The old age teaching paradigms will change so quickly no one ever imagined. It was a fantasy but reality now. The World faced a new challenge where whole of the human race was forced to stay indoors within the limits of their Lakshman Rekha. The life came to grinding halt where everything was shut down including educational institutions.
However, human intelligence knew no bounds and adjusted and adapted well with the situation and started afresh using the technology for which thanks are due to Prof. J.C.R. Licklider for brilliant idea of packet switching that led to the advent of the system as we all know today in the form of internet. Necessity led to the search for alternatives. Of course, internet was alternative for education. Teaching has been bifurcated into two categories i.e., offline and online.
technology tools. The new field of online teaching has opened a pandora’s box and become talk of the town. All stake holders (students, parents, teachers and educational administrators) had their own role in online teaching. The debates on its pro and cons is new area that needs deliberate investment of intellectual resources. In this short write up I have attempted to deliberate upon advantages and disadvantages of online teaching.
Advantages
1. One
teacher can meet thousands of students at a time.
2. Transends
geographical boundaries.
3. Highly
flexible (Anywhere any time).
4. Economical
in terms of time (it takes 8 to 75 minutes time for reaching students to my
college) i.e., it saves time wasted in travel. We have almost 2300 students and
more than 100 staff. Imagine how much time is being wasted in travelling.
5. Environment
friendly - Most of the students and
staff commute by their own vehicle. Others use public transport. Imagine the
level of air and noise pollution.
6. Evaluation
is objective and quick.
7. Minimal
physical infrastructural requirements.
8. Lecture
can be recorded for later use. In physical class when a student wanted to make
a note, she/he loses attention to lecture for that particular moment of time
while the teacher moves ahead without taking note of it, in the meantime student
might miss some important point. On the other hand, online class has no such
issues.
9. Instrumental
in reducing the screen time engagement and access to other contents on
internet. It provides a solid argument for parents. Parents can set time period
for mobile usage (for example 3 hours). The parents can restrict the use of
mobile phone by putting a restriction that you have exhausted your daily quota
of mobile usage on online class. It’s time to stop now.
10. Teacher’s
performance can be easily evaluated through instant feedback.
11. Easy to
maintain student’s attendance by writing their name and roll number in the chat
box.
12. Revenue
source for the institutions (LMS based online study).
13. Virtual
school will be economical for parents of students in terms of investment (no
uniforms, transportation charges etc.).
14. Will open
new avenues for software developers and ICT based workforce.
Disadvantages
1. Difficult
to fathom the involvement of students.
2. Increases
the screen engagement time (Detrimental for eyes).
3. Loss of
human touch (Most important psychological phenomenon).
4. Along
with verbal communication, non-verbal communication (body language) is
important contributory factor in understanding a concept, which is not feasible
in online classes.
5. Teachers
used to be role model for students, their dressing style, writing style,
speaking style etc. had been an object of inspiration. Some students even copy
and try to inculcate the habits of their favourite teacher. Online class lacks
this privilege.
6. The
notes taking was use to be one of the remarkable traits of the students. Online
class is likely to demolish this one of the important psychological quality.
7. The
screen of the mobile phones, most preferred medium, is comparatively small
which itself have inherited disadvantages.
8. The
online teaching lacks the conducive learning environment, which is only
feasible in the traditional system of teaching.
9. Additional
academic requirements of creating simple and understandable e-contents on the
already overburdened (with administrative) faculty.
10. Likely
make education dependent on instruments (Instrumentalism).
11. Offline
classroom and institutional environment (peer interaction) not only cater to
the academic needs of the student, also fosters other traits resulting in
overall personality development. During online classes students will miss this
environment.
12. Online
classes tend to promote individualism at the cost of collectivism which has
inherent working ideas that has been proved to be detrimental for society in
the past.
13. Students
may become lethargic due to involuntary physical activities that occur during
offline classes.
14. Online
classes may render some people jobless (School uniform and other related
vendors).
Impediments
1. Lack of
adequate ICT infrastructure especially in rural sector.
2. Quality and
uninterrupted internet connectivity.
Conclusion
Every
new system has its pro and cons, online teaching is no exemption. The
responsibility lies upon the guardians to take informed decision in this
context. One thing is clear that sooner or later education system has to adopt
online teaching may be partially in the ratio of 2:3.
