The spread of the coronavirus has caused many to force a change in process to cope with the difference in how they may operate, this has most publicly been seen within online gaming as initiative changes have been seen in sectors for betting and casinos for example – the most well known is within the Gamstop initiative as it had recently been made mandatory forcing operators to register elsewhere, in many cases this has been done successfully as the 4 Crowns casino review here shows, but not all sectors have been so lucky to be provided with this opportunity.
As gaming has found its own opportunity to thrive during this time, another sector may be doing similar – in education. It has been a difficult transition, as for many the infrastructure around education being able to thrive in the way it has during lockdown was a difficult measure to overcome, but many platforms such as Zoom were very quickly adopted and found widespread use, with teachers and students continuing primarily higher education options whilst at home. It has begged the question for many, is it possible for a permanent shift to online learning to occur?
It had been suggested that approximately 1.2 billion children were out of the classroom during the past two or three months, but now as schools across the world are reopening slowly it poses the question of whether or not many should attempt a change here – there are benefits, research suggests that online learning alternatives take less time whilst also increasing information retention – further research and data will start to roll in over the next few weeks and months as with employment from home too – if it remains true that engagement can stay higher through this platform, the answer may become more obvious.
There are challenges to overcome, however, with the first being the lack of infrastructure within many schools – in order to provide quality education online there needs to be systems in place to ensure that the teacher can deliver the content required, and that students are also able to interact. Similarly the challenge of any poverty gap – children who aren’t able to access a constant internet connection, or a device in which to attend the lesson, will be inevitably missing out – this has been bridged in some instances by the schools allowing children to use their equipment, but a solution needs to be found here for a wider scale too.
There’s an exciting opportunity ahead, and is something that may be more seriously looked at in the future – if change is to be made, now may be the perfect opportunity however before all students begin to return to school at the same – for some it may even be something tried out on a trial basis, if success is found in one area or a particular age group, it may quickly spread to other age brackets and other areas of education – it may also be a catalyst to allowing remote working at home to become more widespread at the same time.