Is Remote Learning Better than Face to Face?

Even though the internet is a great source for information and has created many opportunities for growth, online learning is inferior to face-to-face learning because of the loss of physical and social interaction.

Face-to-face learning is superior to online learning because it allows the audience to form a deeper connection with the teacher and allows for specific personal help.  The physical interaction helps the audience learn faster and better.  I am a skateboarder and I have been skating for 13.5 years.  Now that skateboarding is becoming much more popular there are thousands of tutorial videos and online videos attempting to teach skateboarders new tricks.  These videos may be extremely helpful, but do not help specific personal problems like face-to-face teaching would.  One day I was at the skatepark and a young kid wanted to learn how to do a kickflip.  He was explaining to me how he had watched online videos and had a general understanding of the kickflip but could never achieve it.  I watched him do a few and told him to move his front foot down a little and other micro adjustments.   One week later he was at the skate park and landed his first kickflip.  The physical interaction and micro adjustments made the difference.  The personal feedback allowed me to show him what he was doing wrong and how he could fix it.  While the internet was helpful, online learning does not allow for personal feedback and interaction with the audience that face-to-face learning offers.  Another example of this would be chemistry.  In chemistry one is asked to do many hands-on labs with different chemicals and substances.  It would be very simple to just watch a video on how a lab is done but, you never really learn.  Learning is not just taking in information but it is also applying the information.  By physically interacting with the chemicals and substances it allows one to learn and understand better.  Online videos may explain and show someone the same lab, but it is more beneficial to learn by actually touching and using the materials especially.  The face-to-face and hands-on experience make learning more efficient. 

Not only is there a physical interaction when learning face-to-face but also a social aspect while learning in classrooms or doing group projects.  Face-to-face learning is superior to online learning because it allows students to talk to others and gain different insights about certain topics.  Social interaction helps an audience learn new perspectives and ideas and online classes don’t offer the same social interactions as a classroom environment does.  The classroom allows for better learning because of the ability to bounce ideas off of one another.  This allows for new perspectives shared and makes learning more efficient and better.  In many classes, especially English, the class is able to have debates and Socratic seminars to better understand a topic.  Being able to interact with students and teachers is necessary for learning.  The face-to-face interactions and classroom environment makes for superior learning.  Social interactions make face-to-face learning better than online learning not only through the classroom environment but also group projects.  In group projects groups are able to work together to solve a problem or teach the class.  Projects help students understand a topic better enabling them to learn through others work and communicate individual ideas.  Online classes may offer projects and other ways of learning a topic but nothing compares to talking to someone face-to-face and being able to work out different problems together.  Projects allow for different ideas and new interpretations.  In many classes, there are projects where one must meet their partner outside of school or call their partners to work on it.  These different social interactions make it easier for the students to remember and learn about their topic.  Group project grant students the ability to work together to solve problems and learn. Face-to-face learning is superior to online learning because students are able to collaborate and bounce new ideas off each other.