Currently, education in the Philippines continuously thrive despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal. Learners from elementary to college undergo online learning in order to continue their education. A lot encountered difficulties in transitioning to the new way of learning, however in order to carry on education they still venture on this way.
Online learning and teaching can have a very dynamic approach when it comes to education. Since the internet is a very huge platform for different sources of information, instructors can also have a huge supply of sources into their pockets.
According to Guinan (2013), teaching online is a very efficient way of teaching. One of the advantages of online teaching is the wide utilization of online tools and materials in order to make creative contents that can persuade and encourage learners to participate in discussions. Because of the wide significance of the internet, there can be a lot of learning materials and applications that can be used not only by the teachers but as well as the instructors.
In addition, Guatam (2020) stated that teachers can effectively use PowerPoint presentations and videos for students to watch to. Learning through watching will encourage students to learn while having fun. PowerPoint presentations can help teachers as well as students to efficiently create and manipulate slideshows for easy learning. They can also provide learning materials easily and cheaper through the use of downloadable PDFs and electronic workbooks. Because of this parents can save instead of buying physical copies of workbooks.
However, despite the advantages that online learning can offer there are also disadvantages to look into. Tamm (2019) expounded lack of communication as one of the most common disadvantages of online learning. Communication is very essential in the development of education. Both learners as well as teachers must listen and speak in order for effective inputs and outputs to come out. In the case of online learning, communication is very limited. This is because teachers and students rarely see each other, especially to those who undergo modular learning. Because of the lack of communication learners may also experience incomplete nurturing of knowledge.
Moreover, there are also students who do not have access to the required technological gadgets in order to undergo online learning. This is a very timely problem here in our country as a lot of families are below the poverty line. According to the Department of Education (Dep-Ed) a lot of learners failed to enroll on this school year because of the said reason.
As all is said and done, we can conclude that online learning really has its own advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to the advantages, teachers must fully implement the benefits online learning can offer for the betterment of online education. For the disadvantages, what must be done is to improve the process and implementation of online learning, especially to those students who learn through modules. The government must also extend their help to those areas which cannot be easily reached.
References
Gautan, P. (2020, October 10). Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning. Retrieved from eLearning Industry: https://elearningindustry.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-online-learning
Guinan, S. (2013). 10 Online Tools for Teaching Language. Retrieved from WizIQ: https://blog.wiziq.com/master-language-teaching/
Tamm, S. (2019, December 21). Disadvantages of E-Learning. Retrieved from E-Student: https://e-student.org/disadvantages-of-e-learning/
By: JESSICA T. VILLAR|Teacher I|CATANING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL|Balanga City,Bataan
