Educational Technology Innovation and Impact/Virtual Learning Environments/Virtual Classroom
Virtual classroom
“Virtual classroom it is an environment unlike the traditional classroom. In actual fact, the virtual classroom is wherever you and your computer happen to be. It could be in your room, in one of the University microcomputer labs, or at an isolated site far removed from the KSU campus. Your virtual class schedule is whatever time you want it to be” [1] Virtual classroom provides a perfect environment for online training and gives a feel of being in the classroom itself. Virtual classroom integrates the best learning practices with the power of internet to provide a dynamic learning platform to the learner. The virtual classroom/e-learning has innumerable advantages and the most vital of which are the saving of time and cost, no interaction between teachers and students and no sense of peer pressure.
Of course, taking internet-based course at the pre-College/university level can have both pros and cons. Below will follow some of them that would make you decide if virtual learning is for you.
Positive aspects of virtual classroom/e-learning.
“Independence and time Management
Students who take courses online often sharpen their ability to work on their own, and they also expand experience in managing their time efficiently. With nobody to stand over them and make them work, virtual learners tend to develop these skills more rapidly than if they were to learn strictly in a traditional classroom.
Advanced and specialized classes
In many cases, small school and rural schools simply cannot offer advanced or specialized classes. Virtual education gives students the opportunity to gain experience in areas that would otherwise remain out of reach.
Emphasis on the written work
Strong writing skills are essential to success in secondary and higher education as well as in the workplace. Virtual learning/distance education teaches students to communicate more effectively through writing, because the questions they ask and the work they complete is based almost solely on the written word. Virtual learning clearly gives students the chance to widen writing skills.
Knotty aspects of virtual/distance education
Lack of face-to face interaction
Some educators dispute that both teacher-student and student-student contact are essential to the learning process, and online classes eradicate these elements of education altogether. Also, students who excel at class participation need to deem that this piece of the learning puzzle will be missing as well.
The need to self-start
Virtual education actually lets students make their own schedules. Those who have a hard time with self-motivation will undoubtedly have problem in this type of educational setting” [2]