The Future is Online.
More people than ever rely on the internet for nearly everything, from shopping to paying bills. Personally, it's been years since I've gone more than three days without access to the internet and I personally don't think I could go very much longer than that before I snapped. My life is based online: my job, my classwork, vital data stored on online drives, and my social media footprint. I don't remember the last time I sat down to watch a show on television, maybe the Super Bowl, but even then I watched it through an app that got a free trial for (which I subsequently cancelled to avoid paying a fee).
The internet is often used as a teaching tool as well. There are places in the world that are obviously weaker on the education spectrum, whether that be to a lack of an online connection or just generally weaker teaching, or a lack of teaching. The advancement of computer technology is an apparent necessity to the world, or at least the United States. Even in our own state, Governor Asa Hutchinson has made it clear how important coding and computer science is to the future of the state.
My personal experience with the teaching tools of the internet is quite extensive. In my Junior year of high school, I took a computer math course rather than a standard math class. It counted as one of my math credits and as someone who is likely below average in math literacy, I took my blessing and ran.
In that computer math course, we used Khan Academy and Code Academy. As an avid internet user, I've learned that most questions I have can be answers with a simple Google search. That also goes for more complicated questions or tasks. I learned how to change a tire by looking at an online tutorial, then when the time came to use this skill, I was ready. Online tutorials, specifically through YouTube, have helped guide my way through life almost as much as my parents. Whether it be video game walkthroughs or how to be macho, the internet can answer almost any question you have.
I'm going to analyze YouTube and the spectrum for teaching and the advancement of digital literacy. I've already mentioned how you can find almost anything online, but YouTube in particular is a hub for tutorials. It's strange how specific some tutorials can get. Have you ever wanted to be popular in middle school? Do you know how to properly eat Ethiopian food?
Other than just the weird tutorials you can find, there is genuinely important and valuable information that can be found online. Duolingo is language teaching app that is in the top 100 for the most used apps on the Apple App Store. I never had any interest in learning another language until college. After learning Russian, I used Duolingo to refine my skills over the summer.
My younger brother uses Google Classroom to do his schoolwork whenever his school is out of session. The school even uses an app that allows for teachers to communicate directly to the parents of students, notifying them of grades, absences, and school events. Games are being incorporated into the classroom to with Kahoot!, a popular trivia game used as a teaching tool. We even played Kahoot! in my Biology class last semester.
Even as I'm writing this, a friend of mine, Patrick, is watching a video tutorial on how to do his physics homework. Teaching others was the basis of creation for Khan Academy, and though it may not have been an original idea of teaching others through online videos, it definitely was a stepping stone into the creation of the tutorial 'genre'.
Overall, the teaching spectrum on the internet platform is one of the most valuable tools available to all of human kind. Who knows what the future holds for teaching tools, especially for third-world countries that need it more than ever. If there is this much use for these tools now, we can only imagine what's available in the future.
