Sir Isaac Pitman was born on January 4, 1813, and died on January 22, 1897. He was a teacher of the English language known now as Pitman shorthand. He was also the vice-president of the Vegetarian Society. The beginning of distance learning was in 1840, Sir Isaac Pitman, taught shorthand by mail” UFL Pitman would mail text on postcards to students, and students would mail their assignments back to him. 

In 2020 the system is similar because of the pandemic that is affecting the world’s population and education. Normally this is how it goes: the students connect virtually with their teachers through their computers provided by the school and have class like they will in normal school. 

Mrs. Sue Warburton said, “It’s challenging.  Sometimes the Chromebook doesn’t work and you can’t show a video. I much prefer normal school, but I am learning to use different technologies. My biggest problem was that my students didn’t all know how to navigate online learning and because of their limited English, they gave up. It was sad to watch students not engage in learning.  One student this year has been overwhelmed and has not returned to school this year. I think students do better when they are at school.  A lot is lost through the computer.  Sometimes it’s hard to understand what students need or who is talking.”

 Mr. Richard Garland said, “From my experience, while virtual learning is a viable method for learning. Beyond social skills being gained with in-person learning, much gets lost given the absence of body language and expressions that we do capture when in-person messages can be misinterpreted without these experiences. As a teacher, it is somewhat difficult to teach in the distance learning environment. Using google meet, getting immediate feedback if I can’t see my students – again their body language, expressions, are useful to determine if they are capturing and understanding what’s being taught. Not to mention having to manage the communication technologies while I teach and you have a captured audience when everyone is in one room and that’s optimum.  Not the case in virtual classrooms. Students are very much engaged. Some of this may be because we’ve been quarantined at home. We as teachers have to check on distance learning, to ensure that students are not just logged on to google meet and not off in the kitchen making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich during a lesson!”

Mr. Robert Wright said, “I certainly think that in-person school is better for the students. Teachers get to know their students’ needs, learning styles and can help students more effectively and efficiently than distance learning will allow.”

 Distance learning is only effective if you invest your time in the course which you are taking. Grades can be affected by this and it can be foolish to fall into the trap that just because a course is based online, it means that not as much work is required to complete it fully.

This new type of learning may be hard for some teachers, and easy for others. At the end of the day, teachers are still teaching and distance learning is a viable form of education.