Since public schools have been established, it has been very common that children go to school in the morning, have a couple breaks for lunch, recess, or other calm activities, and go home when classes are over. However, a new type of learning has emerged since the technological era has started. With new technology such as video conferencing, some schools have started to offer distance learning, or attending class through a program where the student can video chat into class from home. There have been several arguments surrounding if online schooling is the best option for a student's social and academic achievements. Students would not necessarily benefit from online schooling because it the internet is not always reliable, and the online aspect can hinder their social skills.

The internet is a wonderful tool, but unfortunately sometimes it does not work. Whether the wifi is down, or the connection is not strong enough to transmit the video, having a kid in class that is learning via the internet would cause some issues. In class a couple weeks ago, I was taking a test on my school issued device when the wifi suddenly broke down. My teacher checked with the tech team at the school and the wifi had indeed crashed. It had crashed because there were too many people trying to compete for the same wifi connection. Imagine if students were skyping or face timing into their classes. No doubt the wifi would crash at least a couple times, and that student would be left to not know the content. While in theory this does not seem like a big deal, if the wifi repeatedly went down, the student could end up missing an entire unit, test, or even more than that.

One of the huge reasons that kids go to school is to establish social skills. In middle school, many kids are just figuring out how to act around people their own age, and what is socially acceptable or not. School can be a great way for kids to explore different people as friends, and how to interact with adults, however this would not happen if they were not physically in school. Many of the recent dating apps that have come out advertise how many couples they get together every year, month, or even day from using their app, but they never tell how many of those couples are still happily together. This is because it is hard to establish a good relationship when you don't see each other in person. This is especially true with young kids. They don't really know how to act around people yet, and sticking them in front of a screen to learn all day would form unhealthy ideas for how to make friends. Sure they could text their online friends, but nothing compares to hanging out and being present with someone. Students need that face to face interaction with people their age and adults, and this simply cannot happen if they are just video chatting into their classes.

Many people may argue that distance schooling can be beneficial when a child is sick, or on vacation, however, it is not hard to make up assignments nor to get them in advance. Most teachers also will post their lessons on a different type of media, such as Google Classroom or Phoenix, and the child can easily go online and get the stuff they missed while sick. In addition, when a student go on vacation, they usually know about the trip in advance. If the student is being responsible, they can easily ask their teacher for any worksheets they plan on doing, PowerPoints they plan on presenting, or tests they plan on administering. Then, they can easily do them before they leave for the vacation. Besides, no child is going to do homework on vacation anyway, much less facetime into their classroom.

While distance schooling was a good idea, there are definitely many flaws to it, especially in regards to the ability to connect, both with the internet and peers. Online schooling will simply never be the same as in person schooling, and I don't think that should ever change. School is important for many more things than just academics, and by not physically being in class, the ability to get the full experience decreases. If in the future, more people go to full time online schooling, I would be concerned both for their social health and their academic well being. I think that if everyone transferred to online schooling, we would definitely see a drop in grades, as well as a decrease in their ability to form bonds with other people. Connection matters, and online schooling does not always allow for that to be well established.