Online education is safer as a choice in comparison to traditional education. This applies to all levels of education including and not limited to elementary school education, middle school education, junior high school education, high school education, and university education. There are many different reasons why this is true. This article discusses those reasons. Please add your reasons or arguments that you might have about this topic.
Reasons Why Online Education is Safer
- Keeps Students Safe from Pandemics and Contagious Sickness
- Keeps Students Safe from Other Students
- Keeps Students Safe from Terrorists
- Keeps Students Safe During Natural Disasters
- Keeps Students in More Controlled Environments
- Allows Students Customized Education
Keeps Students Safe from Pandemics and Contagious Sickness
The recent outbreak of the swine flu has opened the eyes of the public to the realization of the exposure that people receive to germs, viruses, and other elements that lead to sicknesses and diseases. Here is a list of some of the most recent pandemic scares. During a pandemic an online education still allows the children to be safe and continue their education. It allows for parents and students themselves to feel safer and allows them to take care of themselves as opposed to being concerned about making it to school and if they’ll get sick.
Flu Scares and Pandemics
- 1918 - Spanish Flu
- 1957 - Asian Flu
- 1968 - Hong Kong Flu
- 1976 - Swine Flu Scare
- 1977 - Russian Flu Scare
- 1997 - Avian Flu Scare
- 2009 - Swine Flu Scare
- Noteable Pandemics Throughout History
Keeps Students Safe from Other Students
Have any of you read about the recent school shootings in the news? If you answered which one then you have. For us to have to ask which ones means it happens way too often. Often times because of the mental peer abuse that can go on at school, students need protection from one another. Some students are not mature enough to interact with other students. Often times when things go too far students get hurt. Innocent students get hurt and become by-standards in the games that go on at school. Online education would eliminate that completely. Social learning could go on as parents and students feel comfortable allowing it. They can gain their social experience among supportive peers of their choice as opposed to their geographical location.
Keeps Students Safe from Terrorists
Terrorists often times look for populated areas where they can do the most collateral damage. A school full of students is an ideal place to do that. Rather than be concerned about if firearms are allowed on campus we can be concerned about if individuals are protected in their home where they are allowed all the right necessary to protect themselves. By focusing learning online we can eliminate many potential targets and focus on other populated areas that also need protection. This could help combat terrorism, but most of all it would combat concern for parents and family members as they have students away from home at school.
Schools & Terrorism: School Terrorism Preparedness
The Terrorist Threat To Our Schools
Keeps Students Safe During Natural Disasters
I recall during elementary school doing our regular fire drills and and earthquake drills where you practice your escape routes and also ducked under your desk. One concern I always had was if I was on the third floor would I fall clear to the first floor during an earthquake? Would I make it out during a fire? Often times escaping a natural disaster at home within smaller structures is much easier than the large educational institution’s buildings. As students study at home they can have a safer environment when faced with natural disasters.
The massive quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, flattened schools…
Keeps Students in More Controlled Environments
It seems like many of the concerns today seem to be concerns that individuals have. The inability to deal with others and tolerate the way other people do things. From the pledge of allegiance to prayer in school, there are many things that I personally would like to be able to do while learning. Maybe I’d like a God I believe in to help me with my homework. Maybe I’d like to respect the country I live in without someone protesting. That is my right just as much as it is theirs to protest, but why can’t students exercise their rights in a place of focus and dedication. No wonder so many cases of ADD seem to be diagnosed all the time. Is it ADD or just distractions?
Online education can create a more controlled environment to learn. Not only to help students focus but also to help them have a choice on how they learn something. Evolution? God? None? It allows parents to protect the innocents of their children. It allows parents to expose their children to things they may not get exposed to in school normally. Sheltering children can be a good thing too. Just because one child is taught one way, that doesn’t mean their class mate needs to be exposed to the same things they are exposed to.
Allows Students Customized Education
Much like the previous topic of a “Controlled Environment”, online education often times allows students to move at their own pace. Charter schools and private schools can often times give your children a little better education in comparison to most regular public schooling, but often times private schools are not a choice for students. Why limit students to a particular grade? When you allow students to learn at their own pace at the level they are at, it allows students to accelerate their learning. It also allows those students that require additional attention and time on specific topics to take that time without feeling pressured by the peers around them in their class.
Online education can allow for a customized education on a per student basis.
Conclusion
What I’ve learned when writing this article is that online education can create a safe environment for students from disease, other students, from terrorists, natural disasters, and from being exposed to things that aren’t necessary and things that pollute their minds.
Two Cents
OK. I’m sure not all of you agree with everything I say here so give your two cents. I’m fishing for comments and to try and create a discussion here. Please help contribute by leaving a comment below and giving your opinion and experience.
It seems like many of the local colleges I see are building more buildings and the campuses seem to be getting larger and larger even though they are still cutting budgets. I know that there are many advantages to both students and the communities which these colleges reside, but let’s take another perspective. Let’s take the perspective of investing in individual students instead of the college campuses and 
These large buildings that are built on the campus consume a lot of electricity and require the consumption of many natural resources when being built. I know many new buildings now a days are being built with recycled material and try and capture the sunlight to bring in power and heat, but I’m sure there are many other ways that they impact the environment.
I know when I drive past the universities and campuses, I’m amazed at how much space is required just to park all the cars. How much land of potentially fertile soil was polluted with petroleum and tar filled asphalt just so we could park our cars. Think about the enormous footprint that university parking lots make.
I understand the idea of close college housing which makes complete sense and my next argument is the obvious one of commuting. How many students commute? My previous argument about parking lots wouldn’t make sense if people still didn’t drive to school. We wouldn’t have talked about parking lots. Most colleges have done good by running shuttles across town and around the various college housing complexes but this doesn’t help the people not living on campus or near campus.
Another obvious advantage to online / digital education is the lack of printing that goes on. If a student has all digital class books then the expense goes down and the paper consumption also goes down. This eliminates a lot of material management and also editing. If a change needs to be made with the class materials it is made and all the information is updated without having to reprint.
I’ve heard all the arguments. Some of the people that are going to complain are most likely already employed by or know someone employed by the colleges. Some students want to move away and have the whole college experience. Some students love driving their cars around town. Well there’s always going to be opposition, but let’s think about what’s best for our environment. Let’s think about what creates the most opportunity for current students and people that wouldn’t be students otherwise.