8/12/2019 Computers and the Internet Have Changed the World of Education in Innumerable Ways

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Computers and the internet have changed the world of education in innumerable ways. This meansthe teacher must also change. Most students now have access to countless sources of informationfrom all over the world. They can also talk to experts in multitudes of professions. Many students nowlearn to type before they learn to write in cursive. Despite these facts not all the changes have beenpositive. Students are now exposed to outside predators who may try to take advantage of them. In

addition they may be exposed to obscene materials. Schools have installed filters, but theysometimes are unable to prevent all inappropriate material from being viewed. Many teacherscomplain that the internet allows plagiarism and all out cheating with access to pre-made term andresearch papers (where do you think this paper came from). Many critics of the educational systemalso point out that often students only like to use computers to access informati on. They dont like touse computers for their many other uses like complicated math problems or construction ofspreadsheets. Unfortunately, this seems to be true computers need to be used across the curriculumnot just for research projects.

Yet another benefit having computers and internet access in the classroom is the ability of students tobe able to talk to experts in their respective fields. Children doing a project on insects can to talk toscientists who work with insects every day. They may be lucky enough to talk to an astronaut ormaybe an author whose books they have been reading. Children can also participate in interactivechat rooms with other students or international pen pals. With this said its important that teacherstake the proper precautions.

Everyone knows that the internet poses many dangers especially for unsupervised children. Whenchildren are using chat rooms, care needs to be taken to ensure the children safety. Any studentusing a chat room needs to have a screen name(www.ptft.merit.edu). Teachers have to make surethey go over certain rules before they allow any student use the internet. Students must be taught tonever give personal information over the internet this includes their name, location, or telephonenumber. It can be quite a liability to have internet access in the classroom; teachers must be sure theyprotect themselves.

Another worry is that students may access inappropriate material. In 2001, almost all public schoolswith internet access (96 percent) used various technologies or procedures to control student internetaccess to inappropriate material on the internet ( www.nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/internet/8.asp ). Thesetechnologies usually work, but I have learned the hard way that they are not perfect. That is why it isimportant to monitor students whenever they do use the computer.

Cyber cheating as well is a new problem that teachers now have to deal with as a consequence of thecomputer revolution. Plagiarism has been a problem since kids started going to school, but theinternet opened up a new world of cheating. Take this example from a past Phi Delta Kappan article.Steve Gardiner an English teacher in Billings, Montana was home one night correcting a stack of

Macbeth essays. He had sworn he just graded the paper this paper and had given it an A. Heremembered writing on it. Was he mistaken, he looked back at his stack of papers? There it was thesame exact paper word for word. Mr. Gardiner couldnt believe it; did they think he was stupid? Theyhad copied each other work and they were in the same class. So he had thought. The next day whenhe confronted the two he found out that both had down loaded the essay off the internet. It was justdumb luck that they had both picked the same essay ( Gardiner, 2001, p. 172) This example shows

just how easy it for students to cheat. Web sites like www.schoolsucks.com do not make a teachers job very easy. Sites like these offer papers on any type of subject a student would ever need to writeon. They can really make a teachers job tough. This is why teachers did to be vigilant in catchingcheaters. There are obvious things to look for though. High school students and defiantly youngerstudents almost never write perfect papers. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Another way to

check students work is through the internet exercise we conducted in our CS 101 lab. You visit aninternet search engine type in a certain passage from a paper and see if anything comes up. If you do

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find something that matches exactly you more than likely have a student who is plagiarizing.

School districts across the country must get better at implementing the current technology. Most ofthe computers in schools are set up in just one room commonly called a computer lab. This makesthem completely inaccessible to be used in everyday learning especially at the elementary level. A

major weakness of the education system is that computers are not used enough. Students need towork on them more. Any future job that a student could end up in will

equire that they use some type of computer. In addition school districts need to do a better job intraining teachers to use technology. Statistics released by the Department of Education in April of2000 found that less than 35 percent of teachers felt they were well prepared or very well preparedto use technology effectively (www.nea.org/technology/ ). Schools need to realize that they need tospend more money on training teachers in technology than on the actual technology. A school canhave all the newest up to date technology, but if no one knows how to use it, its useless.

The kids often know more about computers than the teachers do.

In conclusion, one has to believe that computers and the internet have benefited education.Unfortunately, they have also brought many problems upon the schools. The schools are catching upand are implementing programs to combat these problems. They have a long way to go though.Despite that fact the teacher can go a long way in preventing most of these problems. All it takes is ateacher who is properly trained and can keep a watchful on their students. If these standards can bereached, the new technology can allow students to accomplish achievements once only dreamed of.