We can all remember learning cursive in school and for some even the written letter to a friend, but are today’s children still learning that lost art of handwriting and should it be preserved or is it a dying skill that we should just ignore? Is it plausible to say that children should learn handwriting in general as well as the importance of learning how to write cursive or another formal technique? The issues that are getting in the way of children learning handwriting in the first place are computers and the accompanying advanced technologies also prevent one from practicing their own personal hand. While some may say that students are not getting enough experience with electronics some may argue that they are getting too much screen …show more content…
While, Whitmore Charter High School and the Ceres Unified School District also use chromebooks and try to put technology into their classrooms. This school, like many others is now focusing on teaching children to typing, digital citizenship, and other computer skills they will need later on. Yet many children already stare at electronics for pleasure when watching T.V. or on their own devices, but with the addition of homework being assigned on electronics they will spend even more time staring at screens. As a result, eye doctors are suggesting that after students work on the computer for 20 min, students look away at a further distance from their computers for 10 seconds. This will help their eyes and will make an attempt to prevent future eye problems. An example of an eye problem is eye fatigue which could result in other issues such as short sightedness and blindness occurring at an earlier ages (Heiting). Although typing and computer skills are good to know, there are apparent downsides and faults to these seemingly innovative and progressive …show more content…
Also, there is the issue If students do not have a computer, Wi-Fi, and even a printer at home, then they can be unprepared for class, the future, and maybe even for the workforce. Kelly Gallagher, a history teacher, went paperless at a public school. She discovered that she had a really positive experience based off her students reactions and her main result was that her classroom was more organized than before. She had found that she had the ability to pull out files and find things easier once they were organized on the computer. The students also realized their phones were powerful devices they could use for their own education besides leisure (Gallagher). One might say that classrooms could be organized without programs and just a nice filing cabinet. From personal experience, I have found that when teens and children are put in front of computers at school they start to use them for purposes outside of school. Once can conclude that Gallagher’s experiment would be for students who can use their devices properly and can learn their computers programs enough to go completely without
Handwriting is a means of expressing language, just like speech. However, handwriting is not taught in school as much as in previous years. In the past, handwriting was taught as a precursor to reading and spelling. Today, students of all ages are rigorously tested on their writing skills, yet they are not allowed the time it takes to develop this skill. I remember writing in a Big Chief notebook, holding a chubby pencil, trying my best to make the curves and lines of the letters just right. When I attended elementary school, the teacher devoted at least forty-five minutes to handwriting each day. Handwriting should still be taught in school because it is an essential first step to reading and expressing one’s thoughts and feelings and because of its impact on higher education.
Computers are an everyday necessity. People purchase food and clothes online, check their bank accounts’ balance, and keep in touch with their family members through social media sites. As explained in the essay “Floppy Disk Fallacies,” by Elizabeth Bohnhorst, computers are slowly replacing educational lessons and even teachers in the United States. Students take their computers home after a long day at school where they either do homework or play games. Computers are being introduced to schools as an attempt to effectively educate students and expand the course work. Unfortunately, computers are altering and preventing the thinking patterns of students while providing no significant improvement to a student’s learning experience. Granted,
The affect of technology on children is greater than people may think. Ten years ago, there were different ways children were taught that contrast with the way children are taught in schools today. One of the biggest lessons taught in the third grade was how to write in cursive. Nowadays, teaching children these vital lessons is becoming a thing of the past. The rise of technology has largely contributed to the decline of cursive writing being taught to elementary school students. The need to push children to pass state exams has pushed more of that focus away from teaching this style of handwriting. Denise Smith Amos states in her article “Is Cursive’s Day in Classroom Done?” that, “Common Core is silent on cursive, but it prioritizes
In conclusion, Cursive writing is very well out dated. We use technology now more than ever. Maybe a new common core standard should be computer skills. As cursive writing holds no benefits to students. The truth comes out, cursive writing has essentially disapeared. So why ever bring it
For centuries, cursive handwriting has been considered an art. However, to a increasing number of young people the form is becoming extinct. The graceful letters of the cursive alphabet have been transcribed on innumerable love letters, acted as the method for articulating thoughts in journals and diaries, and have been scrawled across elementary school chalkboards for generations. Yet, cursive is gradually vanishing due to the accessibility to keyboards and smartphones. While the loss of the cursive alphabet may appear inconsequential, recent studies have revealed that in fact the gradual death of the fancier ABC’s instigates concerns for future generations.
With the swarm of technology, handwriting, a vital skill, may be on the brink of extinction, despite that it is able to create a “model citizen, assimilate immigrants, and even reform juvenile delinquents” (Korper). Believe it or not: handwriting is important. However, the debate about handwriting is still questionable. Handwriting allows for effective memory retention and is an significant and unique action to develop certain regions of your brain (Grossberg). However, handwriting is also outdated and lacks the agility of the keyboard (Korper). Nonetheless, some of these positive aspects of handwriting are largely due to the ‘drill’ factor emphasized in the Palmer Method of handwriting used present day (Korper).
Thesis: Cursive writing should be taught in school because children today only know how to hashtag and text. Very few actually know how to write in cursive. Learning cursive will enhance students’ spelling ability and reading skills. It will also help students with learning disabilities.
As a consequence of the pervasive usage of screen technology, cognition has been affected because of the influence of neuroplasticity. Abbott (2013) and McClellan (2005) found that screen technology improved the holistic intellectual capacity through the advancement of cognitive skills such as multitasking, spatial ability, strategic decisiveness, and many others whereas Swing et al. (2010) Carr and (2010) observes that it degenerates attention spans and in-depth thinking. Overall, although some scholars argue that deterioration of cognitive function is due to screen technology exposure, it must be acknowledged that the positive correlation between screen technology exposure and the progression of cognizance outweighs the negatives because with the appropriate and sufficient utilisation of screen technology for cognitive development, the advantages will eclipse any disadvantages that could
The Pew Research Center focuses on technology-related things and conducted a survey for 2,462 teachers. Ninety percent of those teachers believed that technology was causing their students to become more easily distracted with shorter attention spans. An article on Huffington Post mentioned a study that showed that students could not focus on their homework for more than two minutes before having to look at some kind of electronical device like their phone or television. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that about half of students from the ages of eight to eighteen do their homework while using some kind of electronical device. Technology has affected our focus so much that we can't even focus on the little things for too long. Studies have even shown that people who use the internet at work change tabs or check their email about thirty-seven times an hour! All this multitasking can cause us to become more distracted. Sometimes, we can even become distracted towards the people around us.
Almost everyone attends a school at one time in their life, whether the classroom includes technology or not. Research shows that technology isn’t used as often as one might think. The article, “High Access and Low Use of Technology in High School Classrooms” illustrates the use of technology by stating that only one in ten elementary and middle school teachers are daily users of computers (Cuban, Kirkpatrick, Peck). Most schools now have classrooms that use technology throughout the entire class time and even at home to do homework. Although some people might agree with the use of technology in class, it is more harmful to the students than useful.
Studies indicated that certain computer tasks, such as, playing video games enhance visual literacy skills. This displayed people can quickly shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other Studies indicated that shifts in focus even if performed correctly, result in less attentive and more automatic thinking. I agree with Ms. Greenfield because shifting our focus constantly results in not analyzing a situation correctly which causes taking the easy way out of certain situations. At another experiment conducted at Cornell University, half a class of students was allowed internet connected laptops, while the other half had to keep their laptops closed.
they can lose track of what they are saying and turn it in, and probably not get a good grade on it. If we went a week without technology, I think that people will get work done faster and get better grades on their work. Usually, what I see people doing after they finish an assignment in that class, they get on their chromebooks and play an online game or look something up on the internet. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, it states “What really makes us intelligent isn’t our ability to find lots of information quickly.
Technologies like computers or iPads (or anything with internet access for that matter) in the classroom could possibly distract students from their work. Classroom administrators seem to forget that the majority of students really don’t want to be in the classroom.. I remember when I was in highschool, whenever a teacher would bring students into a computer lab, or bring class sets of computers, or bring iPads into the classroom for a lesson a large portion would go onto twitter, or onto any unblocked flash game website whenever the teacher was not looking, try to access anything for them to “escape” the classroom. When there are a large majority of children and/or teens that do not want to go to school, and are given tools to be rebellious so easily, what is going to stop them? Aside, who really wants to sit through the same autonomous paper typing over and over again...
Collis, B., Knezek, G., Kwok-Wing, L., Miyashita, K., Pelgrum, W., Plomp, T., & Sakamoto, T. (1996). Children and Computers in School. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Although there are many Americans who think using computers is good for students to use all the time researchers clearly show using computers has affected eyesight damage. ( Ford, Matt. Web.)