students gathered around tableIn-class and face-to-face experiences are uniquely valuable for students and should be protected at all costs, writes a UWindsor education professor.

Mandatory e-learning poses problem for high schoolers: researcher

Moving to mandatory e-learning is being marketed to Ontario parents as “modernizing,” but high school students don’t need more screen time to prepare for their futures, says education professor Lana Parker.

In an article published March 9 in the Conversation, which shares news and views from the academic and research community, she writes in defense of in-class experience for secondary school students.

“When students are in the classroom, they learn more than content,” writes Dr. Parker. “Meaningful learning happens through face-to-face interactions with teachers and peers.”

Pointing to tech executives who limit the time their own children spend online, she argues that understanding is best developed when students and teachers can be together, sharing common spaces across the school.

Parker concludes that the government’s agenda seems to be more about cutting costs than improving education.

“Mandatory e-learning will not mean more choice for students and parents,” she writes. “The loss of face-to-face togetherness in a student’s formative years should not be the benchmark for what modernization looks like in schools today.”

Read the entire piece, “Mandatory e-learning is a problem in Ontario high schools,” in the Conversation.

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