Resistance to this online model of education is actually coming from an unlikely source, the heart of Silicon Valley. Some of the highest-paid executives from the cutting edge of technology firms are sending their own children to schools without a single computer in sight. The Waldorf School even discourages the use of computers in the home until the age of 13.
The reason for this is they understand that what young children actually need is free play, physical activity, music, creative thinking, drawing, reading, and exploring what comes from within. Not something that is being served up on a flat screen. Highly paid executives who are also parents know that it's innovation that drives their business. It's the ideas and creativity, not the computer know-how. They realize that over-reliance on computers and tablets by young children actually inhibits creativity, shortens attention spans, and erodes the ability to develop positive interpersonal relationships.
The bond between teacher and student is vital and can't be replaced by new technology.
Good teachers can light a fire of curiosity in a child that encourages them to ask questions and think about the world in their own way. By contrast, computers just fill them with them with information and encourage a find-the-right-answer and tick-the-box mentality. The latter may make the child of today the ideal unquestioning obedient worker for the future. Online education may indeed be a useful tool in a teacher's kitbag but also has the potential to become social engineering of the very worst kind.
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