With the advancement of technology, schools have seen it as a sign to adapt with the times and provide schools with computers for high school classrooms. Computers enable high school seniors to learn at their own pace, gives more access to information, and it's a quicker way to get through the lesson.
Computers make it easier for high school seniors to be able to learn at their own pace. When students are assigned to read and answer various questions on their computer, they have the chance to take their time to do it and immerse themselves in the new information that’s being provided. For example, a majority of students are on different reading levels, meaning that they all read and write differently, and when they can read and study individually, it does not pressure them into having the same reading level as other students. When doing their work independently, they can work on an assignment specifically generated for their level to slowly improve the areas that lack improvement. Sometimes not being able to keep up with other students can lead to teasing. For example, when a student gets called upon to read out loud for the class, if they are on a lower reading level, often other students tend to laugh and make unnecessary comments that might be embarrassing or hurtful towards the student.
Also, students actually like it when there are multiple teaching styles and it matches their learning style. Students tend to learn in different ways of learning, it’s easier and more effective for them. They get a choice on how they want to learn, not given by the teacher, or anybody else, but themselves. It gives the student a sense of control, they control how they want to learn and what they want to use. Everybody has different learning skills, which is where computers can come in to adjust to the student’s level and their preference. Students learn differently and that influences their way of processing and retaining information (Tang, 2003).
There’s a variety of learning styles and the most common for students is visual learning. Visual learners tend to remember better things that they read or see. It’s more appropriate if they have everything they need to have in a computer course where it can actually show visuals instead of memorizing the class, instructions or a reading. It’s preferable for them to have something to look at like pictures, words, and diagrams rather than memorizing verbal instructions. There’s also auditory learners, if they’re reading something during class, then they’d prefer to listen to the reading instead of actually reading it themselves. People can simply put in the name of the title on YouTube and they’ll just listen to the audio. Computers can offer that to them, it can provide different options of learning skills to the students and appeal to each and one of them. The use of computer will help them develop the skills that suit them best and that they actually prefer. Students have different ways they take in information and process it.
Computers allow to them an endless amount of access to information and they get to share it with others (Wighting, 2006). Students may not always understand the lesson that was previously taught and by logging into a computer, they have the ability to look for more than one way to learn information about the topic. They have more materials to work with. For example, in a math class, they can simply look for YouTube videos on how to solve the problems and after watching it a few more times, they finally understand everything. If they want to look up the right structure of an essay, they can google it and they’ll have it right in front of them. It can be helpful for any subject, from English to Physics, and students like it more because they can just do it from a computer in their classroom making it an individually generated course. It is also helpful for homework, any discussion that is made in class, to look up words and meanings that nobody seems to know. When students have access to their computer, they do school work such as research paper, so they simply go on their computer, get it done and hand it in. Using computer in class is helpful when students are doing group projects like presentations, they simply share the slides with the rest of the group and everyone will work on it at the same time without being in each other’s way. It’s a useful way of getting students to work as a team that will eventually help them in their future careers.
It can make students eager to learn a lot more. Seniors grew up with technology, their childhood was filled with it: flip phones, Gameboys, DVD players. Since they’re so familiar with it, and later on with computers, they find class more entertaining especially during school hours. It’s not the typical class where they listen the teacher speak during the whole class. It makes them excited to learn more, it’s a different way of learning. They know class will be easier and more fun than usual, they get to enjoy the learning process.
Computers can be used to get through the lesson quicker by simply connecting it to the Smart Board. Most people prefer to look at something while the teacher is giving the lesson, instead of listening them talk. With the computer connected to the Smart Board, class moves quicker and smoother, everything is right there on the screen and students can just read it from there instead of flipping through pages or looking for papers that they had previously lost. Everything is basically on the Smart Board, and everybody is on the same page.
Additionally, students are often asked to write research papers and essays, or answer a couple questions and if they do it in a computer it’ll take them less time than doing it by hand. It gives the feeling of a shorter class since they are only typing in a computer, which is what they do at their house anyway. They grew up with technology so typing an essay in a computer is not an issue for them, especially if their hand will not suffer the consequences. Since they grew up with technology, then they prefer to learn from a computer than having actual papers to look at. Furthermore, class can be a lot more fun, pictures, videos and movies can be shown, it makes class a little bit more interesting if students actually look at something else rather than their teacher talking for an hour.
Students are required to type essays, and research papers throughout their senior year, and they tend to lose their papers. If they did their assignment on a computer at school and managed to save it, they can simply log into a computer and print it out again, or email it to the teacher. It gives them the ability to save all of their work throughout the entire school year (BusinessWorld, 1996). It is also a safer way to have the all the assignments saved in one place, which makes it harder to lose, rather than have multiple papers in a book bag that can easily get damaged whether it’s raining or snowing.
Times have changed, so computers help students to save time. They have access to millions of pages whenever they have to do an assignment, and that’s something that earlier generations couldn’t do. They had to do everything by hand, they had to go to the library, go through books and millions of pages to even start it. In addition, not only the process to look for information is easier, but the actual writing is too. Tools were developed to facilitate writing, like Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint. Writing is so much easier now, students just spill out their thoughts and opinions into their computers. It takes less time to type, less painful than writing by hand, and if there are any errors they can go back and revise it later.
In conclusion, computers have become so helpful for high school seniors. They get to learn at their own pace, they have access to more information, and class is over quicker. It gives them the chance to develop their own skills.