Band 6+: School children are becoming far too dependent on computers and this is having an alarming effect on reading and writing skills. Teachers need to avoid using computers in the classroom at all costs and go back to teaching basic study skills. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Lately, with the high development of various technologies, a lot of schools have engaged computers in their educational process. Despite making studying easier and more interesting, computers in schools have been noticed to worsen students’ abilities to write and read. Due to this, suggestions to remove computers from classes have appeared. I don’t agree with that statement.

Firstly, technology has drastically affected our lives since its appearance. When it comes to students, in addition to basic skills in writing and reading nowadays we all have to learn how to use computers and other technical devices, because they are used almost everywhere. For example, you will have to engage with a computer at work, at university, while booking tickets for planes or other transportation, and while completing documents. All listed tasks are hard to do without some skills with technology. That is the first reason why computers should not be excluded from the learning process.

Moreover, writing and reading in the form known previously won’t be the same for long. Technology is developing and its goal is to make people’s lives as easy as possible, so hand-written letters and notes together with long and dull textbooks for school will be replaced with a laptop and the resources there. Both writing and reading for school can be adapted to modern ways. Coherent and engaging writing is even easier to do on a computer. There are tools to help you with grammar and punctuation, and endless materials to teach you how to write better. Reading, in my opinion, is a task that can be performed either way. The skills teachers have to teach their students is how to find the right information and concentrate. A computer doesn’t alter the text and its goal in any way, students just have to find a way to work with it.

To conclude, computers changed our lives, they brought newfangled ways to study, work and operate in general. Schools are changing too, but the best we can do is adapt. In such a fast-moving world people can’t be stuck in their ways forever. So, I disagree and I don’t support that teachers shouldn’t use computers in their classrooms.