The WEB is a huge tool that has helped us facilitate the transmission of information, it helps us learn new things, connect with others or get lost in its entertainment. We can see what is happening around the world in a matter of seconds, and then let you post your own opinion on it. Knowing this though, would the WEB be good for educational purposes?

High angle shot of female hands typing on a laptop
Flickr Photo: High angle shot of female hands typing on a laptop, by Marco Verch, license CC. Some rights are reserved.

WEB on Learning

To answer that question, yes, it can be a good tool to extend one’s knowledge as it allows its reader to pick from a variety of sources and learn from what fits their need the best. This is however mostly responsibility of the user, and it’s actually related to my next point. The internet can be a good tool in education, if someone is a visual learner then you are allowed as a professor to put up a video, if someone learns through reading, well as a professor you can upload a PDF or Powerpoint and now they have a take-home lecture. However, the WEB should not be used as a replacement for actual teachers. It helps facilitate the learning, yes, but it is in no way better than having a live person there with you to address your questions and give you live feedback. A professor shows you what you are doing wrong. Even with the WEB’s extensive information, some question people may have cannot be found there because of how specific their question may be.

The WEB should also not be the one giving the class. Like I’ve said the internet, despite such a good tool that it is, should not give your class. Students need connections, they need to be able to interact with the lecture in order for it to stick. If you leave it on, boredom kicks in and there goes all the information being presented. If used responsibly you can implement your lecture with the added visuals of a video and the take-home readings of online documents. This will largely facilitate the learning process of students, as well as helps cover for any missed attendance.

How WEB Affects The World

This is a big one, and I could probably write a whole docuseries about this and sell it to Netflix. One of the ways the WEB affects the world is the transmission of information but specifically, I want to hit on News information and connectivity with users. In 2013, the WEB helped to change Egypt. Thanks to websites that helped Egyptian protestors connect, and organize each other, Egypt was able to force their leader to step down with peaceful protest. The WEB was such a huge factor of this because it helped spread the word not only to Egyptians but other people around the world, which in turn helped them by sending the various tool to still be able to connect to the wifi despite the government taking it down.

The WEB also helps with demand, markets like Amazon, eBay, and many other hybrid stores allow you to get stuff that is not available in your local store or country. It also helps people create their own businesses, or market themselves to a greater audience. It is easier to share your portfolio and therefore making it easier to apply for jobs, but not necessarily to get accepted to them. This is mostly because of bots throwing out forms due to the overinflation of sent resume, and much more complicated algorithm stuff.

News and media are the more controversial ones, but I believe the internet does a positive on it, and its the responsibility of the reader to check up on what they are reading on. To go more in depth, I’m talking about propaganda and the new term “Fake News”. There is a huge load of news being spread around, and the fact that anybody can post an article makes it easy for fake news to spread around and deceive readers. Like I said however it should be the responsibility of the reader to actually read the article and then look up if what is being said is true. In many instances, people just read the headline and take that in as a fact, especially if it fits their political agenda. Which again I can’t stress enough, it’s really important to fact check what you read. Now the positives of news online is the vast array of it. You get many sides and pieces of the story and you get to hear everyone’s argument or opinion on it. You can see why this person thinks that, but you can turn to the other side and see it how he sees it and with both stories you can actually look up the facts themselves and make up your own opinion with all the information presented. There are also new outlets that tend to keep away their biases. If you think this certain caster is manipulating the information to fit his agenda, you can fact check him at the very second. Long story short, it allows people to not confirm with 3 channels for news intake where biases might run rampant, and your alternative is the extreme opposite of your point of view.