Research Proposal on "Is Technology Destroying the Interest of Students Toward Education?"

Research Proposal 4 pages (1460 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Technology/Education

TECHNOLOGY and EDUCATION

Certainly, when attempting to answer the question "Is technology destroying the interests of students toward education?" one must take into consideration more than one viewpoint, meaning that like many other social topics, there are always two sides to any question, being positive and negative. In this case, a number of American educators, ranging from kindergarten teachers to college and university professors and instructors, maintain that technology in the form of computers, cell phones, Ipods and texting are slowly eroding student interest in obtaining a higher education after graduating from high school, due in part to students believing that technological skills are replacing the need for a traditional education, especially related to the humanities. In contrast, those individuals and corporations behind the creation of technological advances in society point out that "technology is a necessary thing and all students must learn to use it effectively and efficiently in order to advance themselves and to earn a living in a very technologically-based culture" (Emberley, 87).

With these two aspects of the question in mind, it is quite obvious that students, particularly in the United States, are losing interest in an education. The reasons for this trend are simple yet also complicated, due to the many changes that have occurred in the American public school system and to the great advances in technology over the last thirty years or so. For instance, as Tom DeWeese asserts in the article "The Fix That's Destroying Education in America," beginning around 1990, the American educational system "has been completely restructured to deliberately move away from teaching basic academics to a system that focuses on training students" for the technological jobs of today and the future (American Policy Center,

Internet). As a result of this restructuring, the American educational system deliberately "dumbed-down the children" which has affected the academic strength "to make them the smartest students in the world" (American Policy Center, Internet).

But one might ask exactly how technology plays such an important role in this "dumbing down" of America's students when it comes to them losing interest in obtaining a traditional education, such as at a local community college, a state-run university or even at a private university. First of all, as Brian Lewis points out, many young American adults are convinced that a higher education is not necessary in today's technological world, due to already possessing the skills needed for a huge selection of technology-based jobs. In other words, young adults, both male and female, "have taught themselves some very specialized technological skills related to the computer and thus feel that an education is a waste of time and money" (156).

Second, as Patricia C. Emberley reminds us, young adults and teenagers spend an inordinate amount of their time outside of school on the computer at home for a wide range of purposes, such as playing video games, downloading music and videos, surfing the Internet and "Googling," sending messages in chatrooms, and creating blogs and profiles on such websites as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and elsewhere on the World Wide Web. In essence, these activities as Emberley relates, "creates the impression in the minds of students that they are receiving an adequate education on the Internet and feel that they do not need to know anything" outside of what is available on the Internet (124). Not surprisingly, this attitude shocks and dismays many American teachers and educators, all of whom are attempting to tell parents to stop believing in the education establishment's propaganda that says teaching a child in the twenty-first century is different and must be more high-tech than in days past" (DeWeese, "The Fix," Internet).

On the other side of the argument, almost every corporation in the United States which manufacturers and distributes computer-based technology equipment and software are in complete agreement that technology is a necessary part of today's complicated world and that technology will help to advance education rather than destroy and/or erode young people's interest in obtaining a traditional education.

One very important aspect of this is the humanities, being art, history, music, literature and classical studies, which are today seen as redundant, meaningless and unnecessary in a technologically-based society such as found in modern America. As Brian Lewis sees it, students have lost their interest in an education because they "consider what is being taught in our colleges and universities at the humanities level as… READ MORE

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