Essay: Technology in the classroom hurts students more than it does help (argumentative essay)

Ever since the creation of the computer, technology has had a major influence on the lives of many people. Without technology, society today would not be as advanced as it is. Researchers use technology to problem solve when developing new medications to treat diseases. Engineers use technology to create when designing and manufacturing new commercial airplanes. As new positive uses for technology continue to expand into today’s society, so do new negative uses find ways to hurt society, and using technology to further one’s education is among the worst uses. Technology in the classroom may offer some practical uses. For example, teachers are able to pass assignments out to students just as easy as students are able to hand completed assignments in to be graded. Students have access to an entire new world of knowledge when using the Internet. Although it may be a more convenient and practical way of educating, the use of technology is not always reliable in the long run. Technology in the classroom hurts students more than it does help because it can negatively affect one’s ability to learn, can pose many physical and mental health issues, and can encourage an unethical way of learning.
To begin with, technology can negatively impact a student’s ability to learn. When given the opportunity to use technology in class, students have the choice to either use it for educational or non-educational purposes. It is the expectation of the teacher that students make the right decision to use it for educational purposes only; however, this is not always the case. Today’s technology comes with many applications that may prove as major distractions for students during lecture or study periods. Social media and video games take the student’s attention away from the lecture. Students who text during class not only distract themselves, but also distract other students. Not only can technology negatively impact one’s ability to learn as a distraction, but it can also force a student to study more independently. As mentioned before, one of the more practical uses for technology in the classroom is that teachers can easily assign, collect, grade, and hand back assignments to students. Although this is more convenient for both teacher and student, the opportunity for the teacher to take the time to review the assignment with his or her students is often missed. After grading assignments, teachers will often send them back to the students with all of the corrections made, rather than sitting down with a student and going over the corrections face-to-face. As a result, students will try to go over the corrections themselves. Also, technology can limit a student’s ability to think critically and form their own ideas. With easy access to the Internet, students have the ability to find answers to questions without having to think about them at all. Although not all students take advantage of the Internet in this way, the fact that technology allows students to learn in this fashion defeats the whole purpose of critical thinking. Finally, overuse of technology in the classroom can affect the quality of the students’ work without technology. For example, note-taking has moved away from pencil and paper to laptop and keyboard. As a result, students’ penmanship can be distorted, and their spelling and grammar skills may be weakened due to use of autocorrect. Although technology may seem to positively impact a student’s ability to learn, it actually can have a negative impact.
Not only does the use of technology threaten a student’s ability to learn, but it also poses many physical and mental health issues. For example, due to excessive amounts of sitting and studying from devices, students can suffer from head and back pain, which can also affect a student’s healthy sleep cycle. Constant staring at a screen can also damage a student’s eyesight, weakening it in the future. When a student is using a device to work on an essay or a research study for a long period of time, he or she is putting his or her body in serious bodily danger that can have drastic effects in the future. Technology can also negatively impact one’s memory. Today student can use technology to store all notes, books, and homework they need to study. However, students tend to rely on their devices to remember new and old information for them to the point where they cannot remember easy information for themselves. Technology can also harm a student’s mental health just as drastically as his or her physical health. For example, excessive amounts of time using technology can negatively impact a student’s social behavior. Students who spend most of their time studying from a screen and communicating through messages can possibly lose their ability to interact with others in the real world. Also, technology can cause students to live with unnecessary stress. Using a device to look at an article on a website and write an essay may not seem very stressful, but the amount of switching from an article to the essay can stress the brain out, as well as any text messages, emails, and other notifications that distract a student from his or her work. As safe as using technology may seem, it poses several threats to a student’s physical and mental health.
Finally, the use of technology in the classroom can encourage an unethical way of learning. Before implementing computers or iPads in the classrooms, cheating on basic homework assignments required students to look off of a classmate’s paper or have a classmate do the assignment for them. However, with the expansion of technology continuing into education, cheating on assignments simply requires a camera. Academically dishonest students now have the ability to take photos of classmates’ assignments and copy answers off their devices. Also, although cheating on exams, essays, and projects may seem difficult to do, students can easily find ways to pull it off as long as new technology is continued to be implemented. Students can purchase prewritten essays on the Internet without having to write a single sentence. Bluetooth headphones allow students to listen to others give answers during exams. As more technology is utilized into the education system, new ways of cheating are being discovered. Getting away with academic dishonesty is just as simple as finding new ways to cheat. By simply deleting any photo or file of an assignment from a tablet or computer, students can easily cheat their way through their education with no evidence. Finally, if a student does happen to get caught cheating, a school’s punishment may be more relaxed than it should be. Schools that have used technology in their classrooms do not want to blame it for their students’ cheating. These schools do not want to admit how easy it is for their students to take advantage of the technology and use it to cheat. All in all, due to how convenient and practical technology is, students can learn in the most unethical way possible.
In conclusion, although the adoption of technology in the classroom seemed like the best way to adapt to a more technological world, it can harm student’s education more than it can help. It can negatively impact a student’s ability to learn, threaten a student’s physical and mental health, and encourage an unethical way of learning. So before turning on a device to write an argumentative essay on why technology in classrooms is bad, think about the major academic, health, and ethical affects it may have in the future.