Should Teachers Allow Internet Access in Classrooms?
This essay critically evaluates Pete Rorabaugh's argument that granting students internet access in classrooms fosters self-directed learning, grit, and resilience. Drawing on research by Tough, Perkins-Gough, and Domhardt et al., the paper acknowledges the value of active learning while challenging the assumption that most students possess the discipline needed to navigate the digital environment productively. Through the extended metaphor of the "digital Wild West," the essay argues that teachers must remain active participants in the educative process rather than passive observers, and that unrestricted internet access in primary and secondary classrooms risks distraction and misinformation more than it builds academic character.
- Introduction: The Digital Wild West in the Classroom: Framing Rorabaugh's argument and central counterpoint
- Rorabaugh's Case for Self-Directed Online Learning: Summarizing the argument against classroom authority
- The Limits of Self-Directed Learning: Why teacher guidance remains essential
- Student Readiness and the Need for Guidance: Many students lack discipline for self-directed learning
- Online Learning at Higher Levels vs. Primary Education: Contrasting adult learners with younger students
- Conclusion: Navigating the Internet with a Guide: Calling for guided rather than unrestricted internet use
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What makes this paper effective
- The extended "digital Wild West" metaphor is sustained throughout the essay, giving the argument a vivid and memorable conceptual frame that consistently reinforces the central point about the dangers of unguided exploration.
- The essay fairly summarizes the opposing view before critiquing it, demonstrating engagement with Rorabaugh's actual claims rather than a strawman position.
- Concrete analogies — dropping students on the frontier, teachers as lifeguards, adult online learners vs. children — make abstract pedagogical arguments tangible and persuasive.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models a concession-and-rebuttal structure effectively: it grants that grit and resilience are essential developmental goals (citing Tough and Perkins-Gough) before arguing that unrestricted internet access is not the appropriate mechanism for building them in younger students. This technique strengthens credibility by showing the writer understands the strongest version of the opposing argument.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens by framing Rorabaugh's thesis and immediately signaling disagreement. It then steelmans the self-directed learning position, introduces qualifications about student readiness, draws a developmental distinction between primary/secondary and higher education, and closes with a measured call for guided rather than unrestricted internet use. The argument flows logically from summary to critique to nuanced conclusion.
Introduction: The Digital Wild West in the Classroom
As Rorabaugh notes, the internet has evolved from a once "primitive" place to a kind of digital frontier. To maneuver one's way through the digital world, one must be able to navigate platforms and forums where civility is often lacking and where shocking surprises always await. Some see this as a danger, and two hundred years ago they likely would have been the same ones warning others not to venture to the frontier or try to tackle the Wild West. Yet, as Perkins-Gough, Tough, and Domhardt et al. all point out, children cannot succeed — academically or professionally — without developing grit, resilience, and determination.
Rorabaugh's argument is that bringing the internet into the classroom and allowing students to engage in self-directed learning can help to build that grit, resilience, and determination, as it gives them room to spread their wings in a controlled environment — under their teacher's eyes — and begin sifting and sorting through information online, using their own powers of deduction to determine where to go next on the journey for answers. Rorabaugh states that it encourages active participation rather than passive reception of information from a teacher. With the internet, students are like sleuths in a digital Wild West, and giving them that opportunity is like giving them training in simulated combat: they are on the "front lines" of the information war and must put on their critical thinking caps if they want to come out "alive."
That is the point Rorabaugh makes repeatedly in his article on why the classroom could benefit from a bit more internet. The problem, however, is that while kids do need to develop grit and resilience — as other researchers have noted — they are also very vulnerable to misinformation and still require a great deal of guidance. Even Dante the poet had a guide in Virgil when he traveled through Hell.
Works Cited
Domhardt, Matthias, et al. "Resilience in Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: A Systematic Review of the Literature." Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 16.4 (2015): 476–493.
Perkins-Gough, Deborah. "The Significance of Grit: A Conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth." Educational Leadership 71.1 (2013): 14–20.
Rorabaugh, Pete. "Trading Classroom Authority for Online Community." Hybrid Pedagogy, 5 Jan. 2012. https://hybridpedagogy.org/trading-classroom-authority-for-online-community/
Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.
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