This allows for people to still feel connected in their project and feel that they are contributing to the best of their ability. This is a way for people with a lack of social skills to be able to feel comfortable while working on their project. If the student is comfortable then the outcome of their project is predicted to be more well put together, than if they did not feel one hundred percent while doing it. However, some believe that distractions provided by the accessible technology can provide students with distractions in the classroom. “Others think there’s a danger that using technology in the classroom diminishes the teacher’s role” (Bowen 4). This relates to the distractions that students face when using technology in the classroom which causes the students not to be concentrated on the teacher and it lessens the opportunities for students to build relationships with their teachers. If a student is using their phone to look up information for an assignment they have all of their notifications from different social medias popping up on the screen. This is a risk factor when professors let the students use their cell phones to do their work because of how small and compact the phones are. The students can easily switch screens from their work to one of social media and start getting distracted from their work.
Technology can be practical in a classroom when it is utilized properly and effectively while keeping students in tune with what’s going on in class as well as keeping them entertained to prevent them from becoming distracted in class. “The bad news is that you can work anywhere, anytime. It’s hard to know when work ends if you interact with global teams across time zones or you don’t leave an office to signify the end of the day” (Casey 6). Access to technology in the classroom can carry over into home life as well, resulting in extending the school day. This can leave some students to feel overwhelmed because they will feel that they are never getting a break from the workload. Overachieving students may create unnecessary stress on themselves to be constantly doing work and start to be consumed by it. The parents may pressure students to study around the clock because they have the access to do so and this can lead to students developing things like stress and anxiety. The students will start to feel like they are never doing enough or that their work is good enough. However, current news and “unexpected events can be communicated in real time” (Casey 2). Having information at our fingertips allows learning to take place 100% of the time, which is always a positive. Every learning experience through technology, or otherwise, is beneficial.
Texting and other technological distractions allow students to procrastinate the work that needs to be completed on time. This happens because, “We’ve gotten so used to medicating our way out of discomfort that we are not as good at staying with it, pushing through the difficulty and learning as we once were” (James 9). However, we do not realize how much we rely on technology as our primary resource for just about everything all of the time.