Introduction

Every one of us must remember our good old childhood days when we were kids. We used to go to school for learning. We wake up in the morning taking a bus to school, sitting on the desk in the classroom, and working on the same worksheet or assignment. But now the situation has changed. With the rise of online teaching for preschoolers where schools are organizing different activities to engage kids of course with a good amount of fees. The efforts are certainly welcome but the execution is a big question mark because of the Kid’s nature which is not designed to sit idle, be patient or to keep quiet.

Now in this blog, we will look at some parameters to determine which is better for kids in kindergarten: classroom or online learning?

1. Face-to-face interaction and group study:

Irrespective of the technology available, classrooms are the clear winner here. No amount of virtual learning can match the environment that you will get in the classrooms. Studies suggest that children learn better through face-to-face interaction and a group study also helps in developing their communication skills. In a classroom, a student has the opportunity to clear out his/her doubts almost immediately. This requires the student to come out of his/her comfort zone and verbally communicate a question. In the virtual world, this process mainly involves typing in a comment, which may not improve your communication skills.

2. Experience in real-world activities:

Online learning, no matter how good and resourceful, is after all virtual. In today’s competitive world, application-based learning is of primary importance and only traditional classrooms can provide that. Be it learning to handle an instrument, carrying out a chemical experiment or sharpening your public speaking skill, the level of learning is much more advanced when you do them in the real world.

The top schools include all forms of extra-curricular activities along with the academics in their curriculum. This helps young students to get the required exposure and choose their career paths better. With virtual learning, the choice is entirely based on the experience of the lecturer and the decision process is somewhat difficult. Modern classroom learning outperforms online learning here and will continue to do so for the next decade as well.

3. Access to study-materials and class notes:

Virtual learning has the upper hand in this case. The main advantage of the internet is that you can access it anytime and from anywhere. You can watch a lecture on a particular topic multiple times or rewind to understand a certain portion that many times. In classrooms, you will have to match the pace of the lecturer and stay attentive all the time. The same goes for the notes. In virtual learning, the lecture is generally available in the form of text or video transcripts. In classrooms, you are required to note things down like dictations. There is a possibility of missing out on vital points or not understanding a topic at all. However, on the flip side, such instances in classrooms pose a challenge for the students to overcome which helps in the development of their problem-solving skills.

4. Discipline and deadlines:

There’s more freedom with virtual learning. You can learn at your own time and pace. You can watch the lectures when you are free or take an exam when you feel prepared. In short, both the discipline and deadline are in your hands and the success of the course is up to you. At times, the absence of a proper deadline or a fixed time schedule can have adverse effects in the learning process and is not advisable for young pupils at all.

Left to their own devices, children do not have the proper reasoning skills to analyse the importance of a course. Fixed timings of schools, routine in classrooms and deadlines for submitting homework actually help a young mind to grow.