Does Wi-Fi help college students in class, or hinder them?
By Justin Montgomery
Wi-Fi is undeniably important in almost all aspects by today’s standards, and even more so on college campuses. A recent survey even suggests that with the use of Wi-Fi, students can even get better grades, even with the constant checking of Facebook and emails during class.
Wakefield Research for the Wi-Fi Alliance conducted a survey of 501 college students that more or less stated the obvious: 79% of students said college would be much harder without Wi-Fi, and even went as far as to say if a college didn’t have a substantial Wi-Fi network they wouldn’t apply, according to a report by InformationWeek.
The survey went on to prove that once they become students- many (two in five) use Wi-Fi to get a head start on assignments even before leaving class. While this is true, I would venture to guess students can also be distracted from class work even more. More than half of those surveyed said they checked Facebook or MySpace and sent or received e-mail while in class, though I would guess it’s much more than that. You can’t tell me that you’d be sitting in class listening to a boring lesson, while your laptop and Wi-Fi access is begging to be used for more fun things. But, in today’s world where laptops and Wi-Fi are more or less ubiquitous, it’s hard to keep the distractions low during class.
"Wi-Fi has become a universal expectation among college students and their attitudes towards technology are a good indicator of broad changes underway in how we as a society learn, work and communicate," said Edgar Figueroa, executive director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, in a statement. "Young adults expect access to information with unprecedented immediacy."
While Wi-Fi undeniably helps students in more ways than it hinders them, I still believe attention is diverted from the main reason students are in college in the first place. Yes, you can get immediate answers to questions, and begin homework and papers while still in class, but If it were me (again) I’d be hard-pressed to keep my attention on the professor and not my notebook.
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