The Importance of Computers in Children's lives

The Importance of Computers in Children's lives

Humans are making new inventions every day. Since the beginning of time, man has been inventing. Homo habilis started by inventing tools and weapons so he could survive. The inventions never stopped and something new is being invented each day: cars, computers, and even spacecrafts. We started inventing things like computers not just for survival, but to make everyday life as easy as possible. In today's society computers have become very important part of our lives.

Many educators believe that the use of computers in school answers most of the important "learning" questions: This means test scores would go up, the individual pace of students would make it possible for the "slower" students to catch up, but of course there are many more who oppose to this idea. The introduction of computers in schools in poorer neighborhoods would mean more, because, unlike the upper and middle-class school districts, these kids would have little or no access to computers in their homes after school. A question that needs to be addressed is whether the novelty of computers makes a difference. While the better-off students were already "bored" or "surfeited" with the use of the computer, and their attention was no longer drawn to this technology as a "novelty", this "novelty" might just create interest and study improvement with lower-income students who may not have had the advantage of computer use before.

What needs to be examined is both sides of the argument that computers somehow improve learning, sharpen minds, and get students more interested in learning. For example, is it true that, while there are many who feel there are educational and motivational advantages to this technology, we know that there are others who complain that it tends to make the students lazy, isolates them, dampens their creativity, and oversimplifies information.

The question that arises in my mind is that can computers replace teachers? In other words, a computer's input-output is constant. On the other hand, you may have a good and inspiring teacher, or one who is just waiting out his time for a pension. Should we let our brains rely on someone else's technology, so that all we have to do is press few keys, and the computer does our "thinking" for us?

If computers in schools are meant to improve our grades, as we enter this 21st Century are grades still that important?