The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing

Featured article by Ryan Bronson, Independent Technology Author

A survey of more than 2,400 students in the US showed that digital tools are shaping students’ writing in many ways and help teachers of middle and high schools in their daily practices. Digital technologies facilitate students’ creativity and encourage them to write more. Also, social networks, texting, and smartphones broaden the audience for teens’ writing and offer an opportunity to write in multiple formats that were not accessible for the previous generations of students. Simultaneously, students’ language became more casual and they started to use an informal style in academic writing. Also, there is a need to educate teens about plagiarism issues. In this article, we shall examine the impact of digital technologies on writing and the related implications for teachers.

Beneficial Impacts of Digital Technologies on Student Writing

According to Essayontime online writing service, 96%of the US teachers surveyed noticed that the use of digital technologies is beneficial for teens because they can share their writing with the wider audience. Also, 79% of the teachers stated that social networking encourages cooperation among students when they seek for assignment help and assignment writing advice. Besides, teens have an opportunity to apply for essay writing service online. Furthermore, 78% of the teachers surveyed noticed that digital tools encourage teens to be more creative and express themselves in different ways. The overall impact of digital tools on writing is positive as children become more engaged in the writing process.

Undesirable Effects of Digital Tools on Student Writing

The teachers surveyed also noted that children started to use informal language more often in their academic writing. They use informal language in social networks and don’t understand the difference between the communication in social networks and academic writing. As the experts of Essayontimestate, the line between informal and formal writing is becoming obliterated. As teens fail to use a more formal style of writing, they make an inquiry as follows: “write an essay for me” to apply for online assignment writing help. They think: “It easier to pay someone to do my assignment than to complete assignments individually”.

Another issue is that teens tend to use truncated forms of language and specific “digital” slang. For example, the shortening “app” often substitutes the full form of the word “application” and the like. Students are not willing to write long texts or think about complex topics, meaning that the expansion of digital tools of communication oversimplified the way students express themselves in real life. They prefer to place an inquiry “write my essay for me” instead of using their mental abilities to think critically and deliver comprehensive papers.

Plagiarism Issues

Different kinds of information are available for students with emerging of digital technologies. However, the cases of plagiarism occur more often because students fail to cite the information and data properly. Educators need to pay attention to this issue and teach students to correctly site the sources they use.

Also, online digital tools can help solve this problem as various plagiarism checking tools are available now. Some students tend to copy the information they found on the internet and pass the assignments as their own work. Therefore, teachers need to be careful when checking assignments for plagiarism as this tendency strengthens. Many higher education institutions require running students’ papers through a plagiarism detector to avoid plagiarism.

Diligence, Accessibility and Distraction Issues

Digital technologies created several issues related to diligence, distraction, and accessibility in the learning environment. Some schools of thought examining students’ behaviors state that they became less patient and more hyperactive than the students of the previous generation and this is reflected in their writing style. The students of this generation aren’t willing to think over the problems, they would rather find ready answers to all questions online. This helps save a lot of time for various online entertainment and games.

Students have different opportunities to access digital tools: some of them are glued to their smartphones and laptops, some of them don’t have this opportunity due to money constraints. Therefore, the gap between wealthy and poor students widens that makes an impact on their learning abilities.

Digital tools sometimes act as distractions because many teachers pointed out that they faced the situation when students were inattentive during the lessons being distracted by their gadgets. This is an acute issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Digital tools are widely used for education purposes, but the issue of overuse of digital tools in classes is evident now.

To summarise, digital tools made both positive and negative impacts on students. Students’ creativity and self-expression improved, but academic and thinking ability worsened. Hence, the use of digital tools in class should be limited. However, teachers may benefit from using digital tools for educational purposes.

About the Author

Ryan Bronson is a writer and scientist. He is interested in technologies and their impact on our lives. Also, he likes classical music and nature.