with more pictures and
charts will get a
significantly better grade then one of just writing. They have
also found
that the same paper when written, as opposed to typed, will receive
a
significantly lower grade then the one done on the computer. This shows
the
paradigm shift that has taken place over the years from quality
to
computerization. If a medium could be reached where students put as much
time
and effort into the contents of their work as they did into the look of
their
work it could easily be said that education is better today then
before. Until
the student takes it upon his/her self to improve quality or
until the teacher
comes to grade on quality things will only be about who can
make it look the
best. Any student will learn at a very early age that it is
important to learn
how to use the computer. It is also very important to
learn how to integrate
graphs, charts, and pictures into any document that is
done for school. In doing
this the student will receive a better grade in
most cases with less work. In
all cases the computer has drastically changed
the way both student look at
doing a project or paper and the way that the
teacher will grade something.
Teaches need to stop looking at how the
paper was done and start looking at the
paper itself. If this happens grades
would probably decrease for a little bit
but there would be a shift back to
students doing more quality work, instead of
more attractive work. Computers
are a great addition to our society, culture,
and social structure. Computers
are one of the greatest revolutions in the
twentieth century and will most
likely have the greatest impact on our
civilization. The usage of the
computer today, especially in education, is being
abused. Society is putting
to much emphasis on technology rather than on
education. We have what we do
today because of the way people were educated in
the past. Educators should
look back on how they grade or rate students since a
computer can not expand
ones mind, only help it to better express what one is
trying to say. We are
looking more at how someone says something over what they
say, and the
learning process should not start out like this but rather end up
in this
mode. Computers are just used at to high of a rate early in the
child’s
education process and takes both from learning skills and
interpersonal
communication skills.