CAN TECHNOLY REPLACE SCHOOLS Essay, Research Paper

We can’t see their smiles when we tell a joke nor can we see their frowns when they have a different point of view about something we say. So much information about how a person feels is transmitted through facial expressions. We can radiate massive amounts of information from a single smirk, smile, or frown. E-mail and chat rooms cannot relay this information through our computer screens. Furthermore, each time we converse with someone over the Internet, our morals are put to the test. With a great number of individuals, what was taught to them in their childhood about lying suddenly takes the back seat to make room for fun. A great majority of these individuals are not truthful about what they convey over the Internet. For some strange reason, computers transform them into a completely different person. In a sense, new technologies do make new kinds of people, as Neil Postman, a professor of media ecology at New York University, so eloquently said in his article “Virtual Students, Digital Classrooms”(969).

Interacting with other members of our species enables us to better understand ourselves. We learn a little more of who we are and what role we play in society as our relationships with others blossom. As an integrated population, we are capable of interchanging ideas to learn more about the world around us and about the functions of society. Schools have a major impact in developing our group relations by, as Postman said, connecting the individual with others and by helping to demonstrate the value and necessity of group cohesion(972). From early childhood we have learn to find comfort and safety in groups. We are able to gather far larger amounts of information by working as a united society than we are as an individual. If we are capable of uniting computers an the classroom in a enduring relationship instead of deliberating whether or not the computer will be replacing the classroom, we will be better equipped to continue our trend of advancement. If we manage to do this, there isn’t an obstacle we cannot overcome.