In 1989, the striking appearance of WWW marks a milestone in information accessibility, especially to education. However, recently, the WWW has been being blamed for destroying the quality of student’s assignments. This writing aims to clarify the pros and cons of using the WWW in studying. In my opinion, the negative impacts of the WWW are more than the positive ones.
Firstly, the WWW contains a large quantity of unauthentic and unreliable sources of information. According to Douglas (1997), the Internet in general and the WWW in specific provide unlimited information. However, not only do scientists or professionals share their academic knowledge but many internet users also post their own experience or understanding, and unfortunately, most web administrators are not able to check the reliability and accuracy of the updated documents. Even some vandals usually deliberately upload incorrect materials or try to modify the true available data to sabotage that the web admins are not capable of controlling. Moreover, unlike books or a published journals, information on the WWW is subject to change which is not based on a dependable foundation. Therefore, students lacking familiarities with searching information cannot identify trustworthy materials to complete their assignments. Secondly, the WWW is regarded as a factor which triggers users’ sloth and uncreativity. Before the invention of the WWW, the students usually spend hours searching printed books or journals in ord
er to find information for their tasks. Nevertheless, nowadays, with the assistance of the WWW, students just sit in front of the devices connected to the Internet, toss a query to a search engine, and a few minutes later a lot of accessible sources of information appear on their screen. The sources of information from the WWW are quips, blips; pictures and short summaries are available so students only take some the copy-paste clicks in order to quickly complete their assignment. In this way, abusing the information from the WWW prevents the students from cogitating because all the information, which they need, is accessible on the Internet instead of searching from an enormous amount of books. Moreover, students’ assignment lacks individuality, creativity, and depth because of the influence of other people’s opinions. Thirdly, the WWW makes it easier for students to commit plagiarism. It is straightforward to copy large portions of electronic information into your work thanks to the powerful copy-paste function of a computer. Besides, according to Richard Cummis, students are not trained regarding copyright law and proper concern for the intellectual property of others, it would be simple for students to illegally copy materials and claim the thoughts of others as their own. As we know, plagiarism is viewed as a terribly negative attitude with the students’ assignment, even when performed in a very slight extent. The assignment would be got zero or even not accepted.
While the WWW access offers a number of advantages, it also offers a number of serious concerns to students’ assignment. Unlike traditional books and journals which just provide information via text channel, the WWW is capable of supplying information in the form of time-based media elements such as sounds or videos. As a result, readers feel more engaging when working. Furthermore, it is demonstrated by Richard Cummins that scholars of all abilities and motivational levels can produce better work in the time valuable. In addition, the WWW allows you to find additional or up-to-date information on your topic. Once, books or journals are published, their content is frozen in time and sometimes is also subjective while the document which is uploaded on the internet can be updated continuously owing to its original publication.
In accordance with the pieces of evidence above, the WWW is like a double-edged sword. Nevertheless, personally, the quality of students’ assignments is being influenced more negatively rather than the benefits the WWW brings.
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