My first semester in college after being out of school for twenty-six years was an eye-opening experience. I took an anthropology class as one of my first classes. Once I started reading the material that was required, I found it to be very intriguing. What I also discovered was that there was so much information and terminology in the required text book that I did not understand. There were topics that were not clear to me. I pondered as to how to go about researching the information so that I could make sense of what I was reading. I was thinking about the possibility of going to the library, the old school way of research, but then remembered that I had the internet readily available. That is when I went to my laptop, opened the internet browser and began to research the topics that I needed clarification on. Within seconds information on the subject matter came up, giving me many web sites to choose from. I was able to review several web sites and clear up the questions that I had.
Thinking back to when I was in school as a teenager and what our source for preparing our papers were. Our medium was pen and paper or, if you were lucky, a typewriter. I am amazed every time I think about it and how my school papers are prepared now. There is so much information at our fingertips today. Not having to go to the library to research the topic for the paper is a big time savings. The resources on the internet are also larger and easier to research than going to the local library. The library, depending on its funding, may not have particular books on their shelves that you need to complete your research. Using the internet gives the person the ability to search many different sources in a short period of time. I enjoy the ease of searching for information on the internet as it has drastically changed the way I researched the information for my papers.
The computer has also changed the way the papers are prepared. Preparation of school papers has gone from being hand-written and turned in to the teacher/professor to being typed on the computer using software programs such as Microsoft Word and emailed directly to the teacher/professor. Preparing the papers using the computer has also cut down the time it takes to prepare the paper. I have developed typing skills and I can type twice as fast as I can write. By using the computer for preparation of these documents an electronic copy of the paper can be kept instead of storing the actual paper.
The computer has been a positive and welcome change to the way that my school papers are prepared. Researching information with the internet has made the process of preparing the papers much easier. There is so much information at our fingertips that the research can be completed in a more expeditious manner. The use of computer software to prepare the papers has also increased the speed with which I am able to prepare my school papers. The advances that have been made with computers are mind boggling to me. A computer that I bought five years ago is obsolete and slow compared to what is being produced today. The ability to surf the internet and gather information from the comfort of your own home is also a luxury that I quite enjoy.
I think that while the internet has certainly provided a new way of accessing a vast amount of information, it has also created a new way of providing a vast amount of irrelevant or incorrect information. I think the key to research in the "wired society" is to learn how to discern the reputable information online from the false information. Of course this has always been the case with paper books, but the internet provides so much more information to analyze.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the internet and treat it as a luxury as well. Technology is a wonderful thing and unfortunately brings both good or bad, and production, or destruction.
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