Internet and education

Ever since the internet was discovered, it quickly consumed people’s life and changed the way we live and the world. While thinking about the internet or technology in general, a question came up to me: how did people back then wrote scholarly papers while having to cite valid and reliable sources? We can probably assume that they got books from the library or some sort of journals and use them to support their paper. If the people back then did this, it must have been so hard for them to find sources that is relevant to what they are doing since they will have to search for the books, journals, and such. Unlike now, all we have to do is use a search engine in the internet and find sources. This relates how education is evolving and how the internet is affecting it.

Education these days, or should I say schools in general incorporate the use of technology in their teachings. For example, when professors give students research papers or papers in general, they usually want student to have reliable sources that supports their arguments. The students will usually find sources by searching using “key words” that relates to their topic and hundreds and thousands of results will show up with just one click. Isn’t that crazy if we compared it to the old times? I mean, this the positive aspects of the internet on its convenience and speed. However, the internet has a lot of negative aspects to it.

One of the negative impacts of the internet, specifically in terms of education, is plagiarism. Many things in the internet these days, for example papers, are posted online meaning that it is accessible to the public. I mean not all students do this and it is a very rare case where they just copy and paste their paper and turn it in, which hinders their learning. Similarly, the internet is a huge distraction now because of social media, online games, entertainment videos, and so forth. Lastly, how credible are the sources online? A lot of people read a lot of articles online these days but how can we know if they are reliable? One common way that we know that sources are credible is because of the url/links, the website, the publisher, and some other ways. However, there are people who don’t know these or people who just believe everything on the internet and that could influence other people as well.

My point is that because of the internet a lot of changes happened in the educational system and how it affected people in positive and negative way. Back when the internet didn’t exist, people probably had to search really hard for sources that are similar or relevant to their research or study. Unlike now, with just a few key words and a click of a button, we can have access to thousands of sources.