The Effects of Technology on Education by Hailey

The Effects of Technology on Education by Hailey - May 2020 Scholarship Essay

Over the past one-hundred years, the education system has continued to expand and change, but whether it has become better or worse is debatable. Primary education has become normalized, with about 85% of students graduating high school, the high school graduation rate is at its highest. Despite the spike in graduation rates, the system still has its flaws. With the growth of technology, students can find virtually anything on the internet, making it that much easier to cheat. With technology endlessly developing and evolving, the foreseeable future of education may not be too good.

In the past decade alone, paperback books have seen a decline, as people all over the world read online via nooks, kindles, or even from their cell phones. Within the next fifty years, paperback books will most likely be almost entirely extinct from the world we live in today. Schools will no longer have textbooks or libraries full of bookcases, rather students will have access to tablets with unlimited online libraries. For paperback book lovers like me, this is a scary thought. Studies show that reading from tablets can damage the eyes and even hinder critical thinking skills, whereas reading paperback books is linked to higher academic achievement, creates more of a physical-emotional connection between the book and reader, can reduce stress, and simply brings the joy of reading to life. In the next fifty years, it is anticipated that the majority of children will read through technology, depriving them of the many benefits brought from reading books, and may even prohibit their success at school due to the countless hours they will spend staring at a screen both at school and at home.

Another significant change throughout the last ten years is the shift from written assignments and classwork to online assignments. Tools such as Google Classroom have made it possible for students and teachers to assign, turn in, submit, and grade work all through the internet. Within the next fifty years, education can be expected to become only online. Students and teachers will handle anything school-related through the internet, such as textbooks, video lessons, assignments, presentations, etc. As a result screen time will substantially increase, which can lead to brain impairment, lack of sleep, and even cause focus issues in kids starting from a very young age. Technology is a good distractor, and it is also likely that student-teacher relationships will not be sincere or present as a result of technology-centered education systems. Learning disabilities and problems will be much more prevalent in the next fifty years, and students will have much more difficulty in school if technology grasps education in these ways.

To reiterate, with technological advances on the rise, the education system as we know it today will look significantly different fifty years from now. As great and helpful as technology may be, the negative outcomes and damage that it is capable of will be the downfall of education. Unless schools monitor and prevent technology from becoming the center of education, schools can anticipate experiencing severe consequences in the near future.