You walk up the stairs from the bus bay. Go straight. It seems to be that every morning you hear the endless chatter of Middle School students sitting on the benches near the Nurses office gossiping about the latest gadget. Even on a gloomy Monday morning, you hear the tip tap sounds of the keyboard, students talking about who won the latest cricket match while watching highlights on their computers.
Technology impacts all of us. There is no denial about that. We use it for work, school and for leisure at home. The computer is for sure one of the most used gadgets ever. Since the time that the computer was invented, no ones life has stayed the same. Take Apple for instance, they sell their products for ridiculous prices but we still have the ‘need’ to buy the latest thing. That ‘need’ is what drastically changed us all.
UWCSEA has its own views of technology. For homework, students use purely their laptops, as that is a way to advance into a 100% tech school. However, there is a downside. Students get highly distracted with their laptops in front of them. It seems to be that there is no real way to get rid of the distraction.
Roshan Arun Kumar, a grade 8 student was interviewed by this reporter about distractions and ‘gaming’ on the laptops in the Middle School. Roshan claims that he spends the same amount of time gaming as he spends on a social media website. He said, ‘ Every week, I spend about 2-3 hours on social media, same with the amount of time I game a week. I obviously spend more time doing work on my laptop than gaming and social media combined as we use our laptops on a daily basis. A computer seems to be such a big part of all of our lives, I probably couldn’t last too long without one.’
Research has shown us that technology has both a positive and a negative effect on our lives. On the positive side, it is easier to access things and you can do so much more than what you could do on pen and paper. On the negative side, it opens up a world of distractions which is easily accessible with just a few taps of the keyboard. Also, by 2010, 97% of all schools in America had access to Internet Connectivity. This means that the 97% of schools in America believed that technology is the way to go.
All in all, technology has by far helped our lives in ways that were not imaginable before the invention of the first computer. The matter of addiction to our laptops isn’t manageable by others, in the end, it comes down to you. It’s all about self-control.
Technology impacts all of us. There is no denial about that. We use it for work, school and for leisure at home. The computer is for sure one of the most used gadgets ever. Since the time that the computer was invented, no ones life has stayed the same. Take Apple for instance, they sell their products for ridiculous prices but we still have the ‘need’ to buy the latest thing. That ‘need’ is what drastically changed us all.
UWCSEA has its own views of technology. For homework, students use purely their laptops, as that is a way to advance into a 100% tech school. However, there is a downside. Students get highly distracted with their laptops in front of them. It seems to be that there is no real way to get rid of the distraction.
Roshan Arun Kumar, a grade 8 student was interviewed by this reporter about distractions and ‘gaming’ on the laptops in the Middle School. Roshan claims that he spends the same amount of time gaming as he spends on a social media website. He said, ‘ Every week, I spend about 2-3 hours on social media, same with the amount of time I game a week. I obviously spend more time doing work on my laptop than gaming and social media combined as we use our laptops on a daily basis. A computer seems to be such a big part of all of our lives, I probably couldn’t last too long without one.’
Research has shown us that technology has both a positive and a negative effect on our lives. On the positive side, it is easier to access things and you can do so much more than what you could do on pen and paper. On the negative side, it opens up a world of distractions which is easily accessible with just a few taps of the keyboard. Also, by 2010, 97% of all schools in America had access to Internet Connectivity. This means that the 97% of schools in America believed that technology is the way to go.
All in all, technology has by far helped our lives in ways that were not imaginable before the invention of the first computer. The matter of addiction to our laptops isn’t manageable by others, in the end, it comes down to you. It’s all about self-control.
Written by Arjun
Really catchy anecdote! The way you describe the middle schoolers talking is really unique and I can easily imagine it in my mind. The message of your last paragraph is very insightful and could also effect my own life.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is well written, but I disagree in that there is no real way to get rid of distractions. An operating system could be developed or modified to not allow anything to be done, but that which is in the lesson plan. Of course, this would be hard to achieve, but is definitely possible. Another way would be to determine that which is distracting a student and deal with it. For example, if Google Chat is distracting the student during class, google should be pressured to allow this feature to be disabled for accounts with the school's domain. Another example would be, if a game is the distraction, find a way within the operating system to block this game. If this is not possible, one should modify it or change to a operating system which fits one's needs. This could be a OS which is easily modifiable or has the features you are looking for.
ReplyDeleteGood luck,
Francisco, 8th gr.
ASFG, Mexico
I tottaly agree with you, apple is a really expensive brand for computers and technology in general, and every time they get a new product or update everyones just leaves the old and buys the new one. Then they realize that the old product was almost the same as the new only some fixes but the bad thing is that some of us don't notice it and just spend money for the new one. We just stay additct to it.
ReplyDeleteThank you
Rafaela, 8th grade
ASFG, Mexico
I think that this is very well written, and I also believe that getting rid of distractions on the computer is very hard. Here in ASFG when they block a website or something like that students always find a way to enter into that website by doing things such as copying and pasting the link of the website in google translate so that they can see it again or also opening the website in there house so that when they get to school it is already open. So I agree that getting rid of distractions can be almost impossible.
ReplyDeleteThank you
Dario, 8th grade
ASFG, Mexico