Since the beginning of teaching, from learning to write the alphabet, students have always thrived on human assistance. The virtual world does not have any provision for such learning. Hence, the following are some critiques of ‘education without teachers’.
Humans have historically responded better to a traditional classrooms.
When we look at the history of education, one can see that before the evolution of virtual courses and learning, teaching had been inherently a human activity with few or no resources required.
But with the incoming of the latter, it is mandatory for every household to have access to a computer system and an internet connection to establish their entry into such classrooms. This would lead to a disparity amongst different students belonging to diverse backgrounds. Since one of the agenda’s of the world today are to maximize the benefactors of education and learning, traditional classrooms with their minimum requirements are the ideal heralders of the same.
Additionally, while growing up, a traditional school environment also ascertained a discipline that teaches the young to associate certain hours of the day to learning and development. Overtime, this familiarity and understanding makes learning more efficient, as one can prepare oneself to be attentive for the former set hours. A wholesome growth gets undertaken by going to a traditional classroom, with designated time period to undertake subjects, arts, craft and sports, and even further in colleges, by having the space for indulging in extracurriculars.
Hence when we contrast it with a virtual environment, the latter falls short of replicating the same experience of learning, enjoying and growing in a wholesome manner.
Traditional classrooms thrive on shared experiences and proper guidance
Since the primary classes, students of all ages require a mentor who could make learning easier and help them progress in an ideal manner. This contains several minute but essential factors such as giving the right amount of criticism and reassurance, developing a space to correct mistakes, teaching how to get past failure, and adequate encouragement.
Additionally, in a real classroom, the teacher can accordingly identify the children’s quirks and individually provide guidance. They can also track a student’s behavior and find out if the home environments are healthy or not. If found, the concerned parents or guardians can be informed.
Due to the physical presence of different people, such environments are exciting avenues complete with lively debates and inquisitive questions. Such an experience of being surrounded by both peers and the respective teacher can help the student greatly, with the retention of a subject. Furthermore, this environment does not discriminate between people with intrinsic or extrinsic motivations, as people with the latter thrive equally in an energetic classroom environment. Hence, the option of procrastination does not appear.
Traditional classrooms are based on a sense of similarity and connectedness .
A classroom environment is an interesting blend of people as every student with his own typical individuality meets with other students and professors different or similar from oneself for a designated time everyday. Hence the various conversations, discussions and even disagreements that they engage in provide immense insight into an individual’s personality such as their motivations, triggers, weaknesses and strengths. Furthermore, if the former are closely paid attention to and accepted, all of these nuances can help one in the personal and even distant professional growth. Moreover, peer activities such as sports and arts can greatly exercises one’s socialization skills and helps dealing with different people and situations in an ideal fashion.
In a classroom, there is an involvement of all the five senses while learning. This is greatly missing when a student is virtually learning. It has been proven that an involvement of all the sensorium greatly increases memory retention and hence easy retention later.
Conclusion
As our world gears up for virtual classrooms with almost every major university tying up with various online platforms, the need of the hour is to critically assess the concept of virtual learning and realize that the sustenance of traditional school since the past 200 years is it’formidable and irreplaceable strength.