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During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed, and the children’s education suffered. When it was clear that the pandemic wasn’t going away anytime soon, schools had to adapt.
It was clear to everybody that education is still a priority, even if there is a pandemic going around. However, officials needed to change the traditional ways to adapt and be effective.
Online schooling is now the norm. About 82% of the 48 million students were given remote distance learning options. Additionally, a majority of students in the UK were also given the same opportunities. It’s clear that the Western world is adapting to these changing circumstances, but are online schools the way of the future?
Online Schools This Year
Online schools fared better last year than this year in the United States. Many students enjoyed the new setup given to them and the freedom they had at home. However, the online setup this year isn’t going so well.
For many schools in the United Kingdom, online schooling has made certain functions a lot easier. Because of this, British school admissions have increased compared to last year, as more people get used to the schools we have nowadays. But it doesn’t ease the fact that children turn restless in their homes, especially when cooped up for many months.
Problem With Tech
There is also a growing problem with technology. Not many people have access to state-of-the-art equipment in their homes, and not many have stable connections to work. For example, one in five students doesn’t have access to online learning equipment in the UK. In addition, an increasing number of students have stated that they do not enjoy online learning.
The main problem with the current setup is that homes are meant to be a haven for children. They might have enjoyed the first year of online schooling, but it’s only this year they’ve realized how bad it is to have six- to eight-hour sessions of school in their home. There also isn’t much social contact in online classrooms. Most of the time, it’s teachers that are left talking for hours on end.
The current educational system isn’t making any new formats for online schooling, with most organizations claiming that it works well for the meantime or until the pandemic subsides. This begs the question, are online schools for the better?
Online schooling is now the norm. About 82% of the 48 million students were given remote distance learning options. It's clear that the Western world is adapting to these changing circumstances, but are online schools the way of the future?Click To TweetOnline Schools for the Future?
It’s hard to say when the pandemic will subside. Various variants still exist, and one particular variant, the Delta variant, has a much higher infection rate. This makes physical schools highly dangerous. With more states demanding their freedom in tackling the virus, the more disorganization there is when it comes to schooling.
As stated earlier, states like Texas are going back to physical schools, and some students in the UK don’t enjoy online classrooms. Similarly, a decent chunk doesn’t have access to the necessary equipment. These things show that online schools might not be meant for the future unless we reformat the current way we do online schools.
Improving Online Schools
One way we can improve online schools is through interactive learning. The exact format we had for traditional schools isn’t working. Children need to talk with one another. Even if it’s discouraged in conventional schools because it impedes learning, social interaction is one way some children are motivated to be in school.
Interactive learning is all about creating a two-way process of learning. One way to do this is to give students projects where they have to be the ones to teach a particular topic to their classmates. Another way is for the teacher to facilitate a classroom environment where everyone can interact with one another. This can be done through various activities such as gamification to ensure that children are stimulated while inside their online classroom.
Online schooling might not be the way for the future, and parents demand a return to traditional schooling. But with the current threat of the COVID-19 pandemic still around, school officials are hesitant about the latter option. However, people will have to work with what they have. Making online schooling more interesting to students should be the first step to making it bearable at least for now.
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