When it comes to doing school assignments, it can be found that doing them on paper is more efficient. Depending on the circumstances doing digital assignments on an iPad or laptop, it can cause bad migraines which would already have a negative impact on the student when they are already stressed out about the assignment. Teachers often have students take notes on paper due to it helping students memorize the information provided.
Taking notes on paper helps students be more creative in finding ways that would help them understand the subject they are learning. The same can be said about doing paper assignments. There are different ways students comprehend information, one way being seeing physical examples.
For example, in a math class, students who only learn by seeing a physical example are able to draw out the information from questions or word problems in their own way.
Being able to have this creativity is more difficult digitally because there are always limitations. Though there are ways to do so, it is easier on paper because it gives the student full control over what they draw or write without any limits or technical difficulties. This can also be applied to other subjects as well.
Think of English classes, there is quite a bit of annotation as well as taking notes. Annotating on apps only limits students to the features that the app provides. This can leave students doing the bare minimum for annotations which can result in students not being able to comprehend information thoroughly. This means that when it comes to doing their assignments, their answers won’t be as diligent as they could be.
Some may say that digital assignments have more benefits due to students having access to their assignments if they miss a school day. This is only true if students know how to complete their assignment, but if they do not understand the assignment they may not put their full effort into the assignment
Students who miss a day can get their assignment when they return to school. Another thing is if students who miss school don’t understand the assignment provided digitally and they decide to not complete it, if that assignment has a deadline for the day they missed it will put an automatic 0% in the grade book for that assignment. Depending on the assignment it can cause a student’s grade to plummet. This should probably be next to the paragraph about attendance.
Completing assignments digitally is also more difficult for students who have to be there for a lesson to understand it and to complete the assignment, regardless of if their teacher provides the lesson online. Some students have to have a face to face connection when learning new information. Therefore being provided the lesson online would be ineffective
To sum it up, even though the students would have access to their assignment digitally it does not guarantee them doing well on it.
There should be no limits to what benefits students academically. Paper assignments and notes can provide an excellent learning opportunity to students of every age group. Strictly relying on technology for success wont prove to be beneficial to a student’s education, and can be a limit in itself.
