Technology may help students in class, but only to a certain extent. Truly technology is slowly hindering our education.

Cell phones, for one, encourage cheating. During an important test where someone just can’t decide between answers A or C, they can quickly text their neighbor who then replies in seconds. Through cheating, all involved won’t learn anything.

Calculators are just as distracting. While converting that binomial in statistics class, many students get carried away and try to beat the high score on Super Mario.

These gadgets take away from a student’s concentration and hold students back from participating in classroom discussions. Laptops are probably the biggest distraction. Students take advantage of De Anza College’s wireless connections to update their status on Facebook, even writing an entry or two on Tumblr.

As if this is not distracting enough, there are games and movies downloaded onto virtually everybody’s laptops. Plug in your earphones, and the world is instantly filtered out.

This technology causes students to get distracted, resulting in lower grades and an increased focus on useless things like the next party.

These “toys” make it easier for students to communicate with friends and ditch class. It is up to colleges to crackdown on this behavior. Technology is changing the world, but not necessarily for the better.

The demeaning of the importance of education triggers less of a focus on learning. Low grades lead to less of a concern for school, which then lead to faltering scores and an increase in dropouts. This corruption begins early on – in high school.  

James J. Heckman, an economics professor at University of Chicago, said “Currently 20 percent of all new high school credentials issued each year are to GEDs. In recent years, inclusion of GEDs as high school graduates has biased graduation rates upwards of seven to eight percentage points. GEDs are high school dropouts who certify as the equivalents of ordinary graduates through passing an exam.”

The non-graduate rate is already rising, so do we really need these gadgets to speed up the process?