MARGARITA SUSILLA QUESADA, GROUP 4B,

921 WORDS AND 15 EXPRESSIONS OF PERSONAL OPINION

ESSAY ASSIGNMENT 1. ARGUMENT ESSAY

A. Because of the Coronavirus pandemic many universities have adopted online

teaching. Do you personally think that online teaching should become more
important in education in the future?

It is generally agreed that Spanish education system has had many problems to be solved
for a very long time. The education in Spain seems to be far behind most of others EU
systems. According to a study of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development, a Spanish student receives 246 more hours of class a year than a Finnish
student, but their results on the international test called PISA, are much better than
Spanish ones (Silió, 2019). So, this shows that the problem is not the time spent on
teaching, but the wrong teaching ways and techniques instead. Finland is the number one
country in education, and one of the most relevant differences between Finnish and
Spanish education system is the constant adaptation and innovation in education, and one
of these innovations is the use of technology to carry out the classes. I think that the
possibilities offered by online teaching are essential for the improvement of the current
Spanish education system, and, as I will argue in this essay, it should become more
important.
To begin with, I think that online teaching is much more flexible in all aspects than face-
to-face teaching. First of all, it seems to me that the elimination of space-time barriers
that online teaching allows is really worthy. Many people would like to study, but they
do not have the time to attend classes or they can’t adapt to the strict schedule that
education requires. I believe that online teaching would be the best way for this people to
learn something they were looking forward to learn in any time of the day that they chose.
It also let them adapt their lifes to studying or teaching much more comfortably,
considering that they can assist to class from their homes, or even from a foreign country
where they are temporarily on a business trip. But many people might find this freedom
controversial due to pupils having total control of their study time is harmful because it
leads to laziness and a decrease of work. However, it seems to me that it is true that the
study time would decrease, but the students with more freedom would spend this less
hours studying in a more productive and personalized way, which would be of higher
quality than the time spent on the long face-to-face classes, in which, as I see it, most of
students are usually not even listening. Furthermore, it not only gives freedom to students,
it let the teachers chose techniques and teaching resources that can be more practical than
the traditional lecture classes.
Moreover, I believe that this freedom that leads to a more creative way of teaching is
certainly necessary. Because the current system forces teachers to fill the whole time of
the classes with texts and theory. Classroom teaching becomes eternal talks that the
students must listen to, without time to process them, to copy them and reproduce them
later almost with the exact same words in the exam. Online teaching provides the
possibility of making classes more interactive and practical, which allows teachers make
themselves sure that students are understanding the lesson, and not only memorizing it.
In terms of evaluation, it allows also a little more creativeness on evaluating ways. Online
teaching makes easier the control and monitoring on pupils learning and development, so
it makes easier the continue evaluation, which is much more useful than the typical final
exam, which I feel that does not show the real knowledge of the student, and it surely
does not give him the opportunity to demonstrate all his skills. In addition, according to
Cynthia Brame (CFT associate director, 2020) one of the best ways of online evaluation
during the Covid-19 was the substitution of the exam by tasks that allow collaboration of
several students and the use of the notes. Some people could think that these examination
forms are not reliable, because with the use of notes and the group work seems like
cheating for them, and it does not demonstrate that the student has memorized the
contents. Nevertheless, I think that what a mark in an exam demonstrate is just that, the
ability to memorize, which, according to me, is not relevant. Instead, what really matters
is the ability to think, and these new forms of teaching promote this ability.

Finally, I strongly believe that online teaching means a more personal and monitored
education. “The panellists agreed that students increasingly expect their learning to be
personalised – and that this is easier to deliver online.” ('We shouldn't go back to lectures':
why future students will learn online, 2020). Teachers can give special attention to their
students and control much better their work. The flexibility in time and space means that
the teacher can provide individual tutoring to every student. It could be argued that this
would mean an immeasurable increase of the teacher’s working hours. But, from my point
of view, the quality of the teaching they would be giving to the students would last much
longer in time, considering that this closer and more attentive relationship between
teachers and pupils would facilitate the interest of the students (‘What works in
online/distance teaching and learning?’, 2020).
So then, this essay has reviewed several reasons why online teaching could be a very
significant tool for the improvement of the current Spanish education system. First, it
provides flexibility, secondly, it allows creativity in teaching techniques, and finally, it
means a more personal and attentive education. Considering all these points, it seems to
me that all Spanish education organisations should consider use more online teaching to
improve the quality of learning.

BIBLIOGRAPGHY:
Brame, C. 2020. ‘Giving Exams Online: Strategies and Tools’
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/online-exams/ Date accessed: 02/12/2020
Silió, E. 2019. ‘Bad education? Why more class time has not improved academic results
in Spain’. El País, 13 sept.
https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/09/12/inenglish/1568287867_870130.html Date
accessed: 30/11/2020
'We shouldn't go back to lectures': why future students will learn online, 2020. The
Guardian, 03 july. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jul/03/we-shouldnt-go-
back-to-lectures-why-future-students-will-learn-online Date accessed: 30/11/2020
‘What works in online/distance teaching and learning?’, 2020.
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/spotlight/what-works-in-online-distance-teaching-
and-learning Date accessed: 01/11/2020