Computers And Education – The Information Revolution

As long ago as a couple of decades, the major reason for a family to purchase a computer was to help with the children’s education. Whether it was because the computer could be used to type and print essays, or due to the specific programs that could be bought and used to aid the understanding of mathematics, history and other subjects, this was a way for children to learn.

As time has gone on, and with the particular aid of the Internet, computers have continued to be a major part of the education of children, to the point where pretty much every school in the Western world has a computer room where the children can research work online, and every university has an online infrastructure for the same reason.

This does not just extend to the use of education based sites, although there are many good examples of these sites available to those who need them. It also takes in sites like Wikipedia and various newspaper sites, which allow students to read information which will be of great benefit in the process of learning how knowledge is applied.

As the Internet is a place where there is little regulation, it is of course a concern for many adults that their children may, in studying for school, find themselves on sites that are undesirable due to content such as pornography, hate material or unprotected chat sites. However, good filtering software is one way to prevent this.

Computer Addiction – A Genuine Problem?

From parents who are worried about the amount of time their kids spend in front of a monitor to the individual who says they don’t know if they could live without their PC, there are many people in the world who some would accuse of being addicted to their computers. How genuine this “addiction” is seems to be a matter of opinion. Certainly, there is no physical reason why computers might be addictive. But then, addictions are not solely physical in nature.

Often, it is not the computer that is at the source of the problem. What tends to be more of a concern is the specific programs on the computer, one or more of which may exert a powerful hold over the user. People have been reported as suffering addictions to computer games, to internet chat rooms and online pornography. In these cases, it seems that the computer is not the addiction but is an “enabler” to it.

If someone is spending too much time on their computer, then it is not necessarily the case that they have an addiction, although they may be over-reliant on it. There are many stories about executives who become almost inseparable from their laptops because they feel like they are always at work – some who will even bring their laptop on honeymoon with them. This is not a desirable state of affairs, but it does happen.

If you fear that you are addicted to your computer, then you need to switch it off, get up and do something else for a day. If you are still concerned, do the same the next day and see if the feeling grows or diminishes. It may be that you are not addicted, but are habitually linked to it.

Cheaper, Faster, Smaller, Better?

When people spend money, they want to get something that means their spending was worthwhile. For every purchase that is made, a standard is set – if your friend has got a computer that does certain things, for a certain price, then you have your benchmark – you want something at least as good, ideally better. You want it for at most the same price, but ideally cheaper.

The more that people purchase an item, the greater the incentive for companies to look at how they can make it better, and with computers this is especially clear. The more time passes, the greater the leaps have to be, and the more prices will drop for computers that have become, in most people’s eyes, obsolete.

A decade ago, most of us would have been happy with a computer that could connect to the Internet and would allow us to download moderately. As time has passed, it has become important to get more for your money. Broadband is considered essential, ideally at a high speed, and it is simply unthinkable to look at a computer that cannot stream video without buffering.

In addition to this we want fast downloading, easy modification, more peripherals and ideally we would like it in a range of colors. If you buy a computer that is less technologically advanced than your neighbor’s, then you have committed a rookie mistake and will have to either buy another one immediately or make sure you don’t make the same mistake next time. Getting the best is important.