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With the recent announcement of potential online schooling for children in New Zealand, I have been reflecting on the community I work in. We are a 'Community of Online Learning', but not to the same extremity. Our learners still attend school.
The proposed plan would reduce face-to-face contact for students to develop their social skills, collaboration skills, ability to work with others, confidence to speak in front of others, and the list goes on. The Health and PE curriculum would disintegrate if learning was fully online. How would students apply knowledge of ball skills into authentic situations? How would teamwork, leadership and resilience be developed? Where would students go for questions about their bodies, gender, sexuality if their families are not open to talk about these things?
Sure, the internet is resourceful and has a lot of answers - but not ALL of the answers.
I am for students immersed in online communities of learning, and developing skills and knowledge about the technological world, but I am not for school just being at home on a laptop.
For many of our students, school is also a safe haven, a place where they can be themselves - I do not want that to be taken away from them!
Nicely put Georgia, and i totally agree. School is not just a place to learn to read and write. Its soooo much more than that! How can we take that away from our kids and just assume things will turn out okay...?
ReplyDeleteExactly, I fear for what will come of this!
DeleteI agreed with your comments. Also, I think the nature of social learning and the emotions linked to learning and other principles of learning discussed in the nature of learning report needs face-to-face interactions.
ReplyDeleteEvening Leonie, you are so right! There is only so much we can do online before it is too much. Imagine spending 13 years of your life in front of a screen and then trying to get into the workforce and need to interact with others in person - I cannot imagine how awful this would be! Thanks for your comment, enjoy your weekend :)
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