Technology's Influence on Student Peer Relationships (Research Paper Sample)

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Technology's Influence on Student Peer Relationships
Introduction
In the recent past educational sector has embraced the use of technology to conduct learning activities through technological devices. Most higher learning institutions across the world have since adopted online classed as part of their learning processes. They enroll more students in online academic courses than the traditional mortar and brick classroom teaching exercises. It is becoming popular because it is not only cost beneficial to the institutions but also to the students. Students can study their preferred courses in the preferred systems without necessarily attending the school physically, while the professors can interact and disseminate knowledge to many students without necessary meeting them at a personal level.
The main advantages of online educational programs are affordability and comfort to the participants. Online education system uses technology as a medium of interaction between the tutors and the students, and students amongst themselves. Online students do not have the opportunity to interact with their fellow students or even their teachers on the face-to-face basis hence lack of emotional attachment and mutual understanding as opposed to traditional classroom students (Gruman, Schneider & Coutts, 2016).
The aim of this paper is to determine the effects of technology on the relationship between student peers. It also investigates the similarities and differences of student peer relationships for the classroom and online students concerning their social relations, scholarly idea exchange opportunities and support groups during studies.
Effects of technology on students’ social relationships
Communication technology is important for both online and traditional classroom students because it allows them to interact with each other effectively. However, communication technology is beneficial mostly to traditional classroom students compared to their online counterpart. While traditional classroom students can interact personally and exchange personal communication details such as cellphone contacts, online students do not have the same opportunity. They interact with their classmates through a designated platform with does not either personal communication. It allows purely for academic interactions (Moreillon, 2015).
Online students cannot interact socially and mutually amongst themselves because on rare occasions will they have an opportunity to meet face to face with each other and get to know each other at personal levels. Since they conduct their study sessions on the online platform and mostly operate from different geographical locations, they may not get opportunities to gather for study sessions or have a good time out of the classroom as their traditional brick and mortar classroom counterparts. Even though they have the chance to share ideas amongst themselves during the weekly seminars and discussions, they still cannot meet and discuss their issues daily as their classroom counterparts (Gruman, Schneider & Coutts, 2016).
Effects of technology on students’ scholarly idea exchange opportunities
Technology allows both online and traditional classroom students to exchange their scholarly ideas effectively and efficiently. However, the effectiveness and efficiency of scholarly idea exchange differ from one learning platform to another. Since traditional classroom students interact physically amongst themselves regularly, they tend to know each other’s academic capabilities. The process of consultation becomes easier because one can physically meet the students he/she needs consult and get immediate feedback.
Online students do not attend physically; hence they do not understand each other academic capabilities. In most cases, they interact with each other through their online platform. There is no guarantee that one will find the intended classmate online in case of urgent need for consultation. Online students have to wait for their weekly seminars and discussions to exchange their scholarly ideas as opposed to their traditional mortar and brick classroom students who interact with each other during each learning sessions. Technological changes therefore negatively affect the scholarly idea exchange for online students and positively impacts on the traditional classroom students (Gr...