Recent Advancements In Technology

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Garrett Bowleg

Information Technology in a Global Society

Lucaya International School

Candidate number 001937-003

Abstract

The aim of this Extended Essay investigation is to analyze "The impact that the advancements in technology, and the use of social networking sites have on the academic success of students." In order carry out this investigation I will explain what the advancements in technology and social networking sites are. I will then explain how students today interact with the websites and how they are being used. The positive and negative impacts of having computers in school will be analyzed and I will pose solutions to solve the problems that technology brings. To emphasize my beliefs, and the facts, I have conducted a survey and a thorough analysis of my results is included in this paper. To strengthen these results and ideas, I have found previous studies which I will compare to my analysis. The conclusion that I have found, is that the advancements in technology and social networking sites do have an effect on the grade point averages and study habits of students. In order to keep the use of computers in school productive; a school technology use policy needs to be implemented and enforced. Also, schools should speak to their students about distractions and procrastination and encourage them to put their school work and studying first, because social networks will always be there when the work is complete. Other solutions are also analyzed in this paper.

Word Count: 228

Table of Contents

Introduction

Research Question:

How do the advancements in technology and social networking sites affect the academic success of students who use computers daily in school and at home?

In recent years, technology has seen tremendous growth throughout various parts of the world. Particularly the younger generations have become very tech savvy with new gadgets on the market every day. These modern advancements have managed to assimilate into the daily school and work routines of students and teachers. While allowing them to complete tasks more efficiently, technology can also be very distracting. This is due to the recent popularity of social networking sites and access to the internet while doing school work. Therefore, it is very important to explore how these recent developments have affected its users.

What are the recent advancements in technology?

As of 2010 eighty-one percent of people in the world use some form of technology daily. This is a tremendous increase compared to the 2002 figure of just forty- five percent (PEW Research Center). Technology has not only become more efficient, but also more accessible. Those who would have never been able to gain access to technology before, now have the luxury of doing so. The technological advancements that have increased accessibility are:

Wi-Fi: This advancement is not as recent as the others; however it was definitely a turning point for technology. The ability to gain access to the internet away from a computer desk or chair has changed technology growth and its usage forever.

IPad/ IPod/ Iphone/ Kindle Fire: These devices are used widely amongst students around the world and have the ability to be integrated into a school system. The devices listed above are sometimes preferred over laptop computers by students because they are portable and are easier to take to school. This technology has also seen dramatic growth from the 1980’s pager that could only ‘beep’ and Motorola TAC phones to call; to the 1990’s Nokia for calls and texts; to more advanced LG phones with key pads and touch pads; to the 21st century iphone that has the features of multiple portable devices (Chalfant).

Apps: With the popularity of apps increasing, there are wide arrays of options that have become available. From apps that allow students to keep track of assignments due, to those that allow them to type a full book report, apps are being more frequently used.

Cloud technology (iCloud): Cloud technology is also becoming very popular. It is the ability for a user to use word processing or a spread sheet, or any other common software application via the internet and essentially save the documents in a "cloud" on the internet, rather than your personal computer. This type of technology has come a very long way from the use of the ‘punch card’ and ‘punch tape in the 19th century; to drum memory, floppy disks, and compact disks in the 20th century; to flash drives and SD cards at the beginning of the 21st century; and now, all the way to cloud technology which can be accessed from any computer that has internet (Maher).

Audio Play back/Streaming: This feature and advancement can allow users to record anything at any given moment and be able to play it back whenever they please. This can become a handy feature for school students who want to remind themselves of homework tasks and assignments. This also allows students to watch videos instantaneously on websites such as ‘www.youtube.com’ which uses streaming.

Face time/Skype/VOIP: This gives students the ability to have a face to face conversation with anyone that has face time as well, whenever and wherever they please. This advancement that is generally used on the apple software is also an encouraging aspect of buying these new devices.

Multi touch screen feature: This can be seen on many apple devices such as the IPad and Iphone and allows users to be more interactive with their devices than previous technology. The multi touch screen feature lets its users use their fingers to control the device and act as a mouse and has the ability to recognize and understand the touch of one or more fingers. This form of technology is becoming more widely used in newly created devices like the Kindle Fire. Over the years, this new technology has been implemented in different ways, such as on mobile devices, tablets, and even walls.

Given these advancements, people around the world now have the ability to interact with one another between countries. The younger generation, who has grown up with these technological advancements, seems to have been impacted the most. These advancements have changed the way the youth today work, play, and especially, the way they socialize.

What are social networking sites and how have the advanced?

Social networking sites are websites that allow people from all around the world to come together and socialize in one environment. These sites allow its users to create online profiles that provide as much or as little information that the user desires to share with others. Sites such as "Facebook" help to keep friends, classmates, and co-workers connected during the time that they are not face to face. According to Webopedia, a social networking site is, "any Web site that enables users to create public profiles within that Web site and form relationships with other users of the same Web site who access their profile. Social networking sites can be used to describe community-based Web sites, online discussions forums, chat rooms and other social spaces online." (IT Business Edge)

Because of the popularity of social networks, it is only fitting that the websites will become more advanced with time to attract more users. This is shown, as in October 2012, social networking sites have four places out of the top ten most visited websites in the world (Alexa Internet, Inc. ). These websites include Facebook, Twitter, and QQ.com (Chinese internet community). Students are keen to use social networking sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see, or friends they have met in other countries. Some like to share their life experiences via videos and photos and the sites mentioned above are ideal for this. It is because of these features that there has been such a huge growth in the use of social networking sites. Some of the advancements that have triggered this vast growth include, the purchasing and creating of virtual goods, becoming more mobile as most social networking sites can be viewed through mobile phones and other devices, and the new modes of communication since users will usually be interested in new ways of staying in contact with their peers.

These advancements in technology and social networking sites are particularly popular amongst students. They have managed to incorporate the use of technology into almost all aspects of their daily lives; from socializing with friends, to shopping, and now turning in homework assignments. Becoming digital natives (Joy) has changed the way that students study for school and even for some changed their overall GPA’s. Some being for the better, but others for the worse. In this essay I will explore how technology (particularly computers) has affected the way that these students work and study.

Students and Social Networking Sites

Personally, I believe that the main reason that students create accounts on social networking sites is because everyone else, including their friends, has an account. Students typically want to fit in, and nowadays, it is very uncommon that a student is not connected socially through the internet in some form.

Figure 1: A chart to show reasons for visiting social networking siteshttp://www.artsci.com/studentpoll/v7n2/graphs/chart2.gif

Source: http://www.artsci.com/studentpoll/v7n2/index.aspx

According to the above chart, social networking sites are largely used by 86 percent of students to keep in touch with friends that they rarely see in person (College Board). This can be done by reading status updates to see what they are up to, by looking at photos of their weekend or vacations, or even sending them personal messages through chat or inbox. Another 80 percent use it to keep in touch with friends that they see regularly (College Board). This is an astonishing amount considering that they see these people on a regular basis; what more staying in touch would need to be done? Because of the endless amount of things that can be done on these social sites, students tend to spend endless amounts of hours on them. It is very interesting to see that students typically do not use social networking sites as an escape mechanism to hide their private life from their parents. In fact, it is apparent that that is the least of their concerns. As this is the motive for less that 10% of students (College Board), we understand that the relationship between students and social networking sites is primarily for communication purposes. While they are good for rekindling old friendships and communication, social networking sites can have a negative impact when used on computers in school.

Impacts of Computers in Schools

Most 21st century students have had the opportunity to grow up with technology and many would consider it an essential part of their daily lives. Some teachers have realized the excitement that technology brings to students’ lives and have decided to incorporate it in their teaching. This technique would be used as motivation to make school students much more eager to learn and gain knowledge. It is important to incorporate computers in school because the use of this technology prepares students for life after high school and for entering the work force. This can be seen because 65% of today’s grade school kids will end up at jobs that haven’t even been invented yet (Zappa). With the world becoming more technology based, if students gain exposure to this technology at school, they will be well prepared for life in the ‘real world’. While being a great resource for students, using technology in schools can also have its negative impacts however.

Positive Impacts

Motivated Students

Not all students are academically successful because not all students are able to learn in the same way. Using technology in schools opens doors for students who are hands on and visual learners. This will allow them to be more motivated and eager to go to their classes and learn. They gain a sense of authority by controlling the computer, rather than simply receiving a lecture or book of notes to copy from their teachers. For visual learners and students who are vey tech savvy, they will be motivated to complete school work by using their computers which should in turn better their study habits and raise their GPA’s. This was proven during an investigation by a 5th grade teacher. Upon introducing the use of a computer to his class to type their essays, it was immediately apparent that the students were more excited to learn. Daniels found that all of his students wrote about 50% longer pieces than they would have written by hand (Daniels). Using their own computers and tablets puts the control more in the students’ hands, which is something they noticeably love.

Research

Using computers and devices that have access to the internet makes the World Wide Web easily accessible for students. The internet provides endless amounts of information for students to use and search engines make it more efficient than flipping through pages of a textbook. Because the internet has made it so easy for students to find the information that they are looking for, fewer students will turn to a book, or go to the library to find what they need. This also makes using these devices a time saver.

Saving Work and Turning in Homework

For many students, the use of a computer enables them to stay organized. Without the need for written reminders, things are less likely to be misplaced. Instead of packing away essays in a book bag to finish at home, students can simply save the document in a secure folder on their computers or in a cloud, and return to the document to complete the essay when needed. Paper is a material that can be easily lost or thrown in the garbage by mistake. This also poses an advantage for teachers because their students will not have the excuse of "I lost my sheet" or "I didn’t remember what the homework was". Computers also have the storage capacity to store a large amount of files. Therefore students will never have to worry about running out of paper or their pens running out of ink.

Negative Impacts

Distraction and Procrastination

While technology has its many advantages, the disadvantages are very close to outweighing them. Not all students have the ability of self control and, with the vast amount of distractions that the computer offers during school, time is likely to be wasted. While finishing off your essay during class, you receive a Facebook notification. Simply checking that notification, may turn into hours being spent on that website, scrolling down your newsfeed or looking at recent photos of friends. Before the student has time to finish their essay, the lesson will be over. Computer games and the internet also provide room for procrastination. While students are thinking about something to write, they may decide to play a game in the meantime, which will likely distract them for hours on end. A recent study with 219 students, between the ages of 19 and 54 at an American university, showed that the exam results of students who used social networking sites while working, were 20 percent lower than the students who didn’t (Fleming). This clearly shows that the use of social networking sites via technology causes procrastination, resulting in negative effects on students academic achievements.

Reliability of Sources

Not everything that is viewed on the internet is reliable. When researching information in books, teachers can be confident that the information their students find has some factual standard, because they would have approved the book. When researching information online however, there will be many websites to choose from. Some of which can be biased or even worse, completely false. For example ‘www.wikipedia.org’ is a free encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone around the world. The information posted there is non-expert and can be biased depending on the author. With hoax websites, blogs, and sites like ‘www.wikipedia.org, it can be difficult to decipher what is factual or opinionated. Students will have to be able to distinguish which sites best fit what they need, and not all will have the ability to do so.

Plagiarism

Once a student is connected to the internet, they have access to millions of resources and information pages. Most school assignments have probably been given out before, in another school or even another country, it will be very easy for students to find help, or exact answers for their assignments online. The student is then able to write exactly what they have found, and receive credit for work that is not original. Once students become aware of the ability to plagiarize without being caught, they tend to make it a habit. In a survey of 24,000 students at 70 high schools, Donald McCabe (Rutgers University) found that 58 percent admitted to plagiarism (McCabe). This will then encourage laziness of the student’s brain, and result in them not learning anything that they have been taught. This not only hinders the student, but the teacher as well; because when it is exam time, and that student is unable to copy from a website, the grades will reveal the truth.

Lack of Interaction

It has been argued that the advancements in technology have begun to physically and socially deprive students. This is because many students now find it easier to speak to people through an online chat rather than face to face. This then takes away the social interaction between peers. This can be very negative in the classroom setting because if students are always plastered to their computer screens; why are the teachers there? The interaction needed to form a successful and active classroom environment cannot be accomplished with the sole use of computers. Today’s students, who are in classrooms with large amounts of technological devices, experience 30 percent fewer face-to-face experiences than previous generations (Monke). It is imperative that students be able to hear the opinions and views of their peers to broaden their understanding of certain topics. Teachers are placed in the school system to help students develop personally, and to teach them everything that their parents cannot. They are not there to supervise while the internet teaches their lessons for them.

Survey Results Analysis

I conducted a student technology use survey that was given to students in grades nine through twelve at my school. (Sample provided in the Appendix) This provided information about the type of technology that students use in school (laptops, smart phones, and iPods) and how it has affected their study habits and grade point averages. From my results I found that 100% of the students surveyed owned, some form of technology and 100% of them had an account on a social networking site. My results proved that these technology devices are very prominent in students’ lives as 100% of those surveyed use their devices more than five days per week.

Not only are the devices being used almost every day, but as mentioned before, they are also being brought to school and integrated into the study habits of students. This can be seen in that 83% percent of the students surveyed both bring their devices to school, and use them to study. In order to focus more on the impact that these devices and sites were having, I asked the surveyed students to rank how beneficial, as well as how distracting, technology devices were to their school studies. The results are displayed in a graph below:

Figure 2: A graph to show the relationship of the use of technology devices.

Scale:

1: Not at all beneficial/ Not at all distracting

10: Very beneficial/ very distracting

According to the graph of results, as the amount of students increases the level of technology being beneficial also increases. This shows that most students surveyed would say that technology use when doing school work is very beneficial. However as the amount of students increases, so does the level of distraction. This means that these exact same students would also tend to say that the use of technology devices when doing school work is very distracting. Therefore, these results contradict each other, showing that students need to find a happy medium between using their computer for school work and using it for leisure.

While the use of the computer is very distracting for most, it does not seem to have an effect on the grade point averages of the majority of students. From the surveys that I collected, that about 67% percent of students say that they have not seen a decrease in their GPA’s due to their use of technology in school. However, the remaining 33% percent who have seen decreases form a large proportion of the surveyed students. This then relates to the information that the graph produced by showing that for some, the use of technology is not at all beneficial, while for others, it can be very beneficial.

These results then provide an issue for students. Students need to be allowed to use this technology during school because it helps with research, interaction and they are able to produce work more effectively. However, how can this be done without the distractions that the students say these devices also pose?

Solutions

Advancements in technology have obviously been of great help to students in school. It allows them to complete work more diligently and efficiently, however it does pose many forms of distraction. Because the devices are so beneficial, I do not suggest they be omitted from the study habits of students. Instead, they need to find a middle ground where there is a clear line between the time for studying and the time for leisure.

Figure 3: Chart of how schools monitor student computer use.

Nceschart07

Source:http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2006/12/chart_week_inte_1.html

In order for schools to help with this issue during school time, a technology use policy can be created and handed out to the students. This will remind the students of what they are meant to be doing during school time, which is not visiting social networking websites. The policy will set boundaries and requirements that the students must abide by, and once the contract is signed by both parents and students, it means that they are willing to suffer the consequences if these policies are broken. According to Figure 3; as of 2005, about 76% percent of public schools had a technology use policy in place (Mcleod). This solution is shown to be effective in that the majority of public schools are putting it into use. If standards are set and rules are put in place, that alone may convince students to be ethical and do what is right, by following school policies.

Another solution would be for the school to use its own intranet. This makes it easier for the school to monitor exactly what students are doing during school time. If students know that they are being monitored they will be less likely to waste time on social networking sites. This intranet can also act as the schools very own form of communication in that students will be able to share work with their peers as well as teachers via the closed intranet. If this is done correctly, students may not have the urge to even visit social networking sites if they are already able to communicate with others.

A solution to solve the problem of distraction would be to have teachers walk around the classrooms on a regular basis to check that the students are progressing with their work in a timely manner and that they are not distracted by other features of their devices. An extreme measure would be for schools to implement systems to have social networking sites such as twitter and Facebook blocked on the school network. This will give students no other choice but to complete their tasks during school.

While these solutions may work, in order for these devices to be solely beneficial and not distracting, the student has to make up their mind and be very determined to stay focused, as the option to close your essay and play a game will always be available. Ultimately, the success of the student is in their own hands.

Conclusion

The increasing amount of advancements in technology worldwide, and the growing popularity of social networking sites amongst students, has ultimately had an effect on the way that students study and pose a major distraction. For the majority of students, social networking and technology have become a common part of their daily lives. While computer use in schools is good for the motivation of the students and for research purposes, it is also very distracting and causes procrastination amongst them. The results that I have obtained from my surveys and other sources support this idea, and I have concluded that students need to find a medium position between doing school work, and having leisure time on their computers and devices. The most effective solution to these problems would be to put in place a technology use survey in the school and make students aware of the consequences they will face if these policies are broken. While being a very good solution, it poses the question of whether or not schools should just find a way to incorporate these technological advancements and social networking sites into their curriculum. This would remove the distractions, and make them a means of learning.