Better Learning Through Modern Technology In his article, “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” Nicholas Carr criticizes the Internet and its role in turning the world into shallow zombies incapable of concentrating on one simple task, much less incapable of multitasking. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Carr. When used strictly for entertainment purposes yes, it can be. When used to teach and learn, it is a very useful tool. The Internet can open up the world to those that may never have a chance to see most of it. It can spark the imagination and curiosity of children and expand their universe. I feel that the Internet, while it can be a repository of useless information, can be a beautiful thing. The Internet is a constantly changing …show more content…
How many times does one begin reading one article just to click a link relating to that article and an hour later you look at the clock and realize you have just spent an hour reading different articles? We all do it even when we tell ourselves it will be just for a few minutes. That is just a side effect of the World Wide Web. Just as we discipline ourselves in certain aspects of our lives, we can do the same with the Internet. The Internet can make our minds constantly turn, similar to a roller coaster that never stops (Carr, 2010, p. 375). Maybe it is not that we process the information differently or that the internet, with all of its distractions, prevents us from paying attention. Maybe it is more that the people who do not tend to enjoy reading and those that do not perform well in a structured learning setting are the same people who mainly use the Internet as a source of entertainment. We now know that people learn differently and the Internet can help accommodate those with learning disabilities much as the blind benefited from …show more content…
Many schools now send kids home with a laptop or a tablet for use in class and home. This helps to teach students early on how to use technology to help them do well in school and teaches them responsibility. This teaches children how to learn efficiently and understand how to find the information they need. As Megan Poore suggests in “Digital Literacy: Human Flourishing and Collective Intelligence in a Knowledge Society”, that it is not just about learning how to process what we learn. It is also about “raising people’s critical consciousness to a point where they become aware of their own historicity, so that they can intervene in and change the world - which is arguably the whole purpose of education to begin with” (2011, pg.
Advancements in technology have strived to make life easier for so many people. In most cases, the advancements have achieved its goal, but in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr questions if the improvements in society have unintentionally hindered our thought process overall. Carr begins the article by providing personal instances when his concentration seemed to diminish due to the internet. He explains how he now loses interest when reading lengthy portions, his mind just can’t seem to remain connected to his readings. He then proceeds to talk about how today’s life is surrounded by the internet, and explains the pros and cons of it. The negative side of it is that his mind now wonders off when seeking information from
The internet is our conduit for accessing a wide variety of information. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr discusses how the use of the internet affects our thought process in being unable to focus on books or longer pieces of writing. The author feels that “someone, or something, has been tinkering with [his] brain” over the past few years (Carr 731). While he was easily able to delve into books and longer articles, Carr noticed a change in his research techniques after starting to use the internet. He found that his “concentration often [started] to drift after two or three pages” and it was a struggle to go back to the text (Carr 732). His assertion is that the neural circuits in his brain have changed as a result of surfing endlessly on the internet doing research. He supports this statement by explaining how his fellow writers have had similar experiences in being unable to maintain their concentrations. In analyzing Carr’s argument, I disagree that the internet is slowly degrading our capacity for deep reading and thinking, thereby making us dumber. The Web and Google, indeed, are making us smarter by allowing us access to information through a rapid exchange of ideas and promoting the creativity and individualization of learning.
Like Gladwell, Nicholas Carr believes the internet has negative effects. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Carr attempts to show as the internet becomes our primary source of information, it diminishes the ability to read books and extensive research. Carr goes on to give a very well researched account of how text on the internet is designed make browsing fast and profitable. He describes how the design for skimming affects our thinking skills and attention spans. He wraps up his argument by describing what we are losing in the shift toward using the internet as our main information source. Carr suggests the learning process that occurs in extensive research and through reading is lost. While the learning process can be beneficial to scholars and intellectuals, not everyone has the capability to follow through with it. The internet offers an education that anyone can have access to and understand. Also if Carr believes the learning process is better, this option is always available for people who want to learn according to this scholarly principal. However, for the rest of the population the quick and easy access has allowed the average population to become more educated, and to expose themselves to aspects of academia that previously is reserved for
With the rise of technology and the staggering availability of information, the digital age has come about in full force, and will only grow from here. Any individual with an internet connection has a vast amount of knowledge at his fingertips. As long as one is online, he is mere clicks away from Wikipedia or Google, which allows him to find what he needs to know. Despite this, Nicholas Carr questions whether Google has a positive impact on the way people take in information. In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr explores the internet’s impact on the way people read. He argues that the availability of so much information has diminished the ability to concentrate on reading, referencing stories of literary types who no longer have the capacity to sit down and read a book, as well as his own personal experiences with this issue. The internet presents tons of data at once, and it is Carr’s assumption that our brains will slowly become wired to better receive this information.
According to www.telegraph.co.uk, “[y]oung people aged between 16 and 24 spend more than 27 hours a week on the internet.” Certainly this much internet usage would have an effect on someone. What exactly is the effect of using the internet too much? Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” argues that we are too reliant on the internet and it is making the us dim-witted and shortens our attention span. While Clive Thompson’s article “Smarter than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better” states that technology is not only a collection of knowledge, it also a method of sharing and recording our own knowledge. I fall between both Carr and Thompson. I agree with car on his points of us being too reliant on the internet but disagree when he states that it is making us less intelligent. Meanwhile, I also support Thompson’s statement that the internet allows us to assimilate vast amounts of knowledge but disagree with his opinion on how we should be reliant on
Although the Internet has increased how much we read, it has deteriorated our concentration level. We are no longer able to read long passages and stay interested. We have resorted to skimming or finding a shorter version. It has also affected our ability to take an analytical approach to what we read. We no longer go beyond comprehending the information we take in. Outside of using the Internet to “enhance” our mind, Carr has also made the point that it is a daily involvement. We incorporate it in our everyday lives, because it is a source of entertainment or serves as some type of convenience for us.
However, think about the evolution of literacy and the different ways in which children and people learn and retrieve information; this definition could also include interaction with the digital text. There is a wide range as to what counts as literacy such as blogging, social networking, emailing, digital storytelling, online chats and even shopping online just to name a few. Not everyone will agree with what counts as literacy, but if students are not enlightened on the many aspects of what could make them valuable assets in the future; that would be negligent. In Rich’s article digital literacy is being discussed which is the topic this response will focus on. Learning is not restricted only to the classroom. Just like books, the Internet can take you places, on advantages without having to leave home. Digital literacy can be beneficial with the proper guidance of teachers, educators and
Can you imagine how children do not seem to have any problems in learning how technology works now? It happens that almost every kid has their own laptop, cell phone, iPads or any other electronic devices. Who does not want to live in this world where doing homeworks and making your job much easier, right? If children nowadays are too lucky to have and learn these things while they are young, most of us grew up and experienced the life without technology. In "My Technologically Challenged Life" by Monica Wunderlich, she talked about the different struggles she had experienced in her house, school, workplace, and her car due to the lack of technology.
The internet is ever changing, and so our minds, but can the internet mold our minds? Nicholas Carr and Michael Rosenwald support the idea that the reading we do online is making it harder to be able to sit down with a good book. In their papers they discuss the downfalls of using the web. While on the other hand author Clay Shirky challenges that thought in his piece. Shirky directly battles the idea that the internet is damaging our brains by suggesting that internet use can be insightful. In this essay I will evaluate all three articles and expose their strengths and weaknesses then add my own take on the situation.
We live in a time where technology is at the center of our society. We use technology on a daily basis, for the simplest tasks, or to aid us in our jobs, and don’t give a second thought to whether these tools are actually helping us. Writers such as Kevin Kelly and Clive Thompson argue that the use of technology actually helps us humans; whiles writers such as Nicholas Carr argue that technology affects people’s abilities to learn information negatively.
Moreover, Carr’s article mentions that by using technology of any kind, users tend to embody the characteristics stimulated by that technology. He says that given that the Internet processes information almost immediately, users will tend to value immediacy. To explain, Carr gives the example of a friend of his named Scott Karp who was a literary major on college and who used to be an avid book reader. However, since the arrival of the Internet, Karp skim articles online because he could no longer read as much as he used too. He cannot pay attention and absorb long texts ever since he read online articles. Internet...
Do you ever think about how much technology has changed the way we work, learn, play, and even think? Technology is a major beneficiary to society; especially in the classroom where we get the opportunity to learn and grow. In recent years, schools have begun implementing tablets and other devices in the classroom to better student’s education. The use of technology in the classroom provides more of a personalized learning experience and gives students a widespread availability to engage in learning. Technology is necessary in today’s modern globe, it is basically “the pen and paper of our time and the lens through which we experience much of our world” (Warlick, 2013). Technology is not just considered the “internet”, it is so much greater than that. Overall, it enhances the quality of education and engages students deeper than ever before. With all the significant gains, why would people argue that technology hinders students more than it helps? Critics may try to repute the use of technology in the classroom but I believe what really matters “is the way we use it, the context that we use it in, and the learners who we use it for” (Chong, 2012).
Students do things like write papers, access test and quizzes, and even visit their teacher’s web page where they find information needed for the course. This may seem easy to students who have always had internet in their home with a computer they can work on, but what about the students who have no idea what the internet is, or don’t own a computer or device they can to practice on. This is one of the key reason digital literacy is important. Students no matter the age or background should feel comfortable using the internet at school. They should always feel caught up in classes because if they don’t know how to it will be taught to them. Schools should make sure students are up to speed and no child is left
Imagine someone born in the early 1900’s entering a modern-day classroom. They would likely be confused as to what televisions, computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices are. It is also likely that they would be overwhelmed by the instant access to information that the internet provides. Digital media has become a large part of people’s everyday lives especially with the rise of digital media in classrooms. Digital media is growing so rapidly that people who are not adapting to this shift in culture are falling behind and becoming victims of the “digital divide”, this is leaving people misinformed. Digital media has a large effect on the way that people communicate, this is especially evident in the way that students interact with
Children of all ages everywhere these days seem to only depend on the internet. The internet is an amazing creation, but people take advantage of it. Since there is internet there is access to all kinds of social media, games, and all sorts of other things. However, because of today’s society internet is one of the only things kids use and go on, whether it’s go on Facebook for hours or watch ridiculous videos on YouTube, the internet is taking a negative turn towards children, their brains, smartness, and attitude. Despite helpful or early learning programs, the internet does not make children smarter.