essay

Ashry 1

Nedal Ashry

Prof. Guzik

ENGL 301B

15 February 2020

Education and Technology

The benefits of technology cannot be denied in how they help students getting their work done both in and outside of the classroom. Technology also saves students time by helping them submit their work when it’s due. Even with these great benefits, using screen-based-devices can distract students from staying focused. Handwriting notes is more efficient than typing it because the notes will be more specific. In this essay, I will discuss the benefits of screen-based-devices in education and their disadvantages. I will discuss a potential policy which California State University Long Beach should adopt in order to prevent students from multitasking and staying focused on getting one task done at a time. Administrators and instructors should develop ways to help students stay engaged in class by providing them with a productive environment for learning with the use of screen-based-devices.

Students who try to multitask can’t get things done in a timely manner since their brain can’t process two different things at the same time. According to Dr. Adam Gazzaley, who is a neuroscientist at the University of San Francisco, the prefrontal cortex faces challenges when the brain tries to process multiple tasks at the same time. Studies show that the brain works in harmony with the prefrontal cortex when one task is being accomplished. However, as soon as students start multitasking, the right hemisphere and left hemisphere of the brain are forced to work independently which stops them from getting things done on time. However, if they focus on doing schoolwork or taking notes individually from start to finish, they won’t be worried or concerned about checking their devices. In order for the prefrontal cortex to process things in harmony with the rest of the brain, students should minimize the use of screen-based-devices while they are in class or doing homework so that they can get tasks done on a timely manner.

Another disadvantage about screen-based-devices is the ability to retain information during lectures. Students spend the entire class time taking notes on their electronic devices without paying full attention to the material being taught. I have experienced this issue myself when I would be taking notes during class, and when I went home to study. I had a hard time understanding my notes because I didn’t spend as much time paying attention during class. With some professors drawing diagrams or not having uniform notes, I would not be able to copy down the information on my screen-based-device as quickly or in a manner that would make as much sense as what the professor wrote on the board. I also would get distracted as soon as I received a notification from either Facebook, Twitter or when I receive an important email. I would often find myself switching from one screen to another and oftentimes forget that I am in class. It came to a point where I preferred taking notes in my notebook rather than typing them in. That way I could stay on track with the lecture and retain information better for when I study outside class. Taking notes on screen-based-devices really hurt my productivity in the long run, because I was so focused on writing everything down which made it more difficult to listen and absorb the information. Screen-based-devices also has the influence of allowing boredom to get the better of me. With the endless distractions just a few clicks away, I would go online and surf the web in order to deal with what’s more appealing.

The Bank of England chief economist states, “Skills building innovation and an entire economy could be at risk because fast thought could make for slow growth.” We live in a very fast age where information is spread across the world in matter of minutes if not seconds. Students tend to stay up to date with everyday information, and for this reason they don’t want to risk missing anything that happens in, even during class time and that’s what causes them to multitask in a bad way. Multitasking has its disadvantages, and procrastination certainly plays a major role in this. Students tend to procrastinate when they focus on secondary tasks and deviate from the primary task which they should focus on in the meantime. One of the most distracting secondary tasks is social media. The problem with social media is that we are receiving notifications from our friends, family, or news organizations constantly. When we receive a notification from a friend, we leave what we are working on in order to check what they’ve sent us, and that’s what makes students lose their train of thought; it is as if our brains are addicted to these notifications and we are willing and wanting to respond to them right away. According to Zomorodi in Bored and Brilliant “There’s no way it can be completely out of your mind if you still have your phone in sight. Also, have you ever managed not to look at an object that starts buzzing in your hand?” (2). It is especially tempting in school, because classes are not always exciting or interesting during its entirety. Therefore, it’s not easy to ignore your device if it’s in your hand or nearby. However, being addicted to the devices can cost more than just not focusing in a class it can cause accidents. The news also plays a role in this as well. As current events are new and stimulating and draw our attention immediately. What we see day to day regarding politics, the economy, or anything else that plays an important role in our lives so it just. Technology adds fuel to the fire of distractions. This dilemma is related to multitasking which us students suffer from during our undergraduate career. This can be seen by a participant of the Bored and Brilliant challenge, who said, “I’d like to sit and read and not interrupt myself every five minutes to check Clash of Clans; or watch an hour-long drama and really appreciate all the nuances which I’ve been missing because I’m only spending 30 percent of my attention on it.” If this is affecting people during their leisure activities, it is going to distract people when they need to be productive such as in class or at work.

This problem is not only important to take on for when the students are in school, but also for their futures. If they are distracted in class, this will undoubtedly spillover into their careers. An example in Bored and Brilliant is, “I have a whip-smart colleague who always has the best ideas for shows and edits- but who also can’t keep from checking Instagram…Even when we play back the sound edit, she can’t help herself”(34, Zomorodi). The author goes on to explain how the coworker is unaware of what is going on and things must be repeated. They also describe how people cannot focus even during face-to-face encounters and social situations. By stopping this in schools, it would benefit students in their future careers and social lives a whole. Many technical things are learned in school, but by stopping distracting technology in the classroom it could teach them a healthy life habit; by not having these distraction it could set them up with a solid foundation for being more focused in when they enter the workforce. In other words, each time a person takes his/her focus from one thing to another, their brain takes new information, which reduces their primary focus. Constantly being distracted leads to inefficiency, and at work a problem like that could end a career and cause trouble when it comes to getting and retaining a new job.

While technology is great and important for our society going forward, its disadvantages outweigh the advantages in this setting. I believe administrators and instructors should limit the technology access during lecture time, so students can have their full attention to the lecture. By doing this, students will have no option but to live up to their true potential and perform at a higher level overall. When students pay attention in class, they won’t have to go over their notes repeatedly on their own time since they can more easily retain the information covered during lecture. I believe instructors should enforce physical textbooks rather than online books and PDFs since that will help students stay focused longer and be able to shut off the “technology overload”. Also, students should be writing their notes in the class instead of typing it using screen-based-devices. In fact, the mind learns and processes more information by writing things out rather than typing it out due to muscle memory. Moreover, technology has been evolving yet our form of writing information hasn’t really changed. This is why it is a natural way for us to remember more when we write things down. If schools make textbooks cheaper to buy or rent, then it will offset the potential for this affecting the students’ financials. Stopping the use of screen-based-devices would benefit everyone; from students, professors, the schools themselves and society as a whole with people who know how to work effectively and efficiently.

Citation

Zomorodi, Manoush. Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self. Picador, 2018.

McClurg, Lesley. “Don't Look Now! How Your Devices Hurt Your Productivity.” NPR, NPR, 19 Oct. 2016, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/19/498450445/dont-look-now-how-your-devices-hurt-your-productivity.