Education

Education

Almost every school has I.T equipment and every school has access to the features the internet offers education. This includes variation from marking schemes to on-line test practise. Since educational websites have been available for schools, many teachers and lecturers have used this as a background to help their teaching; for example my psychology class uses questionnaires on a website, which the class has to complete, this is beneficial to the teacher as they do not have to make a questionnaire themselves; a website address can be simply entered.  When marking work if teachers need assistance they can use online marking schemes to grade work or actually mark work online by uploading the work and using templates offered by the website. Exam boards such as OCR offers these to decrease the time a teacher or lecturer needs to spend reviewing work.
But how can online education help the relationship and connection between students and teachers in work? A programme called a VLE can be used to save work on so that students can access work from home. A VLE provides online tools that are good for assessment, communication, uploading of content etc.

What education online offers:

Education online offers a user:

•          Mark Schemes– the internet offers many ways to mark pieces of work, with simple guidance or even software that marks the work for the teacher, and this is often on exam board sites.
•          Online Revision– this is available to students and the most popular site is most probably BBC Bitesize, I used this site whilst taking my GCSEs. 
•          Online homework– is available on sites such as My Maths. My Maths is software available to buy which has immaculate help on maths and teachers can set online homework's.
•          VLE– an online programme which schools buy.
•          Documentaries– are one of the most available educational features of the internet, on websites such as You Tube and TV catch up sites like ‘BBC iPlayer’.
•          Written Information/Revision material– the internet is a large storage of information in itself and by using search engines almost anything is needed to be known can be found.

VLE 

An example of a VLE system is 'frog', which my school offers. The system is secured by username and password which can then access an individual VLE with their timetable, personal information and all files uploaded to it. When logging onto frog I personally access my timetable, check I have been marked present to my lessons, and access files especially to do with I.C.T on the VLE.
VLE's should and will be most definitely introduced into many schools as it is an extreme advance of education compared to chalk and blackboard!

There is also a location called shared drivers on ‘FROG’. It is a piece of software that allows students and/or staff to access the work saved on the school computer from home. When carrying out my I.C.T studies I prefer to log on to ‘FROG’ and do my work this way rather than using a memory stick or emailing work home.

Examination Boards

Edexcel  

Edexcel, a UK company, is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards, and is wholly owned by Pearson, the world's largest education publishing and Technology Company which is part of Pearson PLC, the global publisher and owner of Penguin and Financial Times.

AQA  

AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) is an Awarding Body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds examinations in various subjects at GCSE, AS and A Level and offers vocational qualifications. AQA is a registered charity and independent of the Government. It is regulated by Ofqual, which is the regulator for the public examinations system in England and Wales. AQA is one of five Awarding Bodies which are recognized by the regulators of the public exams systems for England, Wales and Northern Ireland to offer GCSE, AS and A Levels in the United Kingdom.

My uses of examination boards:

I have used examination boards such as Edexcel and AQA when revising for my GCSE exams. I used these websites to access the past papers which then would have given me more practice when it came to writing in the exams.

MyMaths  

MyMaths is a subscription website which can be used on interactive whiteboards or by students and teachers at home. Feedback is auto-generated in this website, but under a different window to prevent browser crashes, hacking, cheating etc. It is currently 110,399 in the world ranking and 2,259 in the United Kingdom.


My uses of MyMaths:
MyMaths was a key asset to my success at GCSE mathematics.  MyMaths broke down every topic into key sections which made it easy for me to revise what I needed to revise. If it wasn't for this, I do not think I would have done as well as I did.                                                                        

BBC Bitesize  
BBC Bitesize is the name given to the BBC's free online study support resource for school-age students in the United Kingdom. It is designed to aid students in both school work and, for older students, exams. Bitesize is available on a variety of platforms including the web and mobile phones.


My uses of BBC Bitesize:
I only really used BBC Bitesize when I was revising for my GCSE German exam. I used this because it gave clear explanation to what I needed to know. This was very useful as German is quite a tricky language to get hold of.

Advantages of Education

The main advantage of Education online:

Online homework and online revision is the best advantage of education online in my personal opinion because by having resources to learn more and revise information learnt in the classroom, it allows students to excel and absorb more and more information. Educational videos contribute to this as they give information in different contexts, allowing students to use different learning techniques suited to their acquirements. Documentaries look at education in different forms other than text and can teach facts about almost every subject.

Other advantages of Education online:

•          You can learn from the comfort of your own home. One of the greatest things about online learning is that you can learn anywhere - even in the comfort of your own home. This means you can learn without having to have that stress you will constantly have when learning at school.
•           Online learning can accommodate different learning styles and provide a variety of learning activities that may not be possible in traditional face to face learning.
•           Online learning may be more student-centred if it allows students the option to select learning materials that meet their level of knowledge and interest.

Disadvantages of Education

The main disadvantage of education online:

As a whole education online is a great advance of technology in schools and cannot be faulted. But it can lead to a lot of plagiarism and if important information gets leaked students may be able to cheat in exams etc. Online there is also a lot of hoax information and people have to be careful that they notice this and don’t make mistakes of absorbing this.

Other disadvantages of Education online:

•         Students, who are not highly motivated or have poor study habits, may fall behind and find it difficult to stay up with the required work.
•           Students who don't have good digital file management skills may or with beginner level computer skills may find the complexity of file downloads difficult and hard to keep organized.
•           Slow internet connections may make it difficult or time consuming to access online course materials.