online education

Education online

Due to the nationwide availability of the internet it is now extremely common that a wide variety of subjects can be learnt through the use of online education services. As a result of the wide variety of services available online, the amount of information that is dispersed amongst the various networks is overwhelming and there will be data relevant to almost any subject or scenario.

One of the more popular education services online is the one offered by the bbc , bbc bite size. This is effectively a large database of knowledge relevant for students studying gcses and a levels. As well as just knowledge pages however it also offers online tutorials on various methods of working things out such as mathematical problems , how to plan and write your answers/essays and various tests to ensure you have learnt and understood the information they provide. The key to the success of bite size is based upon the key aspects that is not only free to use and there is no need to sign up , but all the information is extremely relevant to all the individual examination papers and courses so everything the student needs to learn is available all in one place.  This was the site that I believe contributed greatly towards my gcses particularly within English as the in depth yey easily understandable

Another service available online that is useful to those studying for gcse and a level is in fact the edexcel site which as one of the main exam boards used amongst schools will hold essential information based directly on the exam. This therefore ensures that the content of the site is perfectly relevant to whatever topic you have chosen to read up upon, or obtaining practice papers so that you can practice the work as you learn it.

Another site that has recently gained some recognition for its value to education is the media site “youtube”. The site itself is an extremely large collection of videos from almost every possible genre, and the education side of the site will then offer the user to search for their current issue and then youtube will display a variety of videos based upon the users search, and these videos can contain content such as documentaries to instructions and videos showing how to undertake the searched task. Youtube however remains blocked in many schools across the nation as a result of the many other videos that can be found on the site, many of these being completely irrelevant or indeed even vulgar or decidedly undesirable. Myself, I generally use youtube at home for listening to music, but I have however used it to obtain new information on the different subjects at school which I study, and I believe the videos I found to be extremely helpful, so I think there should be a service created to filter out the unwanted media on youtube so that schoolchildren can obtain access to the valuable resources available.

For many of todays students, the main source of information they come across is the site “wikipedia”. Although an essentially brilliant site due to the vast crevasse of information available within its databases, covering almost every topic imaginable, there are however some issues that arise with this site. The two key issues are that of plagiarism, and then the sometimes inaccurate or completely false information provided. These problems are based upon the same issue, that the information can be edited by anyone signed up to the website. This means that students reading this information may in fact be learning something completely incorrect, yet as its off a well known website the naivest students will completely trust the date they are absorbing. To counter this I belive it is essential the students carry out further research , just to ensure that they are infact obtaining legitimate information.

The key issue with all online education however is the ever growing problem concernind plagiarism. This is when work is copied and the person copying then claims it as their own without crediting the original captivator of the work. In schools this is genereally punished with the immediate removal of the grade and in more dire circumstances the student may be removed entirely form the exam board. Despite these threats and punishments many students still continue to copy work of the internet as it saves them time and effort and they generally believe they will get away with it, all this is increasingly not the case. When I have obtained information from the internet I always ensure to credit it to the person I got it from, this means that I am not copying their work but merely using it to back up my own point im producing, and all the exam boards will readily accept this.

Overall I belive that online education is an essentially important form of information as any question can be answered within the confinements of the internets databases but is essential for all students using these services to continue further research, to ensure that they are in fact learning the correct things for their education.