World Wide Web Pros And Cons

The Web, or World Wide Web, is basically known as a system of Internet servers that supports formatted documents. According to Internet Live Stats, the total number of Websites increases rapidly over the years and has reached the threshold of more than a billion pages, which assumes that people put a lot of emphasis on the Internet. However, they seem to somewhat point out its endless benefits but neglect the flaws that it also possesses, especially in educational aspect. If most students consider it as a tool to obtain information for their research papers, educators are still debating whether the World Wide Web has positive or adverse impact on the quality of students’ assignments. Although some people oppose the World Wide Web, there are

Professor Rothenberg (1997, p. xx) in the article How the Web destroys the quality of student research papers admitted that the World Wide Web is becoming an increasingly popular platform for the delivery of information. However, it does not mean that the library loses its position because of the World Wide Web. Students prefer searching online materials to spending time going to the library as they see that the library seems to be dominated by the Web with some advantages. Firstly, with a computer having network connection, everyone can have the ability to gain access to the most current information just by typing a few letters (Naughton, 1997), which will increase the effectiveness of students in their search for information considerably. In addition, an assumption of Rothenberg (1997, p. xx) is that sources on the Internet are out of date. On the contrary, it is a fact that there are several libraries which have not been updated in the past months. For example, the only book called School of the Assassins by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, published in 1997, was found in the Goshen College’s library. Nonetheless, the problem is this book had undergone a name change and the library did not update timely. For this reason, pupils had to go to a Web page and search for the latest information they need for their assignments. Consequently, they will be more interested in seeking information through the

This is true to some extent because a recent survey estimated that there are currently over 320 million Web pages, not counting millions of Web pages hidden behind passwords or other barriers (Treese, 1998). Likewise, Rothenberg (1997, p. xx) claimed that texts on the Internet have no overall authority, no editorial review and the illustration added is not relevant. Clearly, this will partly make students confused. However, numerous people who have preference for the Web argue that it is a good mean to teach students how to inspect optimal information. As Richard Cummins (n.d.) noted in his article, “how to sort the wheat from the chaff”. Nowadays, there are more and more search engines and search strategies which are available for people to have chances to evaluate the value of information, which contributes to enhance their logical thinking abilities. For example, Google and Bing are two typical engines which are the most widespread today. In short, the Web’s potential for being an effective tool to help the learning of students is indisputable.

All in all, it seems that the benefits of the World Wide Web overweight its limitations. Despite proposed negative influences, it is still considered as an effective mean regarding information research, time saving as well as students’ assistance on data filter. However, students