Online Education – How education is changing now

The education has changed from conventional classroom teaching to online education over the period of time.

With the progress of mankind, education has also changed over the years. From a very early time of the colonial period. The education was only accessible to only the high society and rich people. This has changed after World War-II when most of the countries were getting freedom. During the independence struggle, the education has played a pivotal role. After that a new era of free countries has come which gave a great importance to education.

The education earlier was only limited to the boundary of the schools. However every government were trying to spread the light of education to all people. The education was available where there were schools. However with the advent of computers and later on with the internet facilities, the education system has crossed the boundaries of schools. Now in this era of high internet speeds and availability, the online education is the new way of education.

Online education is the lifeline to those who have obstacles such as geographical distances or physical abilities

However, like every coin have two sides, the online education do have benefits with limitations.

Benefits of Online Education

1. The online education has broken the barrier of distance. Where the bricks and concrete can’t reach there the internet waves has spread the light of education.
   
2. One of the biggest obstacles for education is the age. The online teaching has provided the opportunity for everyone to learn.
   
3. In some mountain regions where the schools are kilometers away from the home. The students have to travel for hours to reach the schools. The online education has come as a blessing for them. They can save a lot of time and also do other courses in the same time.
   
4. With the start of many private schools where the fees are hefty. The online education made learning very cheaper. There are a lot of course materials which are on free source and can be accessed by everyone. The money based education has changed by online education,
   
5. Also for educators, who wants to teach but cannot afford big infrastructure. The online education has also helped them to fulfill their passion without any constraints.
   
6. Internet is a vast resource of knowledge which can be accessible any time by any one. This has opened a big gate for every student.
   
7. In a school where for a particular subject only few teachers will be available. And the students are purely dependent on the teachers and their teaching. The online teaching has given a big opportunity for both the teachers and students to exchange numerous information. Also from various tutorials which are both in typed and video forms are accessible to any student.
   
8. Online education is free from boring long lecture method. It includes various interactive tools like video presentation, animations, flowchart etc.
   
9. The most important aspect of online education is it gives complete freedom to the students to learn at their comfortable time.

Limitations of Online Education

On one side where online education is a blessing. But for every coin, two sides are there. There are some limitations or side-effects of online teaching.

1. Due to the online teaching, the student has to learn alone. There is very less interaction between a teacher and student.
   
2. For a healthy education system, with learning there should be discussions and arguments also. However in the online learning the other part i.e discussion and arguments are missing. Because it opens a broad view of understanding the concepts.
   
3. The interaction between the students are also missing in the online teaching. A healthy group discussion always gives multi dimensions to a concept or topic.
   
4. Also the internet packages are costly and which puts a hole in your pocket.
   
5. Improper internet coverage and slow internet connections also provide challenge to online education.
   
6. Exposure of radiations from smartphones or computers are harmful to eyes and brain also.
   
7. The basic requirement of having a interface for internet i.e computer and smartphones are not easily accessible at rural regions.
   
8. The making of projects and presentations which require group discussions, the online way are more difficult and time consuming than conventional way of discussion.
   
9. In a school education, every student apart from education learn important skills from fellow students. This learning is completely absent in online learning.

Online education can be seen as a complement to conventional way of school education. But it can not replace completely the conventional way of teaching. It can support the education. But the very prominent facet of conventional education of physical interaction cannot be met by online teaching. The school plays a very important role in overall development of students.

We can always use the online education but we should not forget we are social animals. And our social interaction is our power and power for growth. Like a plant to grow healthy needs proper sunlight even though it gets all nutrients from soil. Like in the same manner the brain should be developed in the light of nature and physical interactions.