Iliana Britos

April 23, 2013

Essay #2 Drafts #3

 

The Evolution of Education Thanks to the Internet

 

When I was at school, I used to spend long hours in the library. They used to have big encyclopedias with all types of information. I studied each subject from real books. Sometime we needed to look at more than one book to find out what we needed to know. It was normal to take books from the library for a couple of days to study. We also used to take books just to have something to read. The progress in technology is so big that the method of education is completely different today than when I was at school.

Today education goes together with technology. Teachers use smart-boards in classrooms. Students read books in tablets or even in cell phones. Part of the homework couth is completed on-line. The communication between teachers and parents is, in most cases, through e-mail. Most, if not all schools have their own website where we can access all kinds of information, from the homework for the next day to events to come.

                Recently, my daughter had to do some research about vertebrates and invertebrates for school. He needed to look for four different species of each one. She needed to find out what were the differences and similarities between them. She also needed pictures of each one. She used Google to do her investigation. She copied all the information and pictures of each species from the website to Word. It took her about four hours to do all this investigation, put everything together and print it.

                In contrast, if I’d had to do this project as a child, I would have had to look in many books and encyclopedias. I would have had to write all the information in my notebook and then I would have had to organize each one with the most important aspect. I would have had to draw and color each picture. I would have had to write the similarities and differences in another sheet. I would have had go to the library multiple times, and spend many hours to complete this project.

The progress in technology is a great change in everyday life. The scopes are tremendous and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop any time soon. We can access all kinds of information from our home in a very short time with the internet. Our children spend less time searching for specific topics and more time studying.  We have access to almost everything with just a click.