5 Myths About Learning Online
HANDS UP if your kid has to take part in online lessons from school again this year… In 2020, many schools across the world had to close suddenly due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Lots of teachers suddenly found themselves being thrust into attempting to teach online, having had no previous experience. Teaching a class in a classroom and teaching online are very different activities, involving very different skills and resources. Teachers across the globe had my sympathy due to the bad press they were receiving about the level of education they were delivering to our kids online. Imagine being expected to know how to repair a car just because you have driven one before…this is how many of our teachers felt. They are more than capable of delivering lessons in a classroom, but most of them had never been trained to deliver high-quality education online, using digital tools and resources. It is a VERY different ball game. In this new lockdown in 2021, our schools are now in a better position to provide quality online education for our children.
Besides what we have recently heard about the scramble for schools to get online recently, many people have heard lots of opinions about online tutoring in general, some good, some bad. Having experience of both online tuition and in-person tuition I feel I am well placed to talk about both. I wanted to show you some popular myths about online tutoring and bust them!
1 My kid will just play on the computer and will not pay attention
False. I currently tutor kids from all over the world and I know that every single one of them is completely engaged during our lessons. Every lesson is well-planed and that means the children have lots of fun activities to help them stay focussed. When they are, there is no opportunity for their attention drift - they are so thoroughly involved in what they are doing!
2. My kid needs one to one in-person tutoring
Not necessarily true. I worked with a few students during lockdown that I normally work with in person. The difference in working online was remarkable. I had a lot more of an insight into their thinking while working online with them as they had to explain their working, or I could see each stage of their thought processes as they were adding to our document on the screen. This insight is not possible when working in-person without intruding in your student’s personal space!
3. Online will not work for me
How do you know unless you try? There are some very easy to work applications that we as tutors use. A good tutor will guide you, step by step, through how to work any application they are using. I have students as young as 6 years old who can log on by themselves and can operate the video conferencing tools and online whiteboard. If a 6-year-old can do it, I am pretty sure most people can too!
4 You never learn as well as you do with an in-person tutor
Wrong. I have taught in a tuition company before. Big companies charge prime fees for student’s lessons, but the parents never get to select the tutor they want for their child. The centre managers do that. With online tutoring, YOU get to choose who works with your child. YOU get to select times that suit you, instead of fitting into a pre-arranged timetabled class time. If you could hand-pick the person you want your child to work with AND the time that suits, without the hassle of travelling from one place to another, why would you turn it down?
5. Online learning won’t work - I need my books and resources
Most of the resources I use are digital resources. I have digital versions of many of the books that I use with my in-person students. These digital copies are great - I can access work at the drop of a hat and find appropriate challenges to stretch a student in lessons if I find they have grasped what is being taught. Also having many subscriptions and access to a multitude of amazing resources means I always have excellent, high-quality resources at my fingertips.
So, with the truth behind our 5 myths revealed, what is stopping you from trying online tutoring?
Emerald Education Centre offers online tuition and in-person lessons at our centre in Bundoran, Donegal. For more information about how we can help YOUR child, please do get in touch with Elaine Lingard at elaine@emeraldeducationcentrebundoran.com, call or message on (00353) 083 8550210, check out our Facebook page or visit our website.
