Within recent years especially, much of school revolves around technology. Such websites as Webassign and StudySync are being integrated into the classroom as an aid for teachers to assign students homework and classwork. However, how efficient are these sites truly and are they worth the hassle or are their outcomes perhaps more ineffective than the old “traditional” way of teaching?

The obvious arguments against the technological integration is how many students do not understand or simply are unable to use these programs. Printers do not always work, assignments do not always go through, and a majority of the time assignment time limits are far too strict. Where is the line for these problems? If a student does not turn in an assignment by 12 o’clock but simply submits it at around 12:06 am because they had a late night, should they get a late on the assignment? Or if a printer does not work on a one day assignment should a student be forced to pay to print out their homework in the library? There are so many gray areas that a simple pen and paper could fix easily.

The barrier between student and the education they are being taught alone is being affected as well. A majority of the time several teachers will much rather prefer to have online assignments rather than paper homework meaning the student must have access to a computer to complete these tasks as well as wifi. This leads to a small amount of time in which these assignments can be completed: at home and with a computer. That time is so limited to so many students due to sports and extracurricular activities that their focus switches from understanding the material to simply completing the assignment to be able to sleep. In the classroom students are also constantly being shown online text rather than reading physical books and annotating texts which makes it harder for them to adjust to those forms of reading on tests as well as just in general. Students have lost their love for books simply due to these technological advancements. So if these issues can all be solved through switching back to old ways of teaching why are we not changing back?

Simply because it is what it is called: old. The old ways of teaching are now outdated and simply do not work the ways they used to. Though right now both teachers and students are in a time where they both are trying to figure out the perfect balance in technology’s quirks and its immense resources. Going backwards would just be taking a step back in education or lead us to, “getting lost in the future” as Justin Lopez (11) believes. Technology has a wide variety of information that is so useful to the youth today that taking it away would be debilitating to those who would benefit so much from it.

As of today’s day and age, the benefits that technology give heavily outweigh the issues that come along with it, and the classroom is no exception. A couple of glitches that are brought on by misunderstanding are easily overshadowed by the thousands of books, articles, math problems, experiments, paintings, pictures, and statistics that the internet offers. Though technology is greatly infuriating and perhaps should be limited in the classroom itself, the integration of it and assignments that schools are now using does everything but debilitate those who use it.