We now use computers in our society, which allow us to do many things. However, in today’s society, children go through their entire education using the computer. There is now, cyber schooling, where a child no longer attends school but learns at home in front of their computer. Should this, however, be how students learn and become educated?

We, as Americans, educate our children by putting them through years of schooling. A child is suggested to go through 13 years of schooling. After graduating high school, it is greatly recommended to go further onto college to become more educated in certain areas. There are thousands of schools throughout America, however. Therefore, the students at the many schools will learn different things. We gain our knowledge through many resources during these years of learning. Teachers, other students, computers, and much more are ways we attain our education. Computers are a dynamic addition to education, and could be considered to be almost like a school in itself. Computers have advanced our knowledge greatly since we have introduced them into our society, and started to use them in our everyday lives. This being the reason we now use them greatly in schooling.

Computers in schooling are used for many things. Computers enable students to share learning with others. Computers can greatly enhance the writing process of a student. It allows them to change things easily, cut things out of writing and move it to different places, add pictures, and many other attributes to writing. Computers should be compared to encyclopedias, libraries, newspapers, television and any other information tools used in the classroom. Computer knowledge does not however, replace any of the subject area skills. However, the spelling ability of a computer is much greater than most human’s ability. It has almost a built in dictionary which is not like a typical human. Students need to learn to do research on the Internet, but they also need to learn to research books. Students also need to learn to use a spellchecker, but they also need to learn to spell correctly and proofread their work without a computerized grammar checker. Students should be able to use the internet to research, but should also know how to research with books, encyclopedias, dictionaries and much more.

Many children and their parents have chosen a new way of schooling other than physically going to school. Online schooling has become a major way for children to learn without having to go to public or private schools. Many students are now learning through an online school where teacher and student to transmit their work over the internet. Teachers send schoolwork over a cd to their student, and the student does the work on the computer by themselves. Once the work is finished, the student will send the work back to their teacher over the computer. This could make the learning and teaching more convenient for both the student and the teacher. Also, allowing the student to do many other things with their time which could increase their experience and knowledge.

However, there are many drawbacks to this type of learning. If something would go wrong with the computer, such as any type of little failure, it would greatly delay the learning. Computer programs that the students will be learning on greatly change frequently. Another difficulty is that the student is generally left on his or her own to learn the material. This can be very hard on a student, especially if the material they are learning is very difficult for them and it is a hard concept. Self motivation is something that is greatly needed when it comes to online schooling. The student needs to keep up on all of their school work when they can be easily distracted and not necessarily forced to do their work. If they do not keep up on it, it will let them get behind on their work and will be twice as hard trying to keep up. These are all downfalls of having an education based on the computer.

Society wants computers to do what they do best while also teaching students to do important tasks without the assistance of a computer. An excellent teacher can do well with just a blackboard and chalk and not the complete use of technology. Education and knowledge can come from many different places, people, and things. Although it is a great advance having computers, they are not needed in our society to have an education.

By: Mathew Simond

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