Guo 1

Zhiming Guo Kristen Foster CO 150, 403 10 November, 2013 Students should not be Encouraged to Use iPads Recently, I felt like my head was going to explode. I have read news that L.A. Unified school district spent $30 million beginning the iPad Program, which was designed to make every student in the district own an iPad (L.A.). I am surprised that why this school takes this method and wondering whether this program for students is worth implementing or not. With the development of technology, tablet devices have gradually become indispensable companions with human, especially students in current society. Introducing iPads to class can help students learn more convenient (Manuguerra and Petocz 61), such as making presentation more alive and spontaneous, taking notes and reading the analytical process of their majors courses on iPads (63). However, students shouldnt be encouraged to use iPads, otherwise, it will have negative influences on students health and learning habits as well as efficiency. Students prefer playing to learning out of nature. Students with low levels of self-control are more likely to use iPads for entertainment, which is a waste of time. Besides, relying too much on iPads may hamper their learning habits and critical thinking (Richtel). Whats worse, the radiation emitted by iPads and inappropriate posture when using iPads can do harm to students health (Milian).

Guo 2

The first reason that Ive thought is that students with poor self-control prefer to play iPads rather than use them for learning, which may reduce their learning time. I find that some investigations on iPads users about what they usually use iPad for. A survey including demographic graph reports that among all the age distribution, the percent of people from US, UK and Australia, who usually use tablet computers for entertainment, is accounted for 50% and the rest of percent has no relation with learning or studying (Marketingcharts). This source indirectly suggests that most students use the iPad for entertainment and are not utilizing it as a tool for education. Moreover, most students cant control themselves to use iPads under limitation. This point can be supported by another source, Kids Spend too Much Time Screen Focused written by Daniel Fogarty who argues that Tablets and smartphones have joined television as the major entertainers of children (Fogarty) and Kids spend more than half their spare time in front of devices (Fogarty), which will result in the scarce of time kids can take to learn something more significant. Therefore, it is a waste of time if students who have poor self-control abilities only use iPads for entertainment. In regard to the second reason, that is, some students learning habits and critical thinking were hampered because of the iPads distraction. Hence, scientists have made several surveys and experiments to examine students study status before and after using iPads. Then they found that having been introduced to class, iPads gradually influences students learning habits and thoughts, which results in low learning efficiency. For instance, because of overwhelmed stimulation and constant shifts in attention when using iPads, students brains may respond and think slowly (Richtel). Besides, more than half teachers

Guo 3

point out that the students abilities of communication, writing and critical thinking were hampered because students are more likely to use iPads to get quick answers from the internet without their personal thoughts (Richtel). Those are evidences that show the changes in the thoughts of students using iPads. In regard to behavior changed, there are some other experiments that support it. The experiments are in the article named Students Can't Resist Distraction for Two Minutes ... and Neither Can You, written by Bob Sullivan. Sullivan uses an experiment that students were asked to finish important assignments on regular environment: although the students were watched over by observers, they still tried to use electronic devices to do something that has nothing to do with their assignments. The experiment proves that students are easily distracted or interrupted by electronic devices such as iPads while doing their tasks, which results in inefficiency in their homework. Constantly switching from homework to iPads will make students less competent and tired (Sullivan). As a consequence, several studies have shown that information learned while partially distracted is often quickly forgotten, so the learning is tragically shallow (Sullivan). Hence, iPads have potential dangers to students learning habits as well as thoughts which will finally reduce their efficiency of study. The other fact is that iPads really do harm to students health both in mental and physical aspects. Scientists have revealed several consequences which do harm to our health. For example, Ergonomics experts have warned that excessive usage of tablets could improve the possibility of result in shoulder pain because of the inappropriate postures like high head and neck flexion postures when using iPads (Mitchel). In regard to mental health, according

Guo 4

to Mark Milian, the writer of Reading on iPad before Bed Can Affect Sleep Habits claims that the screens of iPads can emit light which will restrain the secretion of melatonin that benefits peoples sleeping, which may result in terrible quality of sleeping. This claim is supported by Mariana Figueiro, the writer of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. She has a study which reveals that melatonin can be suppressed by about 22% if teens are exposed to self-luminous electronic device for 2 hours. If students cant sleep well, they will be drowsy in class tomorrow and have awful learning efficiency. To sum up, we cant neglect the negative influences of iPads on students health, the loss will outweigh the gain if we require students to improve their study by using iPads at the expense of harming their health There is a counterargument that replacing textbooks and notebooks with iPads can reduce paper usage, which will benefit environment (Swallow). Swallow supports her claim by exemplifying that the iPad is suitable for cutting down on all kinds of paper when it comes to note taking, reading documents and filling out forms and reports. Besides, Swallow provides an example that a firm called BCRA can save a great quantity of money in paper when using iPads Although it is a fact that iPads can reduce the scale of papermaking, I have two points to make the refutation. Firstly, if every student owns an iPad, a great quantity of cost on iPads will be generated, which will increase the weight in financial burden of family or schools, this burden is worse than the burden of wasting paper. In 2012, the number of students who are from 7 to 21 years old is nearly 60 million (United States Census Bureau). The market

Guo 5

price of each iPad assumed to be $500, so the total cost is $30 billion. And this point of view is supported by Cynthia Wisehart, stating in on the circuit that iPads introduced to class for each student is a terrible idea because it is a billion-dollar project which includes the money for purchasing so many iPads, expanding bandwidth and training teachers. Secondly, there might be a great number of papermaking companies around the world. If the amount of paper decreases, the number of unemployment in paper companies must increase correspondently. Environmental sustainability is important issue. However, we cant easily neglect the lives of the workers in paper industries. Additionally, while the amount of paper may decrease, electronic products (which may be more wasteful and harmful to the environment) will greatly increase. Since technology advances so rapidly, outdated iPads may end up in landfills, unable to be recycled like paper. In a short, for most students who have low self-control abilities, iPads really have negative effects on them for wasting time. Besides, iPads may worsen the students thinking and learning habits, as I stated before, resulting in low efficiency of learning. From my point of view, the only way they can avoid these negative effects is that they should suppress their impulsion of using iPads for playing and finding quick answer through the internet. Nevertheless, for the whole group of students, it is a fact that iPads do have terrible influences on their health. Considering the advantages and disadvantages that iPads bring to students, I would say, students should refuse to use iPads unless the technology is mature to the degree that it will not generate any dangers to health and students can resist the temptation by their subjective consciousness.

Guo 6

Works Cited Figueiro, Mariana. "Light Displays Disturb "Sleepy" Melatonin." USA Today Magazine 141.2813 (2013): 10-11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Fogarty, Daniel. Kids Spend too Much Time Screen Focused. The Sydney Morning Herald. The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013 L.A. Unified's iPad Plan doesn't Compute Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013 Manuguerra, Maurizio and Peter Petocz. Promoting Student Engagement by Integrating New Technology into Tertiary Education: the Role of the iPad. Asian Social Science 7.11(2012): 61-65. Web. 16 Oct. 2013 Marketingcharts. Half of Tablet Time Spent With Entertainment Activities. 20 Sept. 2013. Marketingcharts. Web.25 Oct. 2013 Mark Milian. Reading on iPad Before Bed can Affect Sleep Habits. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 24 April 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2013 Mitchell, Stewart. Why Using a Tablet Could Harm Your Health. Dennis Publishing. PC Pro. 26 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013 Richtel, Matt. Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say. New York Times. New York Times, 1 Nov 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. Sullivan, Bob. Students can't Resist Distraction for Two Minutes ... and Neither Can You. NBC News. NBC News, 18 May 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2013

Guo 7

Swallow, Erica. How the iPad Is Helping Businesses Go Green. Mashable. Mashable, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2013 Enrollment Status of the Population 3 Years Old and Over, by Sex, Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, Foreign Born, and Foreign-Born Parentage. Oct. 2012. Cencus.gov. U.S. Census Bureau, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013 Wisehart, Cynthia. "On The Circuit." Sound & Video Contractor 31.10 (2013): 6. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

Honor Pledge: I have not given, received, or used any unauthorized assistance.