SHOULD LEARNING BE ONLINE?
INTRODUCTION
Online learning is the use of modern technology and the internet to facilitating impacting of knowledge. The technology gained momentum in the world during the start of the 21st century when computers and mobile devices were at the peak of adoption and consumption by most people. A report by the Statista indicates that the annual mobile devices and laptops sold annually are more than 1.4 billion smartphones. The number of active mobile device users surpasses there billion and is trajected to increase to five billion by the year 2030. China, United States op f America and India hare known top exceed 100 million users mark. As the popularity and usage of these gadgets continue to penetrate deep, society has devised to use the technology at their service. The number of students taking online courses grew by 5.7% by 2017. One sector that has, to a greater extent, employed the use of technology and the internet in the education sector. Usage of online tutoring techniques and dedicated software has become a global trend.
The advancement has, however, compromised the dignity of classroom learning, the physical education where both the tutor and the student are in close contact. Despite these numerous milestones, classroom learning remains the formidable method through which active learning may be impacted. The article’s purpose is to illustrate why the traditional physical education is preferred over online learning.
Discussion
Classroom learning promotes time management and organizational skills
To begin with, classroom learning is critical in promoting organizational skills among the students. The tutor plays a crucial role in enhancing the commitment of students to be more answerable and committed to the learning process. For instance, the physical classroom learning impacts necessary skills such as arrival time for the student. The natural leaning gives the tutor the power to hold students accountable to do their home works in due time, involve in in-discussions, be ready for random quizzes, and be prepared to hand in assignments. Through this, the students are taught. This is not the case in online learning. The liberty and freedom among the learners on online learning may, to a greater extent, compromise organizational skills. Though the main reasons behind a large number of online students are convenience and flexibility that come along, time management and organization is challenging.
For them to overcome the challenge of time management, the research suggests various measures. Firstly, the identification of time wasters is critical. Online learning involves the use of a mobile device or computer that usually have social media accounts. There always exists a tendency for one to be distracted from active learning. To avoid distractions, there exist software such as website blockers apps that blocks websites at a scheduled time. When one is through, they can take a break and visit such sites after learning. The second measure is to have a strict schedule that one can adhere to. Breaking down of tasks in a to-do-list ensures that every activity has been allocated its time. This promotes concentration and dedication levels toward online learning. Multitasking is highly discouraged, and completion of a task at a time is effective in bringing time consciousness in online learning. One can as well call for delegate duties or call for help to maximize online learning.
The points above indicate that it is possible to bring about time consciousness in online learning. It is, however, more complicated and may overburden the learners. The research done indicates that only 10% of the students can complete their online degree. For this reason, physical classroom leaning is the most outstanding learning method as compared to online learning.
Social skills are promoted more in face-to-face setup
Secondly, physical classroom learning is known to improve one’s social skills. The students who are undertaking physical classroom learning are exposed to people. They interact with the teachers and peers through various activities. Group discussions among the students and the capability of students to develop a rapport with the teacher improve their social skills. Public speaking is as well enhanced among the students. Through presentations and question-asking skills of the students on their projects, assignment, or any other tasks, all cement the capability of the student to develop social intelligence. This is a skill that is quite difficult to impact through the online learning process. The virtual interactions between tutors and the learners are insufficient to affect these skills. Social skills set in the physical classroom learning is known to be a motivating factor in understanding concepts.
This is not the case in online learning. The absence of physical touch and social interaction among students and learners brings along attempts to procrastinate and fail to complete their work on time. Consequently, they lag behind. To address this concern, students employ various techniques such as the practice of self-talk technique for re-evaluation purposes, showing up for the study, that is, log in the class portal and get updates and discussions on the course. They also can communicate with the tutor and faculty on rely time. These practices, to some extent, enhances their interaction, thus motivates them in learning.
The importance of physical learning in enhancing social skills is beyond reasonable doubts. Even if the recommendations above on how to address or improve social interaction in online education, they can never equate to physical learning. This supports my advocacy for online learning rather than online learning.
Classroom learning enhances critical thinking
Class teaching allows students to engage themselves in a live discussion. In the world we are living today, it has become a routine that every day, we get to hear fake news. Having live discussions enables the student to identify the legit information. Students tend to be more active when exchanging ideas; they develop strong arguments to come up witrelevant information. They conceptualize, process, and synthesize the concepts contributed by each of them and generate a formula that enables them to solve the problems in question. This helps them to develop better decisions making skills. It is believed that engaging in active class discussion every moment automatically triggers students’ minds there, forcing them to have the most thinking.
On the other hand, online learning has, to some degree, failed to deliver and impact critical thinking among students. This is because students lack the opportunity to engage themselves in active group discussions. This denies them the chance to brainstorm. Therefore, it has increased the dependency on the internet to solve problems in question and to generate the information required. Students rely on programs developed, which are mostly based on the thinking of the developer. E-learning discourages deep and thorough thinking on a particular challenge since one has access to all the information needed. Therefore, the best learning is achieved when students discover the importance of attending physical classes since they enable them to obtain clarifications through brainstorming among students.
Nevertheless, online learning can be used to develop and to promote critical thinking only if self-discipline is impacted. Self-discipline allows fair-minded thinking. It involves making one accountable for being willing to correct and solves problems without depending heavily on the internet. Instructors should, therefore, use the avenues in the Learning Management System to involve students in tasks that require critical thinking. This may include engaging them in dialogue discussions and providing supplemental materials to show how course work relates to real life.
No technical or specialized knowledge needed
The physical classroom provides a more convenient and manageable environment for learning as compared to online learning. A typical class only requires just a teacher, students, and stationeries for learning to take place. There is no special requirement needed for learning to take place hence easy to execute and applicable to every group. This is not the case in online learning. It necessitates that on observing or have technical skills on mobile devices or laptops, and special internet requirement for the learning to take place. Technical issues encountered acts as barriers to leaning process. The student may experience things such as poor network connection, electric power supply, and incompatible operating system. When these occur, learning is disrupted.
The measure has been put in place to seal these hitches. Advocacy for multiple devices and personal attention have been emphasized as the potential seal for these challenges. Installation of a reliable and robust home internet helps in fixing low bandwidth connections. Having technical knowhow to address any arising issues may be an added advantage to keep in pace with online learning. The school website should as well have a detailed FAQ section and an excellent student care service to assist students with various challenges. Emails and chat sections have been adopted by many online portals to help in glitches fixation. When these challenges are addressed and fixed, online learning can be useful to some degree. However, the convenience, simplicity, and effectiveness of physical education are way best compared to online learning. For these formidable shreds of evidence, they stipulate that online learning cannot entirely be entrusted as a medium of educating society.
Challenges of online learning
Foregoing challenges of online learning, executing online learning in developing countries have proved to be problematic. Research by the Journal of Global Information Technology Management reveals that developing countries, especially those in Africa, have low or no e-learning systems. The states have critical conditions that call for prioritization such as food security, health, and security at expense support services that might promote e-learning such as the provision of electricity, and reliable internet connections. The rural areas of third world countries and developing countries have lower penetration among the locals. Also, most lack proper knowledge on how to utilize the technology at their disposal as a tool to gain understanding through e-learning.
Benefits of e-learning
Although the article strongly advocates for traditional face-to-face learning techniques, technological e-learning has evolved to become more feasible economically, technologically, and operationally method of learning. It has been effective in imparting knowledge under limited infrastructure, strict schedules, and budgets. Other benefits of e-learning to the student include focused learning where one is at liberty to confine efforts to a specific topic. Also, the learner can remotely acquire knowledge at his/her comfort giving room. Flexibility is another motivator for online learning. This is because the learners are fully mandated to chose periods that suit their schedules best. One can as well study at the pace that is comfortable to them since every material of learning is readily at their disposal. E-learning has well been more practical when the need arises to avoid diseases that are transferable from one person to another. The current order of the world, like emergence of COVID-19, has led to the termination of physical classroom learning and the adoption of online learning.
Conclusion
from the discussion above, the benefits of physical learning are more impactive on the student as compared to those of online learning. This education method remains the primary mean of passing knowledge and cannot be replaced by online learning, and rather it can be supplemented. Face-to-face remains the primary technique of knowledge acquisition. This, therefore, form the basis of the reasons why learning should not be done online, rather it should be the usual face-to-face method.
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