Doing School Work On The Computer

While the increased usage of computers in our daily lives has possibly created a more

productive overall use of our time, it has also introduced us to forms of entertainment

that can quickly consume great amounts of time and attention. When factoring in school

work to the computer usage equation, the possibilities of wasted time are vast. School

work is not always the most conducive activity for keeping a person focused.



Doing school work on the computer is an exercise in both time management and staying

on task. With the click of a mouse button an hour of study time can be lost to a game of

solitaire or a quick search of websites. Distractions abound on a computer, too frequently

an Instant Message will appear asking for a fraction of your time. A notification from the

speakers tells you have an email waiting and a pop-up bubble tells you an RSS feed has

appeared that you need to check out. A 10 second glance at an email can quickly become

30 minutes as you go from link to link reading the latest news.



An additional noted effect of the increase of work done on a computer is the inability to

have legible hand writing. With the majority of written work being typed instead of hand

written, reports have shown an exponential decrease in quality of penmanship. While this

may not seem important at first it can be a symptom of an even bigger problem and can

teach children that doing things the "old fashioned" way is not important when in fact it

also has it's time and place.



The act of studying and doing school work tends to become monotonous and the brain

seeks for ways to distract itself. Whether that be staring at a picture for a few seconds or

listening to music. This need for stimulation does not have to be a negative thing

however. A quick distraction may allow a student to more readily absorb information

once they go back to schoolwork. Working on a computer especially requires occasional

breaks where the student takes their eyes off of the computer and gives them a break.



On the other side of that coin is the increased productivity gained from using computers

for school work. The ease of typing out a paper often allows for better thought

transmission and more detailed work done than traditional hand writing. The ability to

easily go back and reword a thought or expand on a thought allows for students to more

fully realize their potential. Along with ease also comes a saving in time by working on

the computer. It is most of the time quicker to type a paper than to write it out by hand so

typing allows a student to get more done in a shorter period of time.



Studying on a computer allows a student to have multiple avenues of teaching at their

immediate disposal. Alternative views are easily found and questions can be quickly

addressed by online dictionaries, encyclopedias or specialized websites. With the

addition of the internet there is hardly a question that can be posed that an answer cannot

be found for. Of course we do have to pay attention to where our children go on the

internet and teach them which sites are best to find answers on. Just because something is

online does not mean that it is true.



Whether or not to allow our children to do their work on the computer has become a

matter of great debate both among parents and among teachers. It has great potential as a

learning aid but many are afraid of the dangers contained at the same time. Also some

worry about the potential for cheating when there is so much information readily

available. As technology advances this debate will only become more and more

pronounced. For the time being though it's an individual thing and it up to each parent

and school to decide for themselves.