SAMPLE COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY

Text 1 is an excerpt from the story, The Fun they Had, while text 2 is a short film called "Technology in
Education: A Future Classroom." Text 1 was written by Isaac Asimov and published in 1951. The excerpt
brings the audience into a world of education in the future where everything is computerised, including
teachers. On the other hand, text 2 was directed by Daniel Nemroff and published in 2014, picturing
education in the future due to the advancement of technology. Text 2 was published in the Rockland Youth
Film Festival,the White House Student Film Festival, as well as the My Hero International Film Festival.
In addition,both texts follow the genre of science fiction and have a target audience of people that are
interested in science fiction. Moreover, they both primarily have the purpose of entertaining the audience,
and secondarily to inform the audience of the dangers of computerised schooling which blocks the benefits
ofpersonal connections between teachers and students. In both The Fun they Had and Technology in
Education: A Future Classroom, the author and filmmaker made excellent usage of stylistic devices such as
figurative language and cinematography to portray education in the future.

In The Fun they Had, Asimov has wonderfully utilised literary devices to express the possibilities of
education in the fie Jos instance, the usage of symbolism to represent the theme, "Technological
Advancement," can be Witnessed in paragraph 11, “A man. How could a man be a teacher?” In this
situation, Margie represents the society in the future, one that is already adapted to the progression of
technology and find what they have at the moment to be the form. In the future, all students are home-
schooled, taught by computerised teachers. Hence, with Margie's question, it can be determined thatsociety
believes men to not be smart and capable enough to fill in the position of a teacher, believed to be smart
beyond what humankind could achieve. This represents how technology may have progressed over time, as
in the current world, robots and computers are unable to apply the human qualities required to act as a
teacher, while in Margie's world, it is the norm. This also represents how education changed in the future,
along with the technology, where students have personalised computerised home-schooling,preventing the
benefits from the connections between students and teachers. This may make the audience anxious,
wondering if such development is possible in the future, as it may completely devoid students from
significant relationships. Besides this, in paragraph 4, line 1-2, the usage of antithesis can also be seen to
represent "Technological Advancement," "He smiled at her and gave her an apple, then took the teacher
apart." The first phrase, "He smiled at her and gave her an apple" describes a positive and kind attitude
through the "smile" and the gift that the County Inspector gave Margie, the "Apple."

However, the second phrase, "took the teacher apart," is a very harsh and not pleasing to the eye at all, due
to the verb "took." Verbs such as "Unassembled" could have been used to reduce the harshness, but "took,"
was used instead, implying that there was no thought being put when breaking apart the mechanical
teacher. These are two very contrasting phrases that allow the audience to understand the advancement of
technology in the author's future. Technology is advanced enough to possess human qualities such as
kindness, but still
express their robotic side through their thoughtlessness at times. This also shows the state of education in
the future. Technology is taking over through computerised teachers, and while it may at times help each
student's growth, there is no knowing when something completely unexpected could occur, as human
nature does not apply to robotics, any miscalculation in programming may endanger the lives of the
students. This would make the audience concerned, as whether technology may be a benefit or terror to
students, can change at any moment.

“On the other hand, Nemroff had also applied cinematography to express how different education could be
in the future. [Through the usage of diegetic sound, at 0:58, Nemroff portrays a change in tone. The tone
shifts from a friendly and positive tone to a regretful tone. This is shown by the filmmaker through the
usage of non-diegetic sound. Before 0:58, the background music is upbeat and playful, allowing the
filmmakers to portray how much improvement the advancement of technology has had in the education of
students.

Students can conveniently copy notes through advanced laptops, and teachers can conveniently teach
through holograms without the need for a whiteboard or any materialistic equipment. However, at 0:58,
there is a sudden drop in volume of the music, expressing that incoming will be music that has a drop in
the friendly tone. Afterwards, the music still maintains its beat, but uses a higher pitched sound that one
can picture as a "crying" sound, making the tone regretful. In this computerised world of
education,teachers are no longer necessary and students are able to self-learn and complete all their lessons
through the usage of technology. Hence, students are unable to reap the benefits of personal connecting
between students and teachers. This is what the author wants to portray, the education system in the future
formed from technological advancement This would make the audience rethink any thought they may
have had onthe improvement in schooling technology could bring.”The audience would start to understand
thattechnology is a double-edged sword, and that if not used ppropriately, may cause disaster.
Moreover,from 0:08 to 0:12, a tilt shot is utilised by Nemroff. From 0:0 to 0:12, the camera moves
downwards and towards the left simultaneously, producing the effect of a tilting shot. Through the shot, the
filmmaker expresses the main idea behind the future world of education, as well as the theme, "Change."
The shot is tilting from the sky to the ground, expressing that the future of education, symbolised through
the endless sky, has infinite possibilities, and will not remain as it is currently. It will eventually change,
whether it be for better or worse. This allows the author to express to the audience that technological
advancement is at out toes, and if we are not aware of it, before we know it, the education system with
physical classrooms and teachers that we are familiar with will no longer be present, taken over by
computerised systems such as holograms. This may cause the audience to feel more appreciative of the
current, standardised education system with teachers and students in one classroom, physical whiteboards,
worksheets, and more, as it is
unknown how long this system will last for.

In conclusion, both texts have appropriately utilised stylistic devices to express the changes in education in
the future that technology can bring. Both texts are similar in the sense that they focus on portraying what
education in the future beholds, but differ in the techniques utilised to do so. Text 1 utilised figurative
language such as symbolism and antithesis to express how education could transform into the usage of
computerised home-schooling, while text 2 utilised cinematography such as diegetic sound and a tilt shot
to express the education mainly provided to students through holograms and computerised systems. While
both texts did an excellent job at showing how the schooling system is in the future, the author did a better
job through the usage of literary devices. This is because Asimov made sure to portray what the society,
represented through Margie, at the time thought of the education in the past as well, allowing a clearer
contrast to be made between the present and the future education. Furthermore, an insight gained from
these texts is that the possibilities of technology is limitless, and as long as the creative and innovative
minds of humans are present, the current educational system will not remain stagnant. Hence, humans are
the ones that have to preserve certain beneficial aspects of education and replace some of the improvable
aspects with technology in order to shape education into something that all students will benefit from.