Friday, September 26, 2014

Benefits of Online Learning: Oh, the Possibilities…


In my opinion, the best benefit of online learning is just the sheer amount of possibilities that it brings to the classroom.  In the traditional classroom, most teachers use a textbook or a series of note pages to teach the lessons and then conduct assessments.  There may be trips to the library thrown in for research and further reading, or to borrow a video on the current subject matter.  That’s great and all, but the online world can offer so much more.

For example, let’s pretend our students are in the middle of a unit on our solar system.  In the traditional classroom, students would look at pictures of the planets and read a blurb about each one.  They may complete a worksheet comparing the planets to one another, right?  Well how about instead of that process, the students log on to the Internet and view footage of the Mars Curiosity rover launch and landing on the surface of the planet?  Or they can work through an online interactive about the nine planets and see how they orbit the sun?

These are just a few of the ways that online content can extend activities and supplement or enhance the traditional curriculum.  In the next series, I will be going over specific ways to integrate technology into the classroom and how they can benefit our students.


Tour of the Solar System

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