Future of Education: Online vs. Classroom

AGeorge Villalta
ENC 1101
Mrs. Cobb

Teach Me Something New Ever since Plato founded the school of Athens during the days of Ancient Greece, and students have been taught by a teacher face to face in a classroom. Now we live in a time where technology dominates the education landscape. Slowly we are phasing out the pencil and paper for iPads tablets. Now I’m a firm believer that computers and tablets have made school life so much easier, but one thing I believe that should stay the same is the classroom setting. Online classes to me are a terrible idea for many people. I think a hands on approach on learning is important because we learn new things with our eyes, hands, and other senses. Sometimes students are faced with problems in which a quick response is necessary in order to understand the subject or problem. I think asking via Email takes too long and sometimes it’s frustrating when you don’t get the correct response. I believe that if the current path of online education continues I think it might force teachers and professors out of a job. One other thing I think might happen is that virtual schooling will spill into our public system and might interfere the way children develop, especially in social situations where children need to interact with other kids to learn. If that’s the case I think that the quality of the education that a virtual school will have is far more lower than one in a classroom because there is teachers and other students helping each other out to understand the curriculum. I think communication between other students is very important because it build up friendships and makes it easier to study and collaborate with each other.

I personally don’t like online classes because I didn’t get to see or talk to my professor. I saw the whole experience as disconnected and it seemed like I was doing nothing around the house. It also felt very repetitive; doing the same old routine every week and sometimes didn’t get a memo when major assignment would be due. I thought it would be very easy and simple but from the start I was having problems, everything from not understanding the assignments to unexpected Internet outages. I see a great potential in online courses but I personally prefer the classic classroom setting. Now, I do see how convenience it is for many people that are always on the go, don’t have time to drive back and forth everyday, have a full-time job, etc. To me I love the interaction between other people. The feeling of going to a institution with other people like myself that have great aspirations of a better future to me is why I like going to the college. In the end I hopefully see a better way to educate students in the future.