2015년 12월 1일 화요일

essay 2 (rewritten)


Soo jin Park

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (04)

1 December 2015

Online Or Offline Lecture?

              What do think of the classes that are full of online lectures? Will it be fun or boring? Many people might have experienced an online lecture. As technology develops, there are improvements in education, too. That is why you can listen to online lectures. Actually, Sungshin University offers some lectures that are offered online. Those lectures are so popular that they are always of full capacity. The popularity of online lectures might indicate that students can take all their classes online. Some of people may agree with it. However, it is a big mistake at thinking like that. As a matter of fact, generally it is impossible to take all the classes by online because of the limited environment of online which means that we cannot communicate well and absence of study management that means the feedback from teacher is often being late.

             First of all, the online classes should not be constituted as the whole class without any on-campus classes as there is limitation in online space. Think about when a student sits in front of computer and takes the online lectures. The student may not get focused easily on the lecture as there are lots of distractions. Eventually the student may get a low score on the test. So that part is the weakness of online lectures. As the situation of class is very limited, you just have to depend on the computer. What is important is that there is nobody that the student can ask for help or get stimulation especially by friends. To be more specific, when we take class on-campus, even though we get bored and want to be lazy, as there are fellow students who concentrate to the class, the student can get more concentration to class. By taking online lectures, we can hardly get the socialization which is really important in our lives. In some way, education and learning do not mean just acquiring some knowledge. The on-campus lectures help us enlarge the individual’s horizons, promoting a broader and more enlightened view of life. To add, as there are lots of students who can talk and discuss their opinion, any student who takes that class can broaden his or her view. The most important thing of on-campus lecture is that we can get a greater ability to think critically and make wise decisions using critical thinking skills obtained during class. Some people might say that why isn’t thinking critically possible at online class. Well, it may be possible in some way but as people can discuss their thinking more in on-campus class. So even though the technology develops a lot, it is not suitable such as listening to online lectures. To be more specific, it is necessary to study in class with fellow students and teacher.

             Moreover, online lectures lack the studying management which is significant at learning something. Studying management means things such as asking teacher and figuring out the questions. However, as online lectures are only focused at absorption of knowledge, students may not get a good management which is activated before, after during offline class. Some examples will help the understanding. Think of the situation when a student does not comprehend a question. If you are in class, it is easily possible to ask the teacher or a classmate and promote your understanding. But when it comes to online classes, that situation cannot happen. Even if you have a big problem at understanding and leave a message on the question board, you cannot gain the answer as quickly as in the on-campus class. Finishing a lecture without the perfect understanding will make you lose interest and be lazy, because not knowing perfectly about the lecture makes harder for you to reach broadens information. Also, it is difficult to evaluate the ability of students by tests, because students might cheat. Even though they know that those actions are dishonest, to get a nice score, some students will cheat on a test and finally that will cause students to have bad personality and become fiercely competitive, instead of being civil and responsible. For instance, when people are exposed to the cheating regularly, finally they might feel as like the cheating is not a bad thing. As tests are inevitable for learning, students should avoid online classes and accept on-campus classes.

             To sum up, there are downsides to taking online classes and two main reasons that have been mentioned. First, because of the limited place, it is hard to get motivated by friends and focus on the lecture. Secondly, as the online classes only focus on just learning not any discussion, there are some drawbacks such as being dishonest on tests or not completely understanding the lecture. Therefore, it is better to take all classes’ on-campus. Russo who is famous for philosophy said that “The purpose of education is not to make people who act like machine but to help one grow as a whole-person.” It is time to realize his ideal and make it by taking offline class. Even though Sungshin is not good at online lecture, if the school and students work this out together, there might be the good online environment.

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