Mock IRR Outline by ZOHA OMAR

RQ

zo95784 — 2025-09-25 14:38:54 UTC

To what extent does the digitization of education negatively impact students?

Thesis

zo95784 — 2025-09-26 14:04:17 UTC

From a social and cultural perspective, digitization of education negatively impacts students due to the harmful impact it has on not only student’s academic performance, but their social and emotional development.

Context/Intro

zo95784 — 2025-09-26 14:08:58 UTC

Education has been digitized due to —, and has been found to positively impact students in that it —. However, this digitization of education can have many negative effects on students, especially considering —.

Lens

zo95784 — 2025-09-26 14:09:47 UTC

Cultural/Social Lens

BP #1 - Academic Performance

zo95784 — 2025-09-26 14:12:32 UTC

Digital education has been seen to consistently cause a lowering of —. Culturally, the lower achievement of students can be seen as negative, not to mention the negative impact on student’s learning.

Evidence 1A

zo95784 — 2025-09-26 20:00:53 UTC

“Results showed that the students in average achieved lower scores on the digital test than on the paper version. Almost a third of the students performed better on the paper test than they did on the computer test, and the negative effect of screen reading was most pronounced among high-performing girls.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131520300610

Evidence 2B

zo95784 — 2025-09-28 15:25:10 UTC

However, from a developmental neurobiology perspective, excessive ST may be detrimental to young people as ST stimulates neurobiological systems such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis [24] and dopaminergic circuitries [25]. Childhood and adolescence are sensitive periods in which these systems develop and change [26–29], making them particularly vulnerable to insult. From a lifestyle and social perspective, it has been argued that excessive ST also displaces important protective behaviours for mental health such as physical activity [30, 31], getting adequate sleep [32], in-person social interactions [33], and academic activities [34].

Oswald, Tassia K et al. “Psychological impacts of "screen time" and "green time" for children and adolescents: A systematic scoping review.” PloS onevol. 15,9 e0237725. 4 Sep. 2020, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0237725

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7473739/

Miscellaneous Sources

zo95784 — 2025-09-28 15:29:41 UTC

(For context and also I might add a counter-point rebuttal section)

BP #3 - Social + Emotional Development

zo95784 — 2025-09-28 15:31:54 UTC

By —, education’s shift toward largely digital means can negatively effect students’s *social and emotional skills effected.* Socially, this can stunt the growth of student’s, especially those raised by this digital education system.

Evidence 3A

zo95784 — 2025-09-29 14:14:43 UTC

In unadjusted and adjusted analyses, duration of media exposure at age 6 months was associated with lower cognitive development at age 14 months (unadjusted: r=−0.17, P<.01; adjusted: β=−0.15, P=.02) and lower language development (r=−0.16, P<.01; β=−0.16, P<.01).

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3095486/

Evidence 3B

zo95784 — 2025-09-29 14:38:20 UTC

On average, the higher children’s scores were on the brief self-control scale the less they tended to addictively use digital devices. Correspondingly, self-control was negatively associated with all nine subscales of the DASC, having the strongest relationship with Tolerance (r = -0.65, p<0.001). Furthermore, self-control was also correlated to the LDR proportion (r = 0.25, p = 0.034), indicating possible confounding between addictive behavior and delay discounting.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8219150/

Evidence 3C

zo95784 — 2025-09-30 14:07:19 UTC

Both boys and girls who participated in sport had significantly fewer total difficulties (Table 3). They also had fewer emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention problems, peer relationship problems and more pro-social behaviours.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2867988/

Evidence 1B

zo95784 — 2025-09-30 14:21:59 UTC

The results reveal that reading on tablets, as opposed to reading in print, is particularly detrimental for upper primary school students (10–13 years old) with low reading comprehension skills when they read expository texts under time pressure. However, students obtain similar levels of text comprehension with tablets or printed texts if they possess high reading comprehension skills.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1041608021000121#s0070

Evidence 2A

zo95784 — 2025-09-30 14:28:07 UTC

Excessive screen time can have significant negative impacts on both physical health and mental health. The sedentary nature of screen time can lead to eye strain, neck and shoulder pain, and back pain, while excessive screen time can lead to depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10852174/

Evidence M1

zo95784 — 2025-09-30 14:33:55 UTC

ICTs also allow cognitively challenged students to engage in learning in a variety of forms, which may significantly reduce the learning curve, leading to improved learning results. The article authored by Arthur Tatnall et al. provides two case studies that demonstrated interactions between students with learning disabilities and ICT facilities (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-017-9605-2). The study showed how ICTs may improve students’ attitudes towards learning, and help them attain knowledge and skills, which in turn allow them to enter the workforce or continue with further study through a variety of pathways.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10639-017-9670-6

BP #2 - Student Mental/Physical Health

zo95784 — 2025-10-01 03:40:16 UTC

Mental and physical health can be greatly impacted by —. When education is digitized, students are — more likely to experience adverse effects such as —, — and even —.

2C

zo95784 — 2025-10-01 04:00:26 UTC

a strong health impact of long-term exposure to digital devices and meaningful effects on 2-to-12-year-old children, such as PA reduction, sedentariness increase, and sleep disturbances. Behavioral changes in children overexposed to digital media were reported, such as socioemotional dysregulation and low levels of academic performance and cognitive development achievement.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11587142/#sec5-jfmk-09-00236

Evidence M2

zo95784 — 2025-10-01 04:03:10 UTC

In our research, students were given the freedom to choose between a digital guided self‐study offer and a face‐to‐face guided self‐study offer. The majority of students opted for the face‐to‐face option, a choice that was associated with improved academic performance.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11960422/#ase70010-sec-0010