As the world becomes more advanced in technology, people must learn to adapt in order to stay afloat. The same concept applies in schools and offices. As each student gets his or her personal laptop, there is a greater pressure to use it in a productive and efficient way. An example of this new system is a, “Virtual Classroom,” which is a method that is used as a new technique to provide education. Teachers record or make videos of themselves teaching a lesson, then the students must learn at home, and do their “homework” in class.  Personally, I believe the virtual classroom can be extremely beneficial to any type of student with a wide range of learning techniques; On the contrary, the Virtual Classroom can also have negative effects when people misuse the system.

Online learning is usually done when a teacher records his or her own voice over a backdrop in which they do practice problems with their students. It can be described as flip-flopping the classroom and the homework. Students would be doing there learning at home with a video, and working on homework at school with their teacher. Many students feel as if this “modernized” way of learning can be beneficial because a video can be replayed over and over again. Other students agree that doing homework with the teacher and other classmates can help to establish a strong foundation for the main subject.  When asking a fellow student about her opinion on Virtual Classrooms, she stated, “I feel that this initiative is a positive thing that can help students because student are not learning the material and then trying to relearn it at home; instead, you have the video to guide you through the problems and learn them from the inside out.” Rather than falling behind and struggling, there will always be a video to go back for reference. It can also be a very helpful studying tool to have multiple tutorials to look back on. I think this can be beneficial to any struggling student because if they do not understand the concept, there is an opportunity to sit down one on one and go over the work.

This can also be beneficial to those areas that are greatly affected by snow and other treacherous conditions. On days that there is no school, teachers can make a podcast to keep their students up to date rather than having to extend the school year to make up for lost time. This problem hit very close to home last year during a remarkable snowstorm that hit my area. School was closed for multiple days at a time; which was great for relaxing, but as a result, Spring Break was shortened. The Administration revoked 3 days of our break to make up for lost classroom time. Personally, I believe that if the Virtual Classroom initiative had been introduced sooner, students could have been caught up on all their learning at home rather than sacrificing their school breaks.

A negative to the Virtual Classroom can be a student or a teacher misusing the system. For example, a teacher may get too lazy to teach a lesson; therefore the system may not be as effective as the regular learning technique. In this scenario, the only work they would have to do is record his or her voice, and then at school, answer any questions that the students may have. This is not the way learning should be done. Teachers get paid to stand in front of the class to lecture, and teach a lesson to their students. On the flip side, students may not be watching the videos necessary to complete their classwork, thus hurting their grades. Due to the fact that the teacher technically cannot force a student to do their homework, (watch their assigned video) this can put the student or even the whole class behind.  Virtual Classrooms should only be utilized when it becomes a serious hazard to go to school and lessons must be taught via Internet in order to stay up to date.

Virtual Classrooms are extremely efficient in supplying students with the knowledge they need to keep up with their classes, yet the privilege should not be misused when students need to use it. Learning is done by seeing and doing, not solely   hearing. If teachers incorporate this type of teaching strategy to the classroom on top of regular teaching, the school year could potentially be shorter and students will be better off and well rounded. There is always room for improvement no matter how big or small, and I believe the Virtual Classroom has the ability to take flight and be beneficial no matter what the circumstances.