Impact of online eduction - Assignment Example

Impact of Online Education In the article “Study Finds that Online Education Beats the room” by Steve Lohr, it is indicated that “the real promise of online education is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms” according to experts. “The Impact of Online Education” written by Finn Orfano, on the other hand, distinguishes between the positive and the negative effects of online education whereas another article by Dimitris Zondiros tackles distant online education in relation to globalization and how it bears influence upon acquisition of learning, exclusivity, and inequality.

Lohr’s findings primarily reflect favorable output with students who perform at the optimum given adequate exposure to online tools and mode of instruction compared to those who can meet the average mark in real campus situation. Dean P. R. Regier, in particular, perceives how online education can be estimated to facilitate growth in continuing education programs in a few years for the state of Arizona alone. To Mr. Regier, the flexible evolution of learning online could transform universities and K-12 schools into an ideal condition of teaching that exists not merely within the control of teacher in making students obtain knowledge but even more so, among the students themselves who are free to exploit ‘online learning management systems’ or use ‘social networking technology’ as a platform to conduct university-wide forums or group studies toward interactive learning.

Zondiros, however, reserves further concern on examining online education in the context of a globalized economy wherein access to proper education as well as issues of inequality and exclusion are of huge significance and are also affected by factors that are socio-cultural, economic, political, and technological in nature. While the article has already established a basic assumption that learning via online approach is highly contributive, Zondiros notes Harvey’s that “space, time and money are sources of value and power and the mass of workers does not have them; so, the workers that do not have them cannot have access to Online and Distance Education even they could be benefited by it.

” Based on Orfano’s article, despite such global constraints, still, online education can impact learners negatively or positively claiming that as one disadvantage “students do not hang out in the student union and sit at tables with classmates” anymore whereas others are rather inclined to view online education with an advantage of gaining rich learning resources and an edge in the IT industry after graduation. Consequently, on the basis of the details provided by the three articles, we may see that through an online community, a learning individual finds oneself in control of one’s pace in coping with studies under the flexibility of accomplishing tasks at the comfort of personal time and place.

There is barely a need to rush on reading and responding to assignments based on the required modules or set of online curricular activities. In this manner, students yield knowledge with confidence, aware that the freedom of studying within a comfort zone allows more room for fluid thoughts and thus, better ways by which to express views or insights. This is truly a convenient scheme yet we may also infer at what is rarely put into account that since instructors on the other end have limited scope in monitoring the class in terms of individual progress, evaluation measures become less likely capable of addressing scholastic strengths and weaknesses.

Additionally, because temptations of social networking and gaming systems are areas which anyone can gain access to with ease at anytime without set restrictions, there are about plenty of occasions any student in an online class may acquire such distractions and not meet adequate moments of indispensable productivity. ReferencesLohr, Steve (2009). “Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom.” The New York Times – Bits. Retrieved from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/ on April 29, 2012.

Orfano, Finn (2009). “The Impact of Online Education.” Bright Hub. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/online-learning/articles/33675.aspx on April 29, 2012. Zondiros, Dimitris. “Online, Distance Education and Globalisation: Its Impact on Educational Access, Inequality, and Exclusion.” EURODL. Retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?article=302 on April 29, 2012.