Let´s begin with the topic of today. The pros and cons of online education model. I will develop the eco-cities as the winner of the Corona Times next week.

We all on the planet have been forced by one of the most micro viruses to manage a colossal situation that the 4 previous generations were not prepared to jostle on a global scale. As I stated in my Twitter posts, this publication is about giving you some strategic input of why did I write the following phrase: “Be cautious with the online education model. There are advantages of using it during the farthest pandemic emergency of our times, but please do not kill the traditional model just because of such one radical extreme Corona Times distress“.

“A little rabbit in the hat”. An aquarelle by Eleonora Escalante. Handmade with love in Watercolor Fabriano 5 paper. You can buy it at https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/eleonora-escalante

Advantages of the On-line education model. There are several benefits of using the online education model.  No one can refuse them internationally, because there are several gains of it, as a side dish, but not as the core of our brain cultivation. Even my grandmother (if she were alive) would feel amused by the digital screens and all the twinkly shining and talking coming out of your screen. But one thing is to play with your tablet, another one is to use it for your life brain instruction. There are exceptional times in which we can rely on it, particularly in such severe extreme scenarios as the Corona Pandemic. But please be sensitive to what it means the Coronavirus. We are talking about once in a lifetime event that was never lived before on a global scale, not even during the Spanish Flu of 1918. The Corona colossal lockdown impact that may accompany us all this year, can´t substitute more than 2,000 years of learning wisdom.  And I will demonstrate why over the week.

I will own a list of advantages below:

1. Basically simple. We only need an excellent Internet connection, a technological device with a screen (it could be a computer, a tablet, a Smartphone). The poorest of the poor family has to spend at least between US$50 to US$100 plus shipping to buy the cheapest device through walmart.com or amazon.com.  Add the internet service provider monthly bill which is around an average of $25 dollars/month. Add the case and the keyboard expenses. If you sum all the tech equipment fees you may say, it is not a big deal for those who can pay it. But let´s remember:  “Over 1.9 billion people, or 26.2 percent of the world’s population, are living on less than $3.20 per day in 2015. Close to 46 percent of the world’s population still survives on less than $5.50 a day”(Source: WB).
2. Mobile Alternative. Anyone can connect to be instructed anywhere. We can do it from our favorite place at home, a coffee-shop, even in the middle of our travel transit rides or on vacations. Students without the Internet may take their tablets and go to find a freely available source of Wi-Fi.
3. Is it cheaper? This is partially true. Many believe that online programs may help you to save money. But it is not that true. Tuition could be more expensive by using an Internet model of education when it comes to private top specific institutions. Some private well-recognized universities are charging more to students per unit credit when it comes to the internet model. What is really true is that online students don´t have expenses like room and board, expensive textbooks, meal plans, costs associated with traveling and living on campus, recreational fees, or the expensive mandatory health insurance.
4. Flexibility and convenience. Students have the advantage to receive pre-done videos from the instructors. In addition, presentations and lessons are being made in advance by professors, which makes the material more reliable (no mistakes). The usage of video conferencing offers the possibility to have a direct one to several students’ conversations with the teachers, who can teach from their respective homes. This is what has happened during this pandemic. Many professors have connected using a video conference platform and they have provided instruction as such.
5. Students control the instruction. You can freeze or pause or accelerate your education. I have tested several online learning platforms such as EDX, HarvardX, MITX, Coursera, etc. I have examined several learning language applications, particularly the learning French as a second language ones. I have absorbed knowledge from others by watching Youtube videos of different nature given my specific interests (such as art-painting tutorials, advanced financial excel modeling, cooking, beauty and fashion videos, fitness, french language, news, etc). I have downloaded at least 35 french learning applications available in Playstore. And we all know that we can stop our videos whenever we want to. We can rewind or put forward to sections of them that we don´t like. We can slow down to 0.5X or accelerate 2.0 the velocity of the video. We can dismiss what we don´t like to hear or see, or simply leave it behind if we wish it. We are the owners of our own instruction.
6. Accessibility. The disabled student (who are not blind) or those who have mobility issues are blessed with the on-line model. This adorable group is already benefiting enormously from this model.
7. Diversity and an ample range of open education. Now more than ever we can open our horizons and gather hundred of experts who know about one topic or subject. And we may subscribe, like, dislike, choose or dismiss or block them according to our preferences.
8. In times of a pandemic or war (if the Internet is available), the on-line model emerges as a temporary substitution. But one thing is a temporary substitution and another one is to replace the old good model with this one.

The traditional classroom golden model is like an espresso coffee, essence, and strong. Meanwhile, the on-line model is already like a coffee americano (when the espresso is diluted in hot water).

Making espresso coffee.

Disadvantages of the Online Educational Model.
I will speak from my own experience. I hold love and hate relationships with the online model because as an ultimate user, I have benefited from it as an adult. But I am an adult, not a child or a teenager. My brain capacities were already developed when the whole Generation X was taken by the Internet. It wasn´t until I attended Cornell and London Business School (1998-1999) that I started to use the Internet as a collaboration, communication, and sharing platform for learning. All my core formation years (kindergarten, primary, secondary, and partially the undergraduate degree) developed my brain without the usage of computers at the core. The computers arrived in my life mainly as text processors, engineering programming, and excel calculators during the University. The Internet was not existent in our mental frames. So, I was not disrupted by thousands of social media images and electronic stimuli at all.

Traditional School molded impeccably stable brains. My brain was focused to learn through making exercises, following huge tomes of encyclopedias, and continuous visits to the bookstores. Reading before each lecture made our professors´ lectures a fantastic lesson. When professors arrived to teach us their lessons, we squeezed their time with spontaneous Q&A, and they had the freedom to improvise and even turn around the topics based on the group response. Excellent professors are not robots. Awesome Teachers are not “shows Youtubers”. They can use the new tech tools as utensils for us, but they know when to draw the boundaries to technologies. Good content is what matters the most,  and the flashy technologies don´t substitute their wisdom.

Source: Public Domain Internet

The usage of the Internet has to be prioritized as a side dish, but not the core essence of education. Our personal undergo with the On-line platforms has always been just to gather information. But nowadays, Internet data is not reliable at all (only 10% of available sources are recognized as secure or worthy). As I mentioned previously, I certainly use youtube and specific applications for learning, but I have experienced the disadvantages of them in my own skin.  So I am not a novice when it comes to learning online, because I have been a user of them; and I always return to the traditional books for comfort and peace.
So given my own experience during the last 20 years of the Internet, I will begin to list the disadvantages.

1. When the Internet fails, everything fails. IT infrastructure or lack of good service from Internet providers.
2. Too much mobility is dangerous. It exposes your privacy and it is data insecure.
3. It is expensive if you wish excellent and reliable quality content
4. Inequality learning continues. The quality of the content depends on the professor, and the excellent schoolmasters are hired by the most expensive universities.
5. Lack of good examination – the measurement of learning performance is limited
6. Physical and Biological effects in our health
7. No boundaries for personal life. It is a draining happening. There is no time to replenish our humankind with others.
8. Mental and Interaction capacities are swayed: Memorization, isolation,  lack of social skills, online anxiety close to despair, disrespect to others who are different than you, mental fatigue, daily insomnia, the murder of spontaneity, and the disappearance of closed contact humankind is abundant.
9. Professors over-work makes them tired and seriously irritated at the “on-line” model
10. Ethical disasters may happen in our brain development if NAIQI technologies are used as the core methodology in the formative years
11. The growth of the automated brain under a bubble makes us selfish. The mentality of myself and only me matters is created.
12. Compassion for others vanishes in those who have not felt the traditional education model.

In my next publication, I will be honestly brutal to land into the details of each and all of the last 12 latter disadvantages of online learning. Stay tuned, please. Have a beautiful Tuesday. Thank you for reading to me.

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY.  Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine.  I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy