The Effects of Technology on The Educational Process

Technology has become in a component in the system of education and it has changed the way people learn nowadays. Likewise, technology has transformed the roles of students and teachers. Students are taking more responsibility for their own learning and educators are concerned with identifying learning styles because every student learns differently. However, technology integration does not always guarantee the quality of education, there are reasons in both positive and negative ways.

Firstly, technology has had positive effects in the educational process, such as access to huge informational background, distance education and the increase student motivation and engagement. The internet has several informative websites and the students can use it to get information they need and to expand their knowledge base. Distance education is becoming more prevalent worldwide as technology advances because the students can study on their own terms, the programmes tend to cost less than on-campus programmes and it improves the self-discipline and time-management skills. For example, according to Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, in the U.S.A., the number of students taking one online course has grown by 183 percent from 21,044 in 2007-08 to 59,583 in 2017-18; consequently, the statistics demonstrate the importance of distance learning. Moreover, technology is a motivational way to expose students to increase social interactions, enhance student learning and new opportunities for communication and participation.

Secondly, technology has had negative effects in the educational process like plagiarism, misinformation and student distraction. Because of the volume information, the technology is generating an act of fraud known as plagiarism. Students can find and download information and pass it as own and the original ideas are considered intellectual property and they are protected by copyright laws. Therefore, plagiarism has consequences as the expulsion from the university or legal actions. On the other hand, anybody can post information on the internet and it could be false or inaccurate, then it generates a difficulty to determine if the information is truthful or it is a piece of misinformation. In addition, students spend time on social media as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat and it is a cause of distraction. A study by Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers says that people touch or check their phones 150 times a day and the Paw Research Centre estimates that 81% of teenagers use social media.

As conclusion, technology has had profound positive effects in the educational process such as access to information, distance education, increase student motivation. However, it has had negative effects, related with plagiarism, misinformation and student distraction. The development of technology continues, so the effects will depend of the use that each student.