Image retrieved from: 2013 TIME Inc.
"They told me they preferred me on YouTube than in person." This was how Salman Khan, the creator of the popular Khan Academy website, described his cousins' reaction he first made educational videos to help them with their homework. Today, as the internet becomes increasingly more capable, people can learn something just by visiting a website like Khan Academy or Academic Earth. In fact, some universities even offer online degrees. In light of the situation, is it really true that we no longer need traditional brick-and-mortar schools, now that we can simply harness the capabilities of the internet? Indeed, the internet can be use for intellectual development, via the teaching of subject content, and 'hard skills', like analytic and critical thinking. However, schools do more than just these. Education, the function for which schools were built for, also includes socio-emotional development, and character development, which can only be achieved effectively via the physical interactions that traditional schooling facilitate. As such, it is not true that we no longer need traditional schools, even though we have the internet.
It is true that the internet can be used to impart hard skills and deliver content to people. Before the internet was made widely available and accessible to the general public, the only way for students to acquire content knowledge and hard skills, complete with a guided explanation was through lectures or lessons in the classroom. Now, as the internet has become so easily accessible, such that even students from low-income families have some form of access to it, students do not necessarily have to go to school to be able to acquire these skills and knowledge, as it can easily be accomplished via the internet, in the form of interactive videos, online lectures, PowerPoint slides, and other interactive forms of media. For example, Khan Academy, as mentioned earlier, has a collection of over 4100 videos, covering nearly all high school topics in the various fields of study, including mathematics and the sciences. Many prestigious universities in the United States also offer videos of entire courses online. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for example, offers more than 1900 online lectures. As such, it can be seen that the internet can perform one of the functions of schools, and that is the teaching of hard skills and content.
However, many other functions that schools perform is still irreplaceable by the Internet. One of these, is the development of social and emotional skills. In order to develop these, one needs opportunities to be able to physically interact with other people, to be able to cooperate and resolve conflicts, to be able to connect with other people emotionally All of these fundamental interactions can only be achieved via schools' facilitation. In school, students get to work on projects, organize student-initiated activities, negotiate with teachers, all of which require students to be able to form good relationships with others, and to be able to sensitive to other's emotions. As such , it can be seen that we still need schools to develop out students' socio-emotional skills, as that cannot be accomplished by the Internet alone.
Another important function that schools perform, that many people overlook, is character development. In order to instill good moral values in students, there needs to be opportunities for them to develop these skills. Unlike other forms of content knowledge, learning how to apply various systems of ethics in theory, is insufficient for complete character development. In order to fully do so, one needs to be able to put them into practice The internet is unable to provide that kind of experience. schools, on the other hand, provides countless opportunities for students to do so. For instance, students need to choose whether or not to report their peers' dishonest deeds to the teacher, or whether to use unorthodox means to complete a particular assignment Therese little choices they make might seem small and insignificant, but they help to build up their character slowly but steadily. After all, to develop a set of sound moral values requires time. Not only that, teachers are able to oversee the development of these students, and give them advice accordingly. As such, it can be seen that we still need schools' to develop our students' character.
Taking all these into consideration, it can be said that while the internet can aid schools in educating students, by assisting in content delivery, it cannot fully replace schools in their function, as it cannot develop socio-emotional skills, either can it instill sound moral values in the students. So, in conclusion, we still need schools to fully educate our children, even as the internet becomes increasingly capable and powerful.
