Kennedy Williams
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I love having the freedom to set my own schedule. Instead of starting my day at six like traditional students, I get up at eight and head straight to class.
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– Kennedy Williams
In the Digital Age, technology makes just about everything accessible and convenient. Education is no exception. Online and blended learning have numerous advantages for students. Virtual students have access to additional learning resources, set their own pace, and even have virtual clubs. Virtual students have a lot more freedom and options than students in a traditional brick and mortar school. Online and blended learning bridges learning gaps in ways traditional schools are unable to.
One major advantage being that students can work at their own pace. This means a student can spend more time working on a topic they struggle with and less time working on a topic they have mastered. Online and blended learning also provide a variety of resources for students to use including live sessions, help videos, office hours, peer tutoring, and practice websites. This means students can learn the material in a whatever way works for them. One of the major arguments against virtual schooling is that students do not socialize or make friends as easily as traditional school students. While this may be true, virtual schools offer many different clubs and activities to promote student socialization. The clubs meet in online classrooms where the students can interact and complete activities together.
Online and blended learning make learning and socialization as easy as any traditional school. This is my seventh year of online learning, and I can honestly say that I prefer it to traditional schooling. I love having the freedom to set my own schedule. Instead of starting my day at six like traditional students, I get up at eight and head straight to class. I will work on my schoolwork at a quiet desk until the late afternoon. There are no other kids around to distract me from learning; I am able to focus solely on homework. If I need help with a subject it is easy to find additional resources or schedule office hours with a teacher. I am even part of a creative writing club that meets on Friday mornings.
For me, virtual school is not only convenient, it is enjoyable. From first to fifth grade I attended traditional school. I enjoyed going to school, learning new things and making friends. Around the third grade some concerns about my health arose. Soon after, I was diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition that significantly affected my energy levels. Virtual schooling became the best option for my health. My mother could monitor my health and administer my medications, and I could do all my schoolwork at home. It was hard at first, the switch from traditional to online learning. Most of my friendships did not survive the transition. Despite that one major drawback,