The Cyber Education Space Keeps Getting Bigger

Right now we are in the era where you must travel at light speed if you want to exist. People’s lifestyles change with every sunrise, sunset. The objective world sometimes submerges into the dreams universe due to technological advances. Life gets easy to live.  At times, people do not believe it, because it is too good for being real, and it happens so fast that eventually we do not even notice it. Then, those who say that online education is the future of learning probably missed the train already, because it is in the now.

Virtual education – The present and the future

In fact, many schools, colleges, and a lot of institutions have already added the distance education mode to their offer range. Moreover, some of them have totally changed to the online education mode and many of them just emerged as virtual institutions.  Additionally, we can find a lot of web pages that offer free online courses and virtual education platforms like WiZiQ.com for example, which extend the opportunity to teach or learn anything you want, only by signing up, scheduling or joining a session on any topic and using the Virtual Classroom.  Unquestionably, online education is not the future, but the present of learning.

Why do people flock to blended virtual education environments?

Blended virtual education environments offer a multitude of benefits compared to traditional education: First of all, one can have access to lectures, discussions, comments, explanations and all types of activities done in a classroom at anytime, and from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Besides, availability is not a problem anymore, because one can suit schedules according to spare time. The cyber classrooms will always be there, in cyberspace, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can attend a Science class at midnight, or study Chinese on Sunday evenings. That would not be possible in traditional education.

Also, interaction in the classroom would not be reduced to the most interactive students any more. In virtual education all team members have the same opportunity to participate in discussions. No shyness, no message barriers - only direct, democratic channels of communication.   

Classroom plus technology creates virtual education

Actually, it is simple to understand why people feel more comfortable learning online. Before, the education environment was divided into two scenarios; one was objective: The normal classroom. We had to go to school, listen to the lessons, take notes, and then study at home.  And the other was a virtual one:  We had to study with PowerPoint Presentations, work on documents using the computer and search for all the information on the Web.  So why not just put all these elements together in a single scenario? This is exactly what virtual education accomplishes and is the key reason for the online learning boom as well.

Unparalleled learning convenience

But there is more. New technologies keep evolving in order to provide better usability and more comfort to the cyber education users. For example, now students have access to recorded lectures, and PowerPoint Presentation lessons can be converted into podcasts and transferred to iPods for easy access at times, which would otherwise get wasted, e.g., while waiting for a bus or waiting in a queue. Also imagine that a student can now be sunbathing on the beach listening to her lessons or watching her teacher’s PowerPoint presentation on an iPod.

Rich Internet applications in education

Many Web2.0 sites also offer RIAs (rich Internet applications) as virtual education tools. Consider authorSTREAM.com, which gives you the opportunity of uploading a PowerPoint presentation and providing code to embed it in a Flash player on your blog or personal page, convert the PPT into a podcast or a video and send to YouTube or transfer it to an iPod, or being able to start an online presentation meeting right in the same presentation window with the people you select, and even publishing it on Facebook. 

Cyber education solves a lot of problems

Without doubt, the cyber education scenario has taken a huge step by making the learning process a state full of opportunities, freedom and comfort for everybody who is able to have Internet access. Lack of adequate funds is no longer a deterrent to education access as learning online comes free thanks to thousands of free courses and free education platforms. Not even tight schedules can be an obstacle anymore, and no more is there a dearth of educational material. Virtual availability has also solved transport problems and further, it helps keep the globe green.

Student interest and teacher adaptability

The only requirement from students is being interested and motivated to learn online or use technology to learn offline, and from teachers is to have a flexible attitude to adapt online teaching methods to reap and deliver the various benefits of blended teaching and learning online, while the cyber education space keeps getting better.

Rafael Marsiglia

Comments

[WiZiQ]

Dear Parag:

I would like to know your experience of using WiZiQ. If you have any comments or suggestions or would like a personalized demo, please write to us at support@wiziq.com

Thanks

Vikrama Dhiman
Product Manager
WiZiQ.com

[Parag Shah]

Very nice post. I recently signed up for an account on WiziQ, and am looking forward to using it to teach Java programming.

I would like to add one more thing to this post. Students who learn virtually can greatly enhance their understanding and depth by writing their own blog as they learn.

The process of writing helps one think deeply about the topic. Blogging will also increase their community interaction beyond the virtual classroom. Feedback received from this community can sometimes be very useful and gratifying.

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Regards
Parag Shah