Teaching is an art. It is the most valued and one of the reputed profession one could ever dream of. Not everyone can be a good teacher it needs a lot of hard work and dedication to be one. Due to the ongoing pandemic, schools all across the globe are conducting online classes and it has been for around half a year now. Teachers are conducting classes on virtual platforms like zoom and Google meet.
Online learning enables students to experience authentic classroom education from the comfort spaces of their home. They can receive education from behind the screen in a remote manner. Despite instruction given virtually and the classes being conducted online, the teacher is able to deliver lectures successfully through the medium of videoconferencing and many more other virtual teaching software.
They can write on a screen and ask students to answer the questions in a similar way to the face to face classroom teaching. Also, if somebody is unable to attend the class due to any reason whatsoever, they can immediately look up to the recorded lectures and be at a smooth pace with the students who attended the class already. Having provided ample benefits, online teaching has its own disadvantages and limitations it. It poses a real threat to classroom teaching which can be traced back to early years. Earlier, students used to receive education in Gurukuls where the teacher used to teach them in laps of nature under a giant shade of Banyan tree.
Slowly and steadily with the evolution of technology, things have changed and now we have classroom teaching. We have proper schools and various educational institutions to impart knowledge and educating the children. There are a host of negative effects of online teaching which is hampering the followed system of classroom education to its core.
Firstly, online education or virtual learning takes a hell of a lot of time. It takes hours wherein it is impossible for the student to get through the whole session in one go.
Secondly, not everybody has access to Internet facility at their home and there can be one or another network connectivity issue that can pop up anytime making it difficult for the child to attend the virtual class and as a result, they can lag behind.
Thirdly, the virtual medium of teaching creates automatically a sense of aloofness or isolation in many students. This can harm the mental stability of the child and as a result, will affect his or her concentration power. It is a fact that children learn and improve better when taught in a group therefore virtual teaching is an absolute unjustified mode of teaching.
Fourthly, there is a lack of interpersonal communication between the teacher and the learner. Classroom teaching is a more structured form of teaching wherein if any student is in doubt it can be solved immediately but here it is totally a different scenario. The teacher imparts education and goes away. Therefore it automatically leads to an absence of interpersonal communication which can be filled only in classroom teaching.
Fifthly, online classes are the most difficult path of learning. It is true that online classes offer more flexibility and you can attend it within the comfort spaces of your home but that does not change the amount of work and efforts you put in.
Sixthly, classroom teaching is beneficial in terms that it enhances quick learning, memorizing things and topics taught and retention of learning materials. This all is not possible in the virtual model of learning and therefore it makes it a more complicated and difficult medium to impart and receive an education.
I agree that everything has both advantages and disadvantages similarly online teaching although being flexible has a host of difficulties that proves to be a grave danger to the traditional form of classroom teaching. Online teaching has seen rapid growth due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic which has led to a complete shutdown of everything! People are locked up in their homes and there is no option available other than to rely on and resort back to virtual medium. Schools are shut down be it Private or Government schools and everyone is functioning virtually.
We have grown up in a learning environment wherein we used to irritate our teachers like anything. Now, thanks to the Pandemic, even the teaching has been shifted to the online mode. Traditional classroom teaching is the most viable and justified way of teaching wherein students and teachers can engage in a face to face learning and there are no connectivity issues which is a constant problem in the virtual model of teaching. You can be sitting at home and attending class but it has way too many disadvantages. It can make you alone and as a result, it will hamper your mental health. You will be unable to focus and results can be poor. Traditional teaching is the best and always be!