The rapid progression of the Internet has paved the way for the growing popularity of distance learning. People are now speculating on the possibility of the Internet taking the place of a traditional school. In my opinion, given the continued advance in technology, Internet-based learning can serve as an alternative to traditional class-based learning.
Online education has a large number of advantages. It allows students to set their own study time. Unlike traditional learning, online courses offer children greater flexibility and enable them to create a timetable in line with their needs and characteristics. Students can also save tuition fees, because a virtual school normally charges students much less than a conventional school does. It is particularly a great option for those students with physical handicaps, who have great difficulties in commuting to school campus. For instance, for those who live far away from the school, online education is remarkably favourable. It can be expected that the Internet is very likely to replace a physical school as an education provider in the near future if its drawbacks are removed.
The first drawback of the virtual schools is lack of human contact, as opposed to a noted merit of traditional teacher-led education, providing students with ongoing daily interactions with teachers. This weakness can be solved by taking advantage of bandwidth network technologies. The interaction between students can be guaranteed when one can contact with another—whenever and wherever he or she likes—via email, post comments on message boards and chat rooms, or even video conference for communication. Educators are also concerned that online learning cannot make all skills and knowledge transferable. For example, some courses require a high proportion of hands-on practice, which is beyond the capacity of online training. This problem can be nevertheless addressed by introducing multimedia as a teaching aid. By using audio and video, students can sample different learning styles and acquire both general and specialised knowledge of a subject.
As suggested above, there are plenty of benefits of online learning, including flexibility, cost- saving and convenience. Although it has two problems, lack of interaction and failing to provide a wide range of courses, both can be overcome as technology advances.
The rapid progression of the Internet has paved the way for the growing popularity of distance
learning
.
People
are
now
speculating on the possibility of the Internet taking the place of a
traditional
school
. In my opinion,
given
the continued advance in technology, Internet-based
learning
can serve as an alternative to
traditional
class
-based learning.
Online
education
has
a large number of
advantages. It
allows
students
to set their
own
study time. Unlike
traditional
learning
,
online
courses offer children greater flexibility and enable them to create a timetable in line with their needs and characteristics.
Students
can
also
save tuition fees,
because
a virtual
school
normally
charges
students
much less than a conventional
school
does. It is
particularly
a great option for those
students
with physical handicaps, who have great difficulties in commuting to
school
campus.
For instance
, for those who
live
far away from the
school
,
online
education
is
remarkably
favourable
. It can be
expected
that the Internet is
very
likely to replace a physical
school
as an
education
provider in the near future if its drawbacks
are removed
.
The
first
drawback of the virtual
schools
is lack of human contact, as opposed to a noted merit of
traditional
teacher-led
education
, providing
students
with ongoing daily interactions with teachers. This weakness can
be solved
by taking advantage of bandwidth network technologies. The interaction between
students
can
be guaranteed
when one can contact with another—whenever and wherever he or she likes—via email, post comments on message boards and chat rooms, or even video conference for communication. Educators are
also
concerned that
online
learning
cannot
make
all
skills
and knowledge transferable.
For example
,
some
courses require a high proportion of hands-on practice, which is beyond the capacity of
online
training. This problem can be
nevertheless
addressed by introducing multimedia as a teaching aid. By using audio and video,
students
can sample
different
learning
styles and acquire both general and
specialised
knowledge of a subject.
As suggested above, there are
plenty
of benefits of
online
learning
, including flexibility, cost- saving and convenience. Although it has two problems, lack of interaction and failing to provide a wide range of courses, both can
be overcome
as technology advances.