Casey Clifford
Reporter
Online homework has become a significant part of students’ schedules over the past couple of years. With digitized textbooks, grade books, and school designed websites, physical worksheets and handouts have become almost unnecessary. Students and teachers have different opinions on the distracting and helpful qualities online homework provides.
For some teachers, online assignments are a great way to stay organized and keep track of their student’s work. History teacher, Paul Phillips, finds that online assignments actually help quieter students get their ideas out. “Online discussions often encourage kids who don’t participate as much in school to join in,” Mr. Phillips said. “They have the chance to think about what they have to say and they get the opportunity to contribute something that they are proud of”.
The head of the world language department, Lisa Arbués, utilizes that Spanish 1-4 students have been using a website called Vista Higher Learning for the majority of their homework. “Eliminating paper is great for the environment and students seem to be engaged online. They also get immediate feedback and they have more opportunities to correct it right away” she said.
Other teachers, like history teacher Jessica Browner, believe that students need to be more self sufficient. “I expect my students to write down their homework and not be spoon fed through online calendars” she said.
Ms. Browner only uses online resources for bigger scale projects, “I often post links for my students so they can get to the websites faster and more efficiently without distractions”.
Mr. Phillips agreed, “Most kids are online anyway and what I find is once they get into the rhythm of doing the work, they can get it done more efficiently”.
French and Latin teacher Katie Spaulding says the difficulty she has assigning homework online is, “Students seem to feel finding class websites and portals difficult. Its challenging to assign work online because students have too many technical difficulties and don’t get their work done”.
Not only is the appeal of the many social media and entertainment sights a problem with students, but the stresses of technical difficulties they tend to face are constantly taking time away from the work that actually needs to be done. “There are definitely technical difficulties which can make you either have an excuse not to do the homework, or you’re just unable to get your work done. Pretty much half the time I can’t log into the school websites” junior Lindsey Seelert said.
Many students say they feel that when they have homework online, they are easily distracted. “I’m tempted to be drawn away from my work. I can open a tab in seconds to online shopping and Facebook” sophomore Lizzy Sloan said.
Procrastination can become a problem when his homework is online. “It takes way longer to do textbook work online rather than on paper because of the possible websites just a tab away” junior Davis Baer said.
Although some students view assignments online as a problem, others find it beneficial to their work. “Online textbooks have helpful games and learning videos that help me study” freshman Mia Carroll said.
Junior Connor Buck said it helps him stay focused. “Online homework is a lot more neat and tidy. It’s easier to stay organized”. Connor also said, “Even though there are a lot of websites that can distract me, there are a tons of educational sites that can be really helpful”.
