The pandemic has affected almost all facets of society, education included. Lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and curfews made markets adapt. Schooling has become an at-home experience for most people, and the tech industry is doing its part. As time passes, more and more changes are happening in the education industry. It’s almost like a cultural revolution. Not only does the methodology shift towards distance learning, but also the curriculum. Both pupils and teachers are trying to obtain proficiency in the use of technology. There’s a larger focus on informatics as means to cope with social distancing. In a short period, programmers and coders became crucial figures in the general public’s eyes – and rightfully so! If IT specialists were important before COVID-19, now they’re fundamental for the well-being of civilization.
Schools seem to understand the shift in priorities and help with extensive courses and seminars on computer science and network management. On the other hand, kids are interested above all in hands-on learning relevant to current times. Sure, becoming a nurse or engineer is still among the top dream-jobs of children. Nonetheless, the persona of an IT specialist is quickly becoming a favorite. Before the pandemic, the IT guy was the game developer, webmaster, and similar trivial depictions. Nowadays, the IT guy’s the one keeping cities alight and businesses running. Even parents understand the paradigm shift. It’s not going to take too long until we hear parents pushing their offsprings to become IT specialists instead of doctors. Jokes aside, you should never pressure kids into a specific career as it’s detrimental to their mental health.
Colleges, and higher education in general, are embracing the trend in many ways. Universities based on hard sciences aren’t having considerable difficulties in adapting to e-learning. Primarily because of the nature of exact sciences and the fact that they had a strong digital foundation to work with. Oppositely, humanities and social sciences colleges have slight challenges in adapting courses designed face-to-face. Nonetheless, resilience is an immutable characteristic of literary scholars. Through the help of IT instructors, they’ve created viable online methods for theater lessons, psychology classes, and so on.
An issue that was present across the board was the problem of grading. How could professors set up the custom essay papers, exam, and similar tests from those at home? Some schools devised their software, while others put their faith in existing applications. Each institution deliberated on the best approach and integrated it with the help of the Internet. Bureaucracy slowed things down, but even so, the large majority of schools have some distance learning system in place. We’ll have to wait until massive standardization comes around.
Informatics and technology saved us from going dark in these troubled times. It allowed us to keep moving forward and continue our journey. A similar pandemic would have been truly devastating a few decades ago in the absence of high-tech solutions. Apart from allowing humanity to continue its path, e-learning has significant advantages:
Flexibility
Students and teachers can sometimes set their schedules. It’s easier to participate in class when all you need is a device connected to the Internet.
Eco-friendly
Smart learning means less pollution because people aren’t commuting nearly as much. Students aren’t inhaling the toxic fumes around schools at high-time.
Cost-effectiveness
E-learning costs a fraction of traditional learning: there’s no room, transportation, and board fees. Tuition prices and equipment costs are much lower. Digital textbooks are more affordable. Finally, school supplies are less required as pupils write and draw on computers.
Accessibility
Disadvantaged students from low-income families have overall better access to education through distance learning. Furthermore, migrant students who had to return home can still participate in online sessions. Disabled individuals no longer have to deal with lacking infrastructure or support with remote learning, said Lisa N. from Australian Writings and Nerdy Writers.
Specializations
The online world is full of tutorials, guides, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and other valuable resources. Millennials are mostly digital natives. They’ve been using online resources for their homework way before the pandemic. From their point of view, the new necessities of today are merely skills of yesterday. It’s easier to be an essay writer online than offline or a scientist with the help of SciShow than without.
Recording lessons
Old-school teachers rarely used to record courses and experiments. Now, with most apps, video recording is easy and uses cloud servers to stock-up content. This way, students can rewatch a class, and absentees can swiftly recover.
Despite the enormous advantages of distance learning, some advocates of traditional schooling are dismissing the methods. Counter-arguments claim that e-learning isn’t as effective as in-person education. A minority of contestants insist that face-to-face teaching is the better alternative because of the intrinsic merits of human contact. The idea isn’t entirely false, as humans need direct socialization to thrive. Then, there’s also the issue of lag or delay between interlocutors in slow internet speeds.
Accorfing to essay writing service, nonetheless, both concepts are easily refutable. First of all, most disciplines don’t require that unique characteristic of direct interpersonal contact. Granted, drama classes, psychology courses, and alike might experience some issues because of this. Still, these are rare exceptions as other activities are perfectly compatible with remote learning. Secondly, delays between the speakers isn’t an often occurrence with today’s internet speeds. It might happen sometimes, but that isn’t to say that real-life conversations don’t encounter distractions, stutters, and so on.
For the moment, online education is the most feasible option for students around the world —the industry is adapting and improving with each passing day. E-learning is flexible, eco-friendly, cost-effective, and accessible. Degrees and specializations in IT are skyrocketing due to modern-day necessities. Millennials fit in the new context with ease. Traditional institutions are reshaping curriculums and methodology to avoid being whipped out by the revolutionizing online education industry.
