Is Online learning the future of education?
Digital learning is the quickest growing market in the education industry,with a whopping 900% growth since 2000 according to KPMG. In Germany, the e-learning market is growing at 8.5% per annum dwarfing the rate at which her economy is growing by a staggering 4.5 times! ( Learning insights ). These data throw light to the fact that online learning is here to stay. In countries like the US, e-learning has enjoyed a steady increase in number of enrollment for close to 2 decades now yet in contrast, the regular traditional classrooms have reported declining enrollment over this same period. Are students preferring those online learning to the traditional classrooms? Probably. The fact that the e-learning market is projected to surpass a worth of $243 billions by 2022 and that it might exceed an eye catching $333billions by 2026 according to statisa indicates that the market is never showing signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Various factors have been attributed to the growing e-learning market. From flexibility, cost appropriateness down to accessibility, online learning is enjoying a stellar popularity among scholars.
Many argue that online learning is flourishing simply because it is successfully bridging gaps between countries in that a Ugandan can now study in Harvard university without necessarily flying to the US. This is an undebatable fact. However, that about 90% of those enrolled in online learning platforms in American universities and schools are actually residents of the US( Taylor and Francis) leaves a lot to be desired from what at first would appear such a trivial argument. In a blink of an eye, you would say online learning has already guaranteed its own future but whether it is now the future of education is a question for which my writing will exceed this page.
So the big question is; Is online learning the future of education? This is a hell of a question because of its ability to potentially drive one in two destinations. What exactly is the intrinsic intention of the question? Is the author of this question relishing the prospect of online learning to eventually replace the traditional learning classrooms? Or does he believe that online learning will become so complimentary to the traditional learning classrooms that they will be conducted concurrently? It is very obvious to say yes to the latter,but to the former, a great deal of efforts will be needed to do so. These efforts appear so enormous that it's likely to turn to be its own weakness. It seems online learning will initiate its own self destruction in an attempt to substitute the traditional learning classrooms.
The two potential destinations of this great puzzle now forms the premises upon which most if no all my subsequent arguments will be based.
For either of the premises, there are three contexts that these arguments will Lean against.
1.Time.
It's extremely difficult to gauge the extent of time for which the word 'future' was used in the question. whether online learning will want to become complimentary to the traditional learning classrooms or will want to completely replace it will be determined by time. Unfortunately, different regions will require different amount of time for this educational revolution to successfully occur.
There is no better time to ask this question than during this corona virus pandemic where normal traditional classrooms have been heavily if not wholesomely affected. At a time where most schools are closed, have Online learning taken any stride to fill the void left by the closure of schools? Has it shown any sign of filling even a quarter of the gap left?
I stand as a living testimony to this. I recently created a WhatsApp group ,' GULU TEACHERS ONLINE' and added a few of subject specialists onto it as members and others as admin as well. I then rushed to Facebook to advertise our existence as it appeared like a smart way of making money during the lockdown. I wrote on the Facebook Page " let not the lockdown and schools closure be a barrier to you or your school going children, GULU TEACHERS ONLINE' is now your ideal place where your child will learn Online from the most reputable teachers in Gulu". Three days went,I could only see one comment from a sceptic who himself had a reservation whether online learning was 'ideal' and that it could really help. No one else dared to react,not even mere likes! I was stunned. I had over 400 friends on Facebook leave alone the fact that it was a public post. How could I end up with just one comment? I wondered.
At about the same time three days later, I snapped up the photo of my stunning wife and wrote a caption; " is lockdown not a scapegoat for social distancing? " Few minutes, there were over 75 likes and 50 comments. Yet another shocker!
This taught me two valuable lessons from which I would make deductions;
a) That many people in Uganda have no idea what online learning is
b) That many people who know about online learning are doubtful and skeptical about its relevance and efficacy in delivering substantial learning in Uganda.
Online learning was incepted in 1960, making it older than an independent Uganda but it is yet to win majority trust. It became fully fledged in the the turn of the new century in 2000, two decades ago yet during the corona virus pandemic, only less than 5% of Ugandan school going students were able to utilise it. That's 5% for ever two decades! It would require 40 decades for it to make sense to all Ugandans. That's whooping 4 centuries!. Well,that's not an issue because the word 'future' was never bounded.
Some one may argue that what I elaborated was things of present and that it may be different in future but an acholi saying goes; " a chick that Will grow into a giant cock will be judged at very tender age"
2. Modality
Whatever mode of online learning
will always have serious shortcoming that only traditional classrooms tend to help.
There are extremely many models in which online lessons can be conducted but the three major ones are;
i). Video conferencing. Here, the teacher will be followed in a lesson by learners through internet using their computers, iPads or phones. It can be treated as lesson live streaming.
ii) Notes and text. Here, a teacher sends notes or instructional materials through different channels which includes emails, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms for a learner to read. Response may be delivered reciprocally via their desired channels.
Blogs and YouTube
This one is probably for non predetermined audiences. Instructional materials are put in a blog, website or YouTube and are stochastically bounced upon by an internet users or ushered by internet search engines. Here, the teacher is not even aware of his target audiences. Somehow, his materials may be useful to anyone who came across it opportunistically.
Whatever your models will be,it will look more or less like any of the three models aforementioned. The Truth is online learning will live a test of time, it will bring education opportunities closer to learners and take internet experience to whole new level for generations. Its greatest weakness is the limited interactions it offers to the teaching learning process. Absence of a physical instructor means a learner adopts a laissez-faire learning attitude which defies most learning theories. Here learners only concentrate on intrinsically rewarding lessons or parts of the lessons and may deliberately ignore parts of the lessons.
3.Regions
Different locations and regions will ensure that attempting to answer this puzzle ought to be context specific. There is huge discrepancies in the level of technological advancements in the different global regions, Africa being the worst hit on the deficit.
Much as civilisation started from Africa, it took it the longest to spread to its entirety. Some developed countries are whooping 100 years technologically ahead of some African countries. This implies that the word 'future' in the question vary from one region to the other. This makes the puzzle a lot more interesting to decipher.
All in all,online learning has more untold challenges, it has no strict academic enforcer, it doesn't provide for motivation in case of hard-to-grab contents. It has no room for lesson pacing. It delivers limited remedial to its learners. That social distance between a learner and the teachers deprives the learners from the social attachment to their teachers which reduces their learning potential. It remains basic and abstract.
For how good online learning will get, the untamed distance between a learner and a teacher will have untamed discrepancies between learning and learning potential of learners.
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