To begin with, Levey’s argument in this context is generally about the lamentation that should be carried on behalf of the iGeneration which has been adversely affected by technology. It has been provided that this generation’s way of learning has been affected and thus this has affected the way of education deviating from the traditional learning to the technology based learning which has bred short span retention of information. So to speak, Levey believes that “universities are going to have to radically change. They’ll need to find ways to accommodate students with ever-shrinking thought spans, who are used to instant and interactive communication and not one-way lecturing”. Whereas many people and especially educators oppose the use of technology and reliance on it by students, Universities will have to change drastically by incorporating in their system students with ever-shrinking attention spans brought about by the technology.
Technology has been blamed for short retention of information. From the account by Levey, there have been incidents of students concentrating on face book rather than learning and thus it has been found that students concentrate on their laptops, face book in their iphones and interaction with their friends as they learn in class (Levey 2). In particular, students have been text-messaging and chatting with their friends while they are in class and mostly they depend on virtual learning than practical learning. So to articulate, there have been evidences of abstract communication with information being written as ‘411’ and forever ‘4rever’ among others (Levey 2). Accordingly, a personal experience with iphone reveals that if not well used, technology can have a negative effect to the students. This is because student’s attention if divided between listening to a lecturer and chatting will make students not to be efficient in assimilating the information given.
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Technology being blamed for short retention of information Levey has pointed to a situation in class whereby a student held a laptop in class and despite the many warnings by the author; the laptop was not taken away. At last when the student decided to respond through an email, he claimed to have been using the laptop as his notebook up to his fourth year. The author had no otherwise than to let the student to continue using the laptop in class. This reveals that stopping students is not the best thing but rather embracing the technology and using it wisely is viable within universities. Outstandingly, there is nothing wrong with face book, twitter and internet use but it bad when it is abused by using it for wrong reasons in the wrong place.
Technology being blamed for short withholding of information, the incapability of students to write without making use of emotions and text messages acronyms with the example of ‘LOL’ has been noted (Levey 4). Students have used a lot of time online which is believed to have rewired their brains by making them to rely on instant accessibility of information. As such, this has incapacitated them to remember what they learn in class and thus they are unable to make an evaluation of their sources of information. This is why most of them are accustomed to using Wikipedia and other incredible sources of information from the internet. In such a case, students need to be taught of the credible sources of information to use and thus implement software’s to detect wrong use of sources as it is the case with the use of plagiarism checker.
In order to be able to solve the problem of much reliance and abuse of technology, universities need make radical changes. This can be accomplished by making an educational system that is backed by technology. Since it has been argued that technology has contributed to ever-shrinking attention spans of students, syllabus should be made which can help the students to be able to contain information for a long time as it is expected of the normal learning in education. As a matter of fact, strict rules and regulations should be enacted which govern beneficial use of laptops and thus put restrictions on the use of iphones, face book, twitter and others as such in the class context. In order for the universities to be able to accommodate the students with ever-shrinking attention spans, they need to embrace the change that has been brought about by technology.
At the same time, universities need to accept that change inevitable and thus employ technology-based learning that will take care of the students who have their brains rewired by technology. Judging what the students do may not greatly help but embracing technology and from thence learning how to manage it to the great advantage of gaining knowledge can bring about viable results in the education system. It is also not possible to teach or rather instruct the current generation using the old methods that worked in the past. As such, lectures should employ new technology-based methods of teaching so as to make good outcome out of the students. For instance, students can employ good use of the internet if they are well instructed. In the same manner, good use and management of internet should be well outlined in order for the student to follow. According to Levey, a minority of students can retain information even when they are in face to face with technology and thus from this point, technology can be embraced and still bring about good results (Levey 4). Along with this, universities should incorporate technology-based ways of teaching communication allocating subjects touching on real life social interaction and creating awareness as it regards how it works. Thus Whereas many people and especially educators oppose the use of technology and reliance on it by students, Universities will have to change drastically by incorporating in their system students with ever-shrinking attention spans brought about by the technology.