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By: Kyndal Shafer & Charlotte Gargiulo 9/30/26
When you think of assignments, you probably think of an Edpuzzle where you answer questions or a textbook you have to read, but have you ever thought about one being better than the other? To explain further, schools use a mix of online and offline assignments; some work better on paper, and some work better online, but overall, paper provides more support for students' education.
First, paper assignments can improve how long students stay focused on an assignment. Online assignments can strain your eyes and make it hard to finish the work on time. Many studies have shown that studying or doing work on paper is more likely to stick than online work. Online assignments don’t do that as well as paper does. The blue light of any screen isn’t good for your eyes, and doing an assignment that requires lots of brainpower combined with a screen isn’t good. When doing paper assignments, our brains just work, focus, and remember better. When doing paper assignments, notes, or studying, students can highlight, underline, circle, write small notes on the side, or anything like that to help them remember stuff better, unlike online assignments where you can’t do that as easily.
There are plenty of benefits to using paper for better learning, but one of the major ones is that it can help improve memory and the learning you gain from the project or assignment. According to Harvard Medical School, “While these devices can enhance learning and build community, they can also interfere with everything from sleep to creativity.” This shows that devices affect our lives in and out of school, and using them in school could interfere with our health and even learning. Many studies have also shown that students gain more and take away more from learning with paper or written assignments than with online learning. Eliza Baxter is an 8th-grade student who feels paper assignments are better. Baxter states, “Paper assignments are just a lot easier to use than online assignments.”
Another proven reason is that using paper instead of online for learning has shown a reduced amount of cheating and AI usage. As said previously, paper has been proven to help students understand and gain knowledge better from the lessons; therefore, they wouldn’t need to use AI or to cheat. During the pandemic, most became online learners because there was simply not much you could do for school at the time. This only led to the rise of online use, which led to the revolution of AI and people trying to be more clever with cheating. According to Emmanuel College, “With the introduction of ChatGPT in November of 2022, similar surveys indicate that 70% to 80% of high school students and 50% to 70% of college undergraduates have cheated on assignments.” This is all the more true that the online AI revolution is only leading to the downfall of purposeful learning.
As explained above, you can see the benefits of both online and paper, but paper offers more overall benefits. These all prove that technology plays a big role in our lives, whether we realize it or not, but we shouldn’t take advantage of it just because it's convenient; we should think about our learning and the opportunities ahead of us. Whether it be reduced AI use and screen time or a better understanding of the content, paper is proven to be best for the job.
Author's Bio:
Kyndal Shafer is an 8th-grade student who likes to be creative, be with family, and be outdoors.
Charlotte Gargiulo is an 8th grader who likes to read, be outside, and eat Subway, Jimmy John’s, and Jersey Mike's.
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