The Internet has been long lauded as an excellent
educational tool that drives schools to assimilate
Internet services into their classroom environments.
However, one survey revealed that 86% of responding
teachers, librarians, and computer coordinators
are convinced that the utilization of the
Internet by children does not ameliorate academic
performance. Placing further doubts on its
educational value, Young found that 58% of
students reported a decline in study habits,
a noteworthy fall in grades, missed classes,
or being probated due to excessive Internet
use. This is because students surf irrelevant
web sites, engage in chat room gossip, converse
with Internet pen-pals, and play interactive
games at the cost of productive activities.
Many internet addicts are college students,
as implied in Moore’s The Emperor’s
Virtual Clothes. When a student becomes addicted
to the internet, time originally spent on
studying turns to internet time, and grades
start to fall. An A and B student in Moore’s
book turned to a D and F student within a
semester due to internet addiction. While
a student may be convinced that they are in
control of their lives, their addiction actually
dominates them as the addiction is deluding
them by appearing to “make the individual’s
life more manageable".
Alfred University’s Provost W. Richard
Ott investigated why normally successful students
with SAT scores of 1200 to 1300 had recently
been dismissed. To his surprise, his investigation
found that 43% of these students failed school
due to extensive patterns of late night log-ons
to the university computer system. Beyond
tracking Internet misuse among students, college
counsellors began seeing students whose primary
problem was an inability to control their
Internet use. In addition, Dr. Jonathan Kandell
at the University of Maryland at College Park’s
also noticed academic impairment and poor
integration in extracurricular activities
due to excessive Internet use on campus.
|
