OP5 :benefits and limitatations of online learning application

With aid of highly developed information technology, people can access to enormous range of information and resources easily compared with a situation of past. Getting familiar with online application more and more , people has started to be interested in using them as class materials and teaching method to offer higher education for students . I suggest some advantages and disadvantages of online learning application if it is implemented in public school settings.

First of all, online learning will benefit students by allowing them to continue their study at any places equipped with a computer and internet service. It seems that many students consider English as one of subjects which they have to learn only in class room. As language is what learner should acquire and use in a real life situation, , they need to go beyond the bounds of class. Through the online learning applications, for example, students can accomplish the task assigned by teachers at home with more research and self-study. They can also post their work on forum or online space where teachers and students can share their task and ideas and receive feedbacks from others. These activities give more chances to interact with classmates and teachers communicating as they work together and exchanging information and instruction. Moreover when students could not understand the class thoroughly and had something uncertain and doubtful, they can check and review what they had learn in school again via online learning.

Next, teachers can manage whole students who have different proficiency level of English in a more efficient way. In Korean public school settings, due to rather big class size, teachers can not help but give students lecture on the basis of middle level of all. It can be time-consuming work both for teachers and students reducing the chances to proceed to more advanced step and evaluate students’ ability accurately. However, through online learning, teacher can overcome those limitations. When students gain understanding of English with multimedia facilities, most activities might be based on collaborative work or self-study. For example, when students work online tasks to improve listening ability, the one who finishes the task and grasps whole story of listening materials can challenge more difficult one while the one who takes more time to accomplish the task can practice more with aid and feedback from teachers.

Nevertheless, there are also some disadvantages from on-line learning. First, teachers are incapable of confirming if students participate the class without any attempts to use internet and concentrate on the lecture thoroughly. As there are so many things to distract students’ attention on the internet such as image, music, video-clips, game and so on, they can just pretend to do their works and listen what teachers are saying.

Moreover both teachers and students are likely to depend on internet resources too much. On the internet, as there are plenty of knowledge and information to use as materials for class, teachers can use them to supplement their class to offer higher education. However, they can get lazy to prepare lecture just employing others’ ideas, teaching methods and materials from the internet. For example, when I was a student at middle school, there was an English teacher who just showed us educational movie from internet during school hours. The only thing that she did was just playing it over and over again and sitting on the chair next to us without explaining any key concepts or rules. In addition, students are just likely to copy and use the resources on the internet for their assignments and work. Without critical and creative thinking and self-study, students can get lazy and get used to doing their work easily.

As I mentioned above, in online learning application, many benefits such as giving students chances to continue their study and allowing big class size to overcome its limitation may come out while there are some limitation such as distracting factors when studying and employing resources without careful consideration depending on them too much. To reduce the limitation of online learning application to the minimum and display its advantages to the fullest, people need to consider both sides of online learning application carefully and think twice how to adapt it to school setting for effective learnig.