Schooling, an online affair

Education is costly. Ask any new parent on what their biggest worry is, they would say the rising costs of education. Be it preschool, nursery, school, college or even tuitions- the figures are no longer in hundreds or thousands, you have to pay in lakhs. With the advent of Internet and technology, however, there is now an alternative.

Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested a million dollars in edX, the world’s largest online learning initiative. EdX is founded by Harvard and MIT and by 2013, claims to offer a selection of entirely free online classes from Harvard, MIT, Berkeley and University of Texas. Udacity, is another free provider of online higher education, so is Coursera that boasts of two million enrolments on courses from 33 leading Universities. Children today are already spending all their free time in the digital world, with gaming, social networking and what not to entertain them. So really, is online education, online school a bad alternative for children today?

While it is true, that online education may offer you courses from the best Universities across the world but is it education, without classrooms, friends, interpersonal communications and diversity? Online education is definitely bringing the world closer, global Universities more accessible and affordable to us but traditional learning with teachers, pen and paper, friends and gossip, canteen and fast food beats it, any time! After all those are life lessons which no social network or online course can teach you.