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Online resources are known to educate students resourcefully and skillfully while still making education enjoyable and teachable. However, although online resources can benefit students, it is established that these online resources are costly, distracting for students, and can lead to health issues such as eyestrain and headaches. These key factors indicate that students should continue with the traditional educational way of learning with textbooks, rather than to follow in the footsteps of today’s modern world.
Textbooks in schools from Kindergarten o Grade 12 are an $8 billion business with major textbook companies such as McGraw Hill and Nelson. However tablets and other devices are a $72 billion business (Digital Book World, 2012), which would result in a better profit for the economy. In an interview with Jocosely Krebs, a Professor in Biology said that she “think(s) publishing in general is facing a financial crisis because of the transition from physical books to e-books” (National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2011 Although this may be the case, using devices such as tablets is more expensive than using textbooks.
Executing the technological services of online resources will result in hiring administrators and instructors to aid schools to use the resources. Also, new updates that need to be installed in each device as well as repairs in case of any damages will contribute to the budget of schools. According to Lee Wilson, a marketing expert approximated that the cost per year for a student with online resources is $71 compared to $14 of traditional textbooks (Wilson, 2012). This could cause a downfall in the economy since every school would like to be up to date technologically.
In addition to expenses, a further reason why online resources should not replace textbooks is because they will most likely result in distraction among students. Students may go on websites that are not for educational purposes while the teacher is absent from viewing these devices. This way, students will multicast while doing class work which results in a short attention span from these learners. It is expected that students will use time in class inefficiently causing them to procrastinate in assignments, projects, and other class assessments.
Teachers agree with this fact, as 67% of middle and high school teachers state that with today’s online resources, they “do more to distract students than to help them academically’ (Purcell, 2012). Having unlimited amount of resources online has endless possibilities of research for a student. Too much information can be overwhelming, as a great number of websites, articles, and blobs are available for school. By providing students with textbooks, or library books instead of online resources, they will be limited to enough information for their grade auricular instead of being inundated with momentous yet unnecessary facts.
As well as being distracted, students will also be indolent when it comes to homework and in class assignments since answers can usually be searched up on devices. Students will decrease their analytical skills since online resources will discourage them to think on their own because of their dependency on online resources. As a result, these online resources will not greatly benefit students academically. It is known that heavy textbooks contribute to back problems because of heavy weight.
Although this may be the case, online resources found on devices such as computers, laptops, and tablets can result in other health issues such as eyestrain and headaches. Students are at school between 7-8 hours a day which is sometimes more hours of schools than hours they get for sleep. During these 7-8 hours, online resources will affect their eyes negatively considering they are on devices for a long period of time. Furthermore, it is most likely these students will come home to spend time with more devices such as gaming consoles, television, and their cellular vices.
They will be non-stop on electronic devices which can greatly affect their eyesight. Scientists conducted a study on the health effects of electronic devices in Hong Kong, which results showing that 70% of adults and 30% of children and adolescents have reported musculoskeletal symptoms in different parts of the body (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2013). By allowing students to Start early on electronic devices in school and replacing them with textbooks, it will only contribute negatively to their health.
This 0% will most likely increase throughout the years as the world is becoming more modern. By teaching with online resources on electronic devices, teachers are setting up students for harmful symptoms in the future. However reading and teaching from a textbook will cause no harm as there is no bright screen causing students to squint; affecting their eyesight in the long term. After debating the idea of online resources used in schools rather than textbooks, it is shown that this will be a negative contribute to the economy, to students health and their ability to focus in class.
Online sources used in schools will be costly because of program issues as well as electricity bills due to excess amount of students charging their devices. Students will end up being distracted while doing their work in class, as endless amount of applications, programs, and websites are right in front Of them to use. They may take advantage of these electronic devices, and depend on them to find their solutions rather than figuring it out on their own. Lastly, other than distraction issues, studies show that electronic devices used to see online resources contributes negatively to students’ health.