Education

Online services of education

Online services have taken on a huge role in the education of the younger generation. There are numerous online revision sites out there for a whole assortment of subjects ranging from science to maths. In this blog post I will talk about five different online sites and how they benefit our education system. The one I would l most like to discuss is BBC Bitesize.

BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize is an online revision and learning site hosted by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Its revision tools range from key stage 1 all the way to Highers; this is good because it covers all the bases of education with a large range of subjects. It also has specific revision for different areas such as Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. There is also a welsh side of the website for welsh learners. I will talk about the numerous advantages for BBC Bitesize. My personal use with BBC Bitesize has been a charm; I used it a lot for GCSE revision. The site can be easily navigated for the subject you wish, and it has interactive questions and games that you can play. My use with the site was really useful.

Advantages

• Very wide range of resources for all sorts of subjects
• All online so no paper, this can also save money from buying text books
• Much more enjoyable with animations, this can make you revise because its much more fun

Disadvantages

• There are no disadvantages to my knowledge.

VLE’s – Virtual Learning Environment

VLE’s have been a great tool for schools. More and more schools are starting to use state of the art systems such as frog. You can access the work from school, home, work, basically anywhere with an Internet connection. Teachers can set work via VLE; you can access it with your unique username and password then view thousands of resources for a range of subjects! 

Advantages

• Teachers can set work if you’re ill
• Easy to access as it’s all just in one place
• Lots of resources

Disadvantages

• To install the system it’s usually fairly expensive
• If you do not learn by reading this will not work for you
• Will take the students some time to get used to

In my experience our schools VLE has been good for when I forget to transfer stuff and email it home. Also last winter we had a lot of snow and our school was closed, this is when the VLE came to life, all of my teachers set school work via the VLE and we could hand it in via it as well. It worked great and the teachers approved of it!

MyMaths

MyMaths is an online-based maths revision site. You have interactive tasks for different topics on there and they show you how to do a certain thing; so essentially its just like a teacher! Your maths teacher can also set online homework though it, you complete it and it the mark will be submitted to your teacher. Lots of schools now use this just because of the use of ease of it.

Advantages

• Can go over the work you did in class in a different way
• Caters for a different learning styles
• All in one place
• Can repeat homework if you get a bad mark

Disadvantages

• Only submits a mark to your teacher, so they can’t look at the working out and see where you went wrong
• Schools have to pay for the use of it.

In my experience MyMaths was a saviour for my GCSE exams, if I didn’t know a topic I could simply log onto MyMaths and then learn it. Although I liked the revision side of the site I didn’t particularly like the online homework side of it; it can be very tricky because if you get it wrong it wont tell you where you have gone wrong. Also your teacher can see you’re working out which I do not like.

School Websites

All schools now have a website, you can get informed of the sporting fixtures coming up for certain events, get the information on the schools latest productions, upcoming school trips basically anything. ParentPay has also partnered with many schools, which allow parents to pay via the Internet for school trips, stationary and even school lunches!

Advantages

• Parents can get up to date news
• Newsletters are put on the website therefore saving paper

Disadvantages

• If you have no Internet then you cant see anything!
• Schools might not update it that regularly

 In my own experience the school website has been great for the latest news. When we had heavy snow last year the school would update it to say whether the school was open or closed. This was good and saved a lot of people ringing up the school and asking instead.

Online tutoring

Online tutoring has taken off in the last couple of months with the use of programs such as Skype. Online tutoring can be much easier because mainly everyone has a computer, and you may not always be able to find a good tutor for that subject in your area. A 1-1 tutor will help you immensely because all of their focus and attention is centred on you and it can help improve your grades dramatically.

Advantages

• Doesn’t always have to live near you, they could live anywhere!
• Online is usually cheaper as there is no travel costs etc.

Disadvantages

• Your Internet might not be very reliable
• Might be too time consuming writing out equations on the computer for subjects such as Maths and Chemistry

I have had no experience with online tutoring although I have a friend who has one and he says its really helpful and just as good as a in person tutor.

Self help forums

Self help forums are good for what they are, you can find any information that you will need on it, and if you cant find it you can just create a new topic and ask your own query there! Although all the information posted on there may not be reliable, but if someone posts false information someone will usually make sure that it is corrected. Some forums also have teachers on there, this is a good bonus as well so you can ask them anything if no one else can answer it! You will learn from it by people helping you, they can also have links to helpful articles and other resources.

Advantages

• Lots and lots of information!
• You don’t even have to signup to them
• Can ask your own query’s if you can’t find one your looking for

Disadvantages

• Some information may be false
• Some people can be mean if you ask a ‘silly’ question

I have only been on a self help forum once, and that was because I was worried about some of my answers in a Maths exam, so I had a quick hunt round for the answers and quickly came across them, it put me out of my worries.

Online tutorials and demonstration videos

Online tutorials and demonstration videos have become even more popular since video sharing site YouTube has been growing, nowadays there are lots of users on it and they post educational videos. You can learn from it by watching others complete it, and then try it for your self. This doesn’t just apply for educational tutorials, but can also apply for sporting demonstrational videos. For example if someone doesn’t know how to stretch a certain muscle they can view how to do it on YouTube.

Advantages

• Lots and lots of videos
• Very easy to search

Disadvantages

• Have the risk of it being inaccurate

I have watched educational videos in the past, and they have helped a lot. Teachers who post educational videos can also make a few extra pounds from advertising; this is an added bonus for them.

Copyright

Copyright can be used to control there own words, images, and logos basically anything! It stops people from copying it, distributing it, renting it, and even performing in public! The copyright, designs and parents act came into force on November 15^th 1988. If the owner gives you permission to use it then your fine, but if you don’t then you could face a heavy law suit.