As the new academic year begins, universities and colleges across the country are debating the benefits of classroom teaching over continuing with online platforms.
Globally, over 1.2 billion students were out of the classroom in 2020 as the development of online tools accelerated dramatically, as educators scrambled to find appropriate methods to continue teaching. But outside of the pandemic, the rise of the internet has also seen generational shifts in communication processes.
Digital shift
Education was hit particularly hard through COVID-19. The most effective tool that maintained pupil retention and provided access to learning through the pandemic was online learning. However, a key side effect of the lockdown that still needs to be addressed is the digital divide that exists across the UK.
Even at university level, many students are accessing higher education through scholarships, loans, and grants and are reliant on their education establishment’s facilities and support. This divide means that some of the most disadvantaged were, and still are, affected by a lack of access to remote learning because of technology and affordability issues.
Digital learning is a modern, adaptive, and agile method of teaching and can provide unmatched accessibility and flexibility to some students, but can also completely exclude others. This means that the future of education also needs to address the issues that students from disadvantaged backgrounds face, such as access to technology or adequate high-speed broadband.
Even those with access to the appropriate technology could suffer negative effects from the digital shift, and with remote learning moving into the long term, the mental, emotional, and academic impacts of that shift are likely to be challenging. A survey from the ONS reported that over half of students described their social experience during the autumn term of 2020 as dissatisfying.
Socially advanced or anti-social?
Young generations and technology go hand in hand, which made the switch over to learning from home during the pandemic much more fluid. However, questions are starting to arise that although they have become the most technologically advanced and digitally social, is their vast use of – and reliance on – online activity making them anti-social? If the education sector were to move fully online, would that remove an element of real-life interaction that younger generations simply can’t afford to lose?
Prior to the pandemic, the number of Generation Z that owned a smartphone stood at a staggering 98%. Internet-ready smartphones made communication easier and much more immediate – it’s also given users access to almost any piece of information they might need. It’s no wonder that the younger generations were, for the most part, able to adapt to remote learning.
Missing out
The danger, however, comes in the potential of swapping out real-life activities for online ease. If your lecturer needs a chat with you, it can be done via video call. If a student misses a lecture, it’s now recorded and streamed online.
Even dating and socialising are at risk – why bother going for a coffee with a friend when you can replace it with a phone call? And who would put themselves through the in-person awkwardness of asking someone out when you can find a date on your smartphone?
Is it really a surprise that younger generations simply don’t regard face-to-face interactions with the same importance as our parents and grandparents do? The internet and digital devices have made it way too easy to avoid.
Effect on well-being
But with this disconnection from real-life interaction comes feelings of anxiety, isolation, and loneliness. Younger generations are starting to lack skills in social interaction. Taking away one of the few social elements left for these generations in their educational life in favour of digitising lessons could have lasting repercussions.
Classroom learning doesn’t just provide development in our early years – we require this kind of social development well into later life. In the same way that lockdown has caused a lot of people to feel anxious about returning to social situations or work environments, students miss out on that same progression and development that provides an insight as to what it’s like to work in certain environments.
Digital health for students
Although online learning has held our education system together through a difficult period, it should be considered an aid to traditional learning rather than a replacement. Spending too much time online is not good, in the same way that spending too much time doing anything is bad.
Balance is important. Humans are naturally social creatures, and although technology has provided us with amazing tools that we can use to our advantage, we also need to ensure that we don’t lose our ability to communicate and interact without those tools.
While some higher education establishments are looking to make their courses fully available online, colleges like Newcastle College believe that it’s important to get back into the classroom in order to help student development and provide support to those who need it most.
As education prepares for a return to a normal academic year, Ofsted will return to classroom inspections. They will be considering how curriculums were implemented remotely, adapted where necessary, and how education will be provided moving forwards.
Previous Newcastle College Ofsted reports highlighted support for adults and high-needs learners as a strength, with this continuing to be a key priority. Hybrid models are being introduced to enable flexible learning and access if restrictions are brought back into place, whilst also providing on-campus support to students who otherwise would struggle. An amalgamation of digital and traditional learning will drive the college forwards to ensure that students from all backgrounds are able to access education, whilst also utilising the positives of virtual education to support their students’ development.
Sources
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/
https://www.qustodio.com/en/2020/07/21/technology-child-social-development/
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