The Internet’s Impact on Education

The internet has become an everyday part of almost all of our lives, and in particular our children’s lives. Facebook, YouTube, games… but what about education? Many of our students can’t even remember a time before Google or Wikipedia, where answers to almost any question can be found with just a couple of mouse clicks. 🌐

Shifting “Student Work Spaces”

So many of our “student work spaces” are no longer limited to classrooms or desks. Now, they extend digitally into both formal spaces, like online school forums, and informal spaces such as the many social networking outlets where students communicate with each other. It has become incredibly easy for our children to share and learn from each other. However, it’s also easier for them to cheat and plagiarize. 😬

Not a Bad Thing, But… Caution Is Needed

This is not to suggest that the internet is inherently bad for our kids. It’s a tool and a resource with great potential to help. However, like any resource that’s deep and complicated, it needs to be watched carefully to ensure our children are getting the most out of it.

For example, I always found that online past papers were an excellent study resource when preparing for exams, and having the solutions handy allowed me to check my work. But if I had simply copied the answers to fill out homework or meet a homework quota, it would’ve been a classic case of “instant gratification”—something teens in particular tend to lean towards. This issue worsens when it comes to essay writing and plagiarism, something that teachers and tutors are constantly on the lookout for. It’s all too easy for kids to copy-paste entire essays, slap their name at the bottom, and call that an assignment. 📚

So, What’s the Solution? Encourage Learning, Not Memorization

One of the biggest issues in our education system is that children are encouraged to memorize answers, rather than to appreciate the concepts they’re learning or the methodologies they should understand. Our literature students should be encouraged to think for themselves and critically analyze, not to simply regurgitate last year’s exam question.

Similarly, our math students should focus more on the “how” and the “why” of the problems, not just the “what.” It shouldn’t be possible, from a marking or curriculum perspective, for a student to memorize an HSC essay and just churn it out during the exam.

Changing Attitudes—Not Just the Curriculum

A lot of the blame for this could be placed on the curriculum itself. However, teachers and parents can play a significant role in helping to shift student attitudes. If our kids were encouraged to appreciate the joys of learning, analysis, and critical thought, rather than only focusing on getting A+ grades and 100% (which often means simply ticking the right boxes on the syllabus), we’d have mentally healthier children. These children would develop a thirst for education rather than a thirst for correct answers at any cost.

Imagine if we nurtured children who wanted to think for themselves and figure out solutions to problems, instead of waiting for easy, prebuilt answers to appear. 🤔

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