This article was written prior to COVID19 disruptions. It is more relevant now than it was then.
Teachers are and will remain the most critical part of education for Ontario's students. They deserve our full support as parents and taxpayers to ensure they are equiped and compensated in order to provide the best possible education for our students.
However, preventing students from accessing materials in ways that best suit a learners needs or learning style is not the best approach to education. The world is changing and our students deserve the opportunity to leverage all possible avenues to help them advance. Digital Learning (eLearning) is also changing. It no longer has to be a monotonous, page turning, black text on white background with animated gifs solution. Development of Digital Learning has taken dramatic leaps forward over the last few years and will continue to do so. Production quality should be an expectation when delivering learning that is designed to engage and teach.
The Digital Learning age will not end, regardless of how the current labour disruption is settled. There is already online learning in our schools and the volume will continue to grow while the quality continues to improve. Admittedly there is much room for quality improvement in this area. Asking Ontario students to take 2 Digital courses over a 4 year schedule does not seem like much. It gives the students the opportunity to try something different, possibly leveraging a technology they have not used before. In some cases students may gravitate toward this style of learning as it best suits their needs. These students may choose to take more digital courses.
This like so many things, is about choice. Choice for students and choice for parents. I would not presume to speak for the governments side. They may or may not have cost as the top issue driving this. Either way the opportunity for students, many or few, will be the worth it in the long run. And if it deosnt happen now, it will happen.
Benefits of Digital Learning Over Traditional Education Methods