Online learning

An Insight into Future Education

Ahmed Sayed Abdel Aal

60280
WRI 101.27
Cause-Effect essay
In partial completion of WRI 101
American University of Sharjah
October 28, 2014

An Insight into Future Education

Online learning

In the past century, education has been passed down to the next generation
in many different forms. As long as the mid and higher classes of the society
received the knowledge, the educational sector did not face any problems in
transmitting the information. However, as the lower classes of the
population started to embrace the science, several problems rose such as
the cost of education and the availability of schools and colleges in rural
areas. These limited the number of people seeking knowledge specifically in
the third world countries, especially in developing countries such as Egypt .
Recently education has evolved to an extent in which it is no longer costly or
requires special transportation; thus, it is no longer needed to attend schools
in order to gain knowledge. Indeed, online education is the newest and most
effective form of education because it is flexible, fast and user-friendly;
therefore, students must familiarize themselves with this form of education
since it will take over their current educational system.
One of the advantages of online education is that it is the most effective
when it comes to convenience in time and money. First of all, it is very
effective when it comes to time management because an online information
database is available and accessible at anytime. This saves the long hours
you could have spent in the library looking for a certain topic about a specific
book. In addition, all the information kept on data bases and e-books are upto-date to eliminate the problems associated with outdated information.
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Outdated information might lead to political issues. For example, instead of

conducting a survey or census for a certain political matter, a typical
behavior of the Egyptian government would be using outdated statistics and
results. This leads to a certain amount of bias in their decisions and would
consequently cause tension if their decision was of high importance to the
society. Besides, online education shines when it comes to saving costs. It is
faster and cheaper to purchase and access e-books online than borrowing
them from the library or buying them from a bookstore. Another example
would be a student conducting a research in Egypt at the Alexandrian library,
aside from the transport costs, this student will spend at least a whole day
looking for data in this library while he could have obtained the same
amount of information online. These factors definitely prove the superiority
of an online education system.
Over the past decade, students familiar with this form of education have had
a better performance when it comes to contributing to the community. When
they join a discussion or a debate, they find a lot of creative ideas, many of
which they would agree to or refuse completely. The fact that they are
getting involved certainly gives them a vast amount of experience and raises
their awareness towards their desired topic. Recent statistics have shown
that, over 30% of the students that graduated from international schools or
colleges in Egypt have contributed to the community, while rural area
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Online learning

graduates barely added up to 10%. Moreover, some people are shy and
cannot share their ideas or point of view although their ideas might be
fascinating; thus, using the online discussion they can share their ideas and
theories while staying anonymous, this also provides support to the theory of
constructivism(Joshua Stern, n.d, p.2) derived from the work of Swiss
philosopher, Jean Piaget which states that when everyone contributes to the
study environment, students "co-create" their own learning experience. For
example, if a college student read an article written by a person with a PHD.
in computer science, this student will not understand what is being
discussed. However, if another person anonymously read that article, broke
it down into components, summarized it, and reposted it then, there is a high
chance that the same student will not only understand the article but also
gain more experience as the article discusses advanced matters. Having
used the network for this matter relates it to online learning, and naturally
gaining more experience in a certain field gives birth to a more effective
work force; thus, supporting the community. Through online learning, one
can set self-paced learning modules to follow and therefore produce new
learning styles that fit his own level. In addition, setting goals to accomplish
through these learning modules might give an individual a sense of
achievement and will boost his self-confidence.

Online learning

Having access to this online network does not only mean that they will have
an enormous pool of various ideas, but also means that they can build more
relationships with several contrastive people. By entering discussions and
threads they can meet with many people with similar interests, ideas, and
hobbies, this builds relationships and makes them more social. At the same
time, they can schedule their own time to be around their families and also
develop their relationships with them. For example, when a student is doing
a project or in a study group, through the dynamic interactions and the
passionate debates with each other they can pass on their true feelings
towards the topics and reach mutual agreement towards their disputes.
Going through all this makes them more vulnerable to each other's emotions,
eliminates any kind of personal animosity, and jealousy and definitely
enhances their relationship.
All in all, online education is the transcendence to a new level of higher
learning as it allows for self-paced learning, fewer distractions and the
combination of online resources with academia that makes it a much viable
option than just traditional university learning. Even though, university life
has its perks with regards to social life and more teacher based approach,
online education will dominate the area of higher learning and be the future
of university education.

Online learning

References

Joshua S. (n.d). Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from

URL: http://www.wlac.edu/online/documents/otl.pdf

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