The great convergence that brought about the shrinking of the world to a global village did not only favour the media industry but it is a blessing to the education sector, especially students.
The emergence of the Internet changed the operation of the education sector, as the spread of its tentacles, touched every facet of the sector. It retooled teachers, lecturers and most especially students with a connectivity that brought the world to their palms.
Before the advent of the Internet, studying as difficult as it were was very stressful as students panned to and fro libraries, moving from one shelf to another in search of books for studying. Hence, it is time-consuming in searching through library catalogues and books. Students not only relied on the library but also bought textbooks as recommended, which to many it is a stress on their finance.
The coming of the Internet collapsed these academic hurdles into streams of the web that can be fetched with a click of a button. Students can in their convenience have access to tons of books in the world with a gadget connected to the Internet. So, students are no more bothered about lacking educational materials, rather they are bombarded with information. It is now a question of reading them.
The Internet retooled the system, apart from the basic learning tools, it gave them extra with wonderful features that are less stressful.
Like in the field of architecture, drawing became easier with friendly apps that not only made drawing easier but presented icons that handed over real buildings on paper, even showing the inside features of the building in real colours.
Research that is the life wire of education got a boost with the Internet. Students have more than enough material to work with. The answer to a problem is just a click of a button. The Internet laced all information, that with a simple command the answers pop up begging for your attention.
And with its hyperlink feature, similar topics are housed together and a click reveals all. Most times, it now poses as a problem to students harnessing the information. Also, students can reach out to other research institutes and learn more while still in their institutions. There are also online courses, which one can do online and get the needed certification. Moreso, students can even interact with other students with lots of social media apps, thereby displacing distance and time.
The Internet radically broke the connection between physical place and social place, making physical location much less significant for social relationships. Therefore, students seldom visit home, haven been retooled with multimedia social apps that enable them audio-visually interact with their relatives and friends. So, even afar they are still home.
However, despite all these wonderful benefits, the Internet has its cons too; as students can get carried away with other contents it presents. Students can spend more hours chatting with friends instead of researching educational materials. The Internet is rich with contents, both good and bad; students need to apply a lot of discipline in utilizing the Internet so it can be a blessing and not a curse.