With the internet being so popular now a days, this dissertation examines the impacts of the internet on students. Some say our modern life has become easier and the people of the world have to thanks to the immense contribution of the internet for the communication and information sharing. My topic is about the affects of the internet on students.
Have students gotten more knowledge and more socialized because of the web? I believe that the use of the internet helps students develop their knowledge and a great way of communication. There was a study conducted on the Vanier College grounds. A total of 40 recipients answered my survey of a total of 10 questions. An interview conducted by me and answered by a student who attends Vanier College. My findings on this study was very interesting, the survey showed that students would go on the internet for many hours for other reasons then school work and still are able to obtain a good average of grades. I also obtained more or less the same results with my interview.
A large enough amount of differences surrounds the effects technologies such as the Internet have on human capital growth. As with most media, the Internet is able of passing on enriched learning experiences. However, there are potential costs to using the Internet and its services, which may result in degradation of high school students’ scholastic performance. This topic is interesting to me and it intrigues me ever since I realized that my little brother was always on his computer. I have been asking myself many questions ever since my little brother was able to walk on his one and his attachment with his iPad. My brother and I have a difference in age of 11 years. For the last 10 years I was able to witness how technology and the internet played such a big role into a little child`s life. Yes, he grew attached to it but at the same time he was more advanced as a child at home and at school.
This is why I am conducting this research paper to know if the internet has made students/children smarter or more socialized. I myself may get carried away at times, especially when I have homework to do. The internet became a daily routine for about everyone now a days. I collected data from all of my readings of my references and as well from the data collected from my research methods. The results indicate that the this type of multimedia is a very good educational technique and it gives the people the opportunity to communicate with others from outside of their horizon. Now a very important question comes to mind, does Internet usage harm the grades of students? There was a study made in the UK that 90% of children aged from 9 to 20 years old use the internet for school work at least weekly. That is a big percentage of students who use it for a good cause! There was another case study that was made back in 2015 by Ozkisi and Topaloglu that out of 200 students, 179 of them (89.
5%) have the internet connection at home. That is more than half of the students. My research question is important to me since I have been wondering this question for a very long time. I have been asking myself many questions ever since my little brother was able to walk on his one and his attachment with his iPad. My brother and I have a difference in age of 11 years. For the last 10 years I was able to witness how technology and the internet played such a big role into a childs life. Socially at home or with his friends and even with his grades and the ammount of work he uts into it. Yes he grew attached to it but at the same time he was more advanced as a child than me and all my other three brothers who were as fortunate as he was at his age.
This is why I am conducting this research paper to know if the internet has made students/children smarter or more socialized. In today’s day and age, technology is in every direction you look at, and the Internet is a major part of our lives and if you ask me it consumes us. Almost everything we do in our daily routines has to dwell upon some sort of technology in one way or another.
For example, children are starting to use technology at a younger age. Which is completely reasonable since technology was not such a big thing a couple of decades ago. You were lucky if you were able to afford a television in your living room as my father would say.
Although, today, technology has eloped further than just a television. It came up with gadgets such as portable computers, iPod, iPhone… etc. Which for some sort of reason it became easier to obtain since in today’s era, everyone has one. There are a lot of children with tablets or iPods, which they use daily.
So this brings to mind, are children smart or more socialized because of the internet? With children of all ages using the internet on daily basis, are they learning or just using it to socialize with other friends? Another study from Ozkisi & Topaloglu showed that at the University of Manitoba, more than half of respondents reported using the Internet for educational purposes. After sending out 40 surveys I would have a very good idea of my own answer to these questions and see if all the other statistics are right. The first three articles listed on my reference list are all articles that are for my topic. Meaning, they think that technology and the internet bring out the best on students and that they use the computer mainly for school purposes. They have all conducted their own surveys and came out with the same result; the internet has been beneficial towards student`s grades. That having internet at home helps students be more self-directed learners.
Another idea that they all have in common is that the internet is not only there for educational use but also for communicating and socializing with people around the world. The internet contains vast amounts of information that can be accessed by anyone with acomputer. The internet fosters a global information exchange and allows people from totally different backgrounds share ideas and communicates in ways that were never possible before.
My last article on my reference list is the only article that thinks the internet is not a good tool for students and children. Yes it is used for educational use but students tend to get distracted with other sites such as Facebook, YouTube… etc. Students are likely to neglect their studies. It is also shown that a big percentage of students use the internet on a daily basis but they are not aware of the security issues they may encounter. With the internet, you become more vulnerable to scams, misinformation, and exploitation.
On top of all this, the last article explains how there is no face to face communication which makes it harder for students to socialize outside in the real world and addiction kicks in which leads to insomnia which can also lead to poor grades. I am ready to test this reseach and see on my own what kind of results I will obtain, but I think that it is a very good tool to use for educational purposes and social ones as well. In this section, I will give you more in depth information on all my data that I have collected until now.
First, all of my data that I have collected all have one purpose; an answer to my research question. My research question is; Are students smarter and more sociable with the use of the internet? My first approach with this question was to conduct a very simple survey that everyone were able to understand and answer. This was my first methodology.
I conducted a survey of 10 easy questions for about 40 students or more (preferably) to get a stronger and more accurate answer. My population is any student that goes to high school or college. This population was a little too wide so my sample were students who attend or attended Vanier College. The type of research that was used in this study was Qualitative Research. Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. This research is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. I will also examine the phenomenon through observations in numerical representations and through statistical analysis.
Along with questionnaires that will be given out to respondents for the statistical representations of the findings in the study and interviews with the respondents. My second methodology was content analysis and my thirdone was interviews. For my sampling techniques, I used Systematic random sampling (SRS). My sample members are selected according to a random starting point and fixed periodic interval. I gave out my survey all around Vanier College campus. In class, at the cafeteria or outside while students are having a smoke break. Honestly, any student on campus who were willing to answer my questionnaire. The reason why I used random sampling was because I wanted to obtain a more specific result I was able to use to represent the entirety of the population.
I collected a vast majority of data. My survey had a series of ten questions, including a open-ended one. This survey was given out to 40 students. In these 40 students, there were 20 females and 20 males. So 50/50. Shown in Appendix, Figure 1. All of them attending Vanier College day semester studies and all of them having access to the internet at home. When asked about the R-score, there were more females then men who scored an R-score of 27 and more for last semester.
It was five females and two men in total. Around 17. 5%. (Figure2) After going threw all the 40 answers there were many people responded between 22-27 for their R-score. About 70%.
(Figure2)When it came down to choosing how many hours per day are they on the web, the best answer was 4 to 5 hours and more. A total of 24 students (60%) chose that answer. (Figure3) Twelve girls and ten boys to be exact. In my survey I also asked how many hours per day do you use the internet for school and to my surprise half of the respondents answered one hour and less per day and 33% answered to around 2-3 hours per day, which sounds a little more reasonable in my opinion.
The students who scored good R-score are on the internet more hours a day doing other things than for educational use and the ones who did not get such a good average at school do not use the internet at all for school purposes. On my interview, the student in question, who’ s name would like to stay anonymous, believes that it is a very good tool because it helped him achieve homework in Spanish class. In conclusion, conducting this research helped me realized many things and answered my questions. The web is a great way to do homework or any information you would like to know. The useof the internet does not affect the grades of student in a bad way. In the contrary, it helps them improve.
It brings people more closer together and more socialized ever since web pages have been created to communicate with people all around the world. Being on the internet is just as similar as a visit to the library. It all depends on what you use it for and how you manage your time with it. When it came to answering my survey, many students left the open-ended question unanswered.
Whether they were lazy or did not have time to ans
