The Bonus of Traditional Learning 

It is very apparent that online class requires class flexibility, you can work, do household necessities, babysit, while still attending your online class. When placed in a traditional class setting, you can not do much more than just pay attention to the class. It is very important that decision makers know this when trying to pick between the two courses. Self-discipline while taking college classes online is very important. There is no one there telling to force and take notes while still paying attention to classes and I believe it is all about independence and control over their education and future. We need to prohibit online classes to give students the full ability to learn and understand the material in front of them without resorting to the internet to cheat.

Online school takes a toll on low- income families the hardest. Most low income families don’t have the adequate technology to learn properly. Whether it is not being able to connect to zoom’s because of an unstable connection to not having the proper learning devices to learn like some of their classmates. “It expects a greater learning loss for minority and low-income children who have less access to technology, and for families more affected by the economic downturn.” Teachers have also taken a toll with online school. Teachers can’t seem to properly take attendance in the Los Angeles School district. Parents have also found a hard time with their children being at home learning virtually. When students went to school the parents were allowed to go to work and do their everyday needs knowing that their children were at school being looked for. Now that they are home it’s the parents job to look after their children and still work and do their everyday needs. It causes a lot of stress on the parents and now they have to move around their schedule to look after their children during the hours of school. If school was in person they wouldn’t have to go through the troubles to do that. 

In an in person class teachers are able to connect with the students one on one when they are confused on a subject, Dallas middle-school teacher Delna Bryan, who teaches Spanish includes both fluent and nonfluent youngsters. “In the classroom, I can look around and see body language and know when some of my students not fluent in Spanish need me to switch to English. I can’t do that online. We need the interaction with the kids, face-to face.” In this case the students who don’t really know spanish aren’t learning because they’re unable to get the proper one on one time with the teacher that you would get in a classroom. You would be able to see how the teacher’s lips move to try and mimic it as best as possible to help yourself become better in the subject. This causes more stress on students because now they aren’t fully learning which probably makes them feel like behind. 

Although some students might like online learning most students don’t like change. They have been going into school since they were young and it became a part of their daily routine and it’s hard to just break that cycle. In person school was more than just going to school and learning. It was a chance to conversate with people on a daily basis whether you were friends or not. It helped people become more social and make connections with people that they could use in the future potentially, but online learning restricts that ability for students to talk to each other like how they used to. Some students only talked to other people outside of their family during school so by having everyone virtual the likeliness of the student to talk to other students has decreased significantly. Online learning will make students less social and we will see a higher rate of public speaking anxiety in the future as well. Traditional school gave us the ability to speak in front of people. Even if they were our classmates it was still a chance to talk in front of a group of people, online school still has presentations but there is a big difference from standing up in person and giving a presentation as compared to having your box light up when you speak.

Having an in person class will also allow the students to fully understand what the teacher wants and needs in an assignment, “also, course expectations are often not clear, and because of the physical separation between the instructor  and student, problems may  be difficult to resolve.” You won’t always be able to ask the teacher what they really want due to the fact that you’re online. Teachers might not want to fully explain everything in text because it will be too long and they know that the students won’t fully read it as opposed to them being in person and the teacher would be able to just talk and let everyone know what they’re expecting. Students are more likely to “slack off” and cheat during online school. No one is there to keep them accountable and not cheat. If they don’t know a question on a test instead of just guessing they can google the entire test and pass without knowing one thing on that test. 

It’s true students can cheat anywhere online and in person but students are more likely to cheat online due to the fact that the teacher’s presence is non existent. Online learning does give the students the ability to learn in the comfort or their bed but they aren’t fully learning the material presented to them. Traditional learning encourages students to stay on task and to ask questions when they don’t understand a subject. It allows students to engage with themselves which will help them with everyday life things in the future as opposed to online learning. 

Work Cited 

Hannay, M., & Newvine, T. (2006, March). PERCEPTIONS OF DISTANCE LEARNING: A COMPARISON OF ONLINE AND TRADITIONAL LEARNING . https://jolt.merlot.org/documents/MS05011.pdf. 

Hobbs, T. D., & Hawkins, L. (2020, June 5). The Results Are In for Remote Learning: It Didn’t Work. https://www.panoramic.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/The-Results-Are-In-for-Remote-Learning_-It-Didn%E2%80%99t-Work-WSJ.pdf. 

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