Wish we could attend classes while sitting at our homes and have peace with life, this has been a dream of many but has now turned into reality. There has been a complete transformation of how education used to be. While teachers first used to restrict the usage of mobile phones and laptops for ages but, it seems that with the advent of pandemic and no means of offline learning, we have become dependent on technology only. However, it has definitely got some good things along with a bunch of consequences too. Let’s have a look
1. Transportation Costs and Time to Commute
It cannot be denied that people who used to go to colleges or schools by waking up two hours the institution’s timing, getting ready, and then boarding a bus or metro that would take up near about one hour. However, with online classes, you can just wake up 5 mins earlier than the class and still manage to attend it without losing on attendance, waiting in long queues, and wasting time on travel. It also saves money along with the need to wait in long queues and getting suffocated in crowded places.
Although, with each hardship comes a whole set of learning that we can’t inculcate while sitting at our homes. Whether its a metro ride, it makes you independent and a stronger individual when you interact with the outside world and face regular difficulties. You get to meet new individuals every day and observe the daily hustle and bustle of the down. If we talk about the psychological effects, traveling does have a positive impact on most people as your surroundings change while on the other hand being at home just makes you gloomy. You tend to get irritated easily and observe rapid mood swings being enclosed in the same environment.
2. Flexible Timings
You can now record lectures and keep them for future reference while also studying in the comfort of your home. Also, we can just eat our food on time, ask queries, and get the freedom of using our gadgets. Indeed a dream come true.
Although, many of us have realized the shortcomings of the same. When we are allowed to be in our comfort zone, it becomes way too difficult to concentrate and stressful for the eyes. Eventually, concentration is divided amongst the various texts going on the WhatsApp groups with your friends and other enticing stuff except for the lecture and the output of such education is rather insignificant. Besides, staying fixated at the screen for such long periods of time causes mental fatigue as well as stress on the eyes, which steals the flexibility feature as any more screen time to understand the subject is just too stressful.
3. Better Scores (Hopefully)
With no proper facility for offline examination due to safety concerns, children have been able to give an online examination. However, with a lack of monitoring and invigilation in most schools and colleges due to technological restraints, children are now able to access the internet, call up their friends, or even take help from family members just to score better marks. We don't condemn such actions as given the scenario and prevalence of such factors, someone who loses marks just because of honesty, he/she will just get behind in the rat race.
However, it does and it should come across our mind, Are we actually learning? Many of us do prepare for the tests and examinations but we still rely on other sources because we lack the confidence to go out there and do it on our own. It might come at a loss of a few marks, but when you prepare for a test and appear for it, you would get another sense of satisfaction. Moreover, relying on others would just hamper the learning process and we all are well aware All that goes around, comes around.
4. Family, Friends, and Food
THE most important aspects of an individual's life have been covered by the three F's. With the lockdown, people have been able to devote time to their families, who otherwise got neglected due to our other commitments. Most parents would be happy to be able to spend time with their children and it is rather an appreciative aspect of the lockdown along with food. This, however, might be dicey for people who tend to go outside to eat, but being an old school person No food is better than the one cooked by your family people. After having complained about the quality of food at hostels and college canteens we all appreciate the tasty and healthy food we are able to eat right now.
Coming to friends, it is a dubious matter as many people tend to have strengthened their bonds due to the availability of time. However, not being able to be yourselves and enjoy your last year of school or college life that remains embedded in the heart for life is a grave loss. Many people have been seen going to depression as relations ruined with other people and gone through depression. This particularly happens because the daily hustle keeps you busy with all other activities going on. Moreover, friends can provide you with space with no fear of being judged and be your own self. Therefore being stuck at our homes does steal away these perks but some connection has still been kept safe thanks to video calling applications.
Online classes have primarily turned into luxury with the need for a stable internet connection and fancy electronic gadgets. This has led to a lot of disparities between the rich and the poor and just increased the gap between them. In addition, teachers have been the ones to pick the shorter stick as getting adapted to the fast-changing technological world is a challenging task but they have never given up. We salute all the teachers for their efforts in online education for making whatever learning that is going on possible until things get better.
We have quite seen various positive impacts of online classes along with their shortcomings and things that we are missing out on. Thus it can be rightly said that demerits and merits of Online Education are two sides of the same coin.
Read this interesting article on The Rising of Edtech Companies During Lockdown.
You can further visit this article to understand How the Pandemic has Impacted the Students.
Also, read this article that showcases how Online Learning has turned into a Nightmare for Teachers During the Lockdown.
Written By - Bhanu Jain
Edited By - Kashish Chadha
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