Analytical Essay First Draft

Does modern media and technology have a positive influence in a learning atmosphere or is it detrimental and distracting to the youths of our country? Why should our school systems spend the money and time required to use these new mediums of learning if they are only detrimental? As a nation dropping farther and farther in education standards as well as global competitiveness it is crucial and most necessary to find the answer. Unfortunately, the previous questions have no clear-cut right or wrong, and thus, we must recognize that a balance of new educational media, and old, is the optimal path for our education providers to take. To recognize what might have a detrimental or positive influence on serious students we can look into three key areas of analysis. First; the use of web based learning applications, second; the distractive elements of portable computing devices, and third; complex presentation methods.

The internet is a marvelous invention that gives all who have access to it an endless supply of applications, information, and communication. Is this a good thing for the average, or even advanced student to embrace in a classroom like setting? Of all the topic about to analyzed, this is the one that needs the most improvement. Simply, there are too many distractive elements of the internet to harbor a serious learning environment. Let’s take the blog this is in as an example. Blogger allows people to post anything they desire on a web page so easy to make “a cave man could do it.” The advantages of such a site in a classroom are distinct, no paper, easy access by students and teachers, and endless levels of creativity. However, the amount of negatives outweighs the positives. Blogger’s element of creativity is highly distracting, it entices the user to spend more time formatting and arranging colors, fonts, add-ons like “youtube” videos, and tidbits of personal information than the actual meat of site, the text. In addition, the simple fact that you have to use the internet to do a homework assignment can easily lead even moderate procrastinators to their doom. Blogger aside, it is also important to recognize the plague of internet inside the classroom. Over the past year, I’ve seen more computer and internet usage in class than in my entire education. Perhaps I’m just old fashion, but the distractions are great and seem to invite and entice a prodigy towards them. While using internet in class one finds themselves on random sites brought about by lack of interest in a topic, boredom, or the distractive elements of the internet. As much as it sucks, any use of the internet in a classroom should be highly monitored, or restricted to sites that are boring or if they are of high interest, on topic. Procrastination is a horrible thing (which is very ironic to say because I’m typing this at 3:30 in the morning). Procrastination and distraction have also become highly portable and desirable from the learning community as seen in graphing calculators.

The farther up the math food chain you go, the more necessary graphing calculators seem to be. They take impossible calculations and magically spit out answers in the form of numbers and graphs but is this good to the overall education of students? Are students becoming to dependant on calculators and ultimately, lazy? While it is obvious that the ability of most kids to do basic math has dwindled some amount it is ludicrous to think that calculators are a negative in the classroom. They allow individuals to save time, learn at a faster rate, and reduce the overall stress levels of educators and pupils. The final verdict on calculators is quite a good one. The only set back of such devices that is very notable and worth addressing is the learning gap, or the difficulty and amount of settings changes one must make to do more advanced mathematics. Fortunately, these issues can be easily overcome with a good calculator and a good teacher. On the other hand, there are devices that seem to elude even the most seasoned teachers and greatly hinder almost every class that uses them, the dreaded projector.

In theory, projectors are wonderful things, they allow teachers to increase the size of learning materials so that they may share them with all who desire, yet they are flawed at the basic level. This flaw is user error. It is clear to almost all students that teachers have no idea what the heck they are doing every time they try to use a projector for more than the simplest of tasks. In addition, frequent use of a projector greatly increases the chance that a teacher will have poor, if not terrible hand writing on the board. These claims are not out of thin air but made only after years of close observation. Plainly stated, projectors are evil and by the end of a student’s educational life, have wasted hundreds of hours of potential learning. This is not the worst. Some teachers even bring down their projector burdens onto the student body. These teachers rely on their tech savy students to do their dirty work for them. These teachers also seem to frequently assign projects that require the use of a projector yet fail to have the ability to present the hours of hard long work a student has completed due to their inability to use a projector properly. Despite the negative outlook on teachers’ current standings with projectors, the future looks bright. More teachers are learning to properly use a projector to its fullest potential and eliminate the need for good hand writing, and increase the overall quality of their work (as well as the students’)

Technology is a great thing and most certainly aids in the learning experience yet it has a deep, lustrous dark side that so devilishly temps all who dare to step close to its hellish lair. Teachers need to learn to control technology in order to use it, much like a young padwon who earns their first lightsaber. The future is upon and we must not abuse it