Advantages of Remote Learning

Today’s learning environments take full advantage of new technology to make lessons more interactive and engaging. As a result, educators are seeing the benefits of distance learning and finding ways to include those opportunities in their curriculum. 

Advantages of distance learning for students

Won’t forget homework materials

With work and resources digitized, students will always have access to everything they need, which means they won’t have to lug heavy backpacks around quite as much. Having everything available on online platforms will help keep them organized. And as a bonus, they’ll be able to learn how to navigate these resources on their own.

Reduce social anxiety

“For students who experience social anxiety, an online school may be a viable option.” By chatting through text and video, students may be able to feel more confident in their interaction and perform better in their studies.

Flexible scheduling opportunities

Some kids need to work to help provide for their families. However, they still need to make sure they finish school. With distance learning, being able to balance both is a little easier. While education is important, every family’s financial situation is different, and distance learning helps to accommodate that reality.

Stay healthy and keep others safe

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us the importance of wearing masks and maintaining social distance as a way of protecting public health. With distance learning, children can stay home when sick without missing out on too many lessons. Not only is this a more comfortable way to learn when they’re under the weather, but it also shows the teacher that you value the well-being of the entire class.

Offer accessible to everyone

Though the world continues to make strides, there are unfortunately still places that aren’t accessible to everyone. Those with restricted mobility can suffer the most from this. Adding remote learning to your education system opens up new doors for those who need that kind of assistance. Allowing students to learn where they are comfortable also reduces missed lessons and contributes to better learning.

Allow for self-paced learning

Offering students the chance to learn at their own pace comes with many advantages. There are no restrictions set forth by classmates either, and they don’t have to worry about feeling like a know-it-all in front of others. Because remote learning is self-paced, students can review the material as often as needed and advance past already known subjects.

Benefits of distance learning for parents and educators

There’s no commute

Distance learning and remote education have one big thing in common — there’s no commute. That means you save on gas money and also don’t have to constantly worry about a school bus arriving on time. And if you’re typically responsible for transportation, it’s almost like you’ve been granted extra time in your day.

Work better with an atypical work schedule

If you had an opposite work schedule from your child’s school schedule, this arrangement frees both of you up a little more. Sometimes, it’s a nice break to have a different daytime structure.

Parents can get to know their child’s classmates

If your child has a very wide friend group, you might not have been able to meet them all just yet. But if you get to casually sit in on a digital study session, you’ll be more aware of what’s going on in your child’s social life.

Parents can check in and see what their kids are learning about

Some children can be very chatty about their school day. Others, not so much. By being able to listen in on particular lectures, parents can turn the information learned into meaningful conversations, furthering their learning experience. It’s important for parents to show interest in their child’s education.

Reduce the overall cost of school

Especially in America, students have more overall costs to their education—things like housing, meals, transportation, and that’s in addition to tuition fees.

Positive effects of distance learning on life skills

Prepare students to work from home in the future

While there are a lot of benefits to distance learning, working remotely for a career has even more benefits. For one, adults can work on home projects while also staying connected to their team in the office. A lot of people are choosing to work from home even after their spaces have reopened, simply because that kind of work-life arrangement is more convenient. When your child grows up, they may also end up working from home. Having them practice the art of staying motivated and productive at a young age is great practice for the future.

Distance learning teaches time management

While some students may find distance learning difficult, it gives them the chance to develop time management skills. These essential skills will help maintain a work-life balance and offer students an opportunity to complete projects before deadlines. Teaching students how to better manage their spare time can be challenging, but also worthwhile. 

Provide broader networking opportunities

While you miss out on the chance to network locally with peers, you often gain a more significant network when you switch over to remote learning. Suddenly, the entire world is at your fingertips. This kind of opportunity can open many doors for those in high school and college students. For example, maybe your child wants to learn a new style of culinary cooking. Before distance learning, options would be limited to local teachers and classes. Now, though, anyone can learn worldwide from masters.

Assam Flood

While the mainstream media of the nation is busy with the news of India-China conflict, Vikas Dubey encounter , Bachchan family, Sachin Pilot politics and the spread of covid over india etc., the situation of Assam floods 2020 is neglected. Other than a few news channels and environment enthusiasts, nobody (media as well as the public) is talking or aware or rather do not care about how devastating the situation is in the largest state of north-east India.

Over 70 lakh people have been affected due to this flood and 113 people have died due to floods and landslides till now, over 1.28 lakh hectares of cropland is affected, total 3100 animals were affected, 116 animals have died in Kaziranga, while 143 animals were rescued and severe flood alert still exists for some parts of the states.

While we know that floods are common in Assam, they are also essential for the state. Floods make their land fertile and rejuvenate the Kaziranga grasslands. But in the past few years, these floods have become a curse than a boon.

The major reason for the floods in Assam is the river Brahmaputra, a huge and one of the largest rivers in India and its tributaries. The Brahmaputra river divides the states of Assam into 2 parts and also carries a large number of sediments in it especially during the monsoons.

In earlier times, during floods, animals used to move to elevated grounds but due to the increasing volume of flood every year the water reach even higher parts of the parks, these animals have nowhere to go which leads to increased deaths. The number of animal deaths has been alarming.

In the past, these floods were advantageous for the state since they bring sediments with the water which ultimately make the land fertile and rejuvenate the grasslands. But in the last few years, the frequency and the intensity of these floods have been increased which makes them nothing but a devastating natural disaster for the human as well the animal population.

There are some major reasons for these floods:

1.     Climate Change

First of all, Climate Change is REAL.

And we are making it WORSE.

River Brahmaputra originates in the Himalayas, before making its way across India. As the glaciers are melting faster due to global warming, this combines with the monsoon downpour and intensifies the downstream flow hence intensifying the floods and so the damage caused.

2.     Urbanization

In the name of urbanization and development, construction is being done on the floodplain. Floodplains are the area adjacent to the river which holds sediments and flood water. As a result of urbanization, a large area of forests is being cut down.

In this process, some very important wetlands have also been destroyed. These wetlands were connected to the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries which used to hold excess water during the times of floods and prevent the water to enter into the residential areas, hence saving from the loss.

Wetlands have numerous advantages which are generally ignored during the development process.

3.     Embankments

Embankments are structures build along the river to confine them, raise higher, and flow faster.  The role of the embankment is to prevent the area from flooding but improper construction leads to severe problems like in the case of Assam.

Now, since Bhramaputra carries a high amount of sediments with it when these sediments do not get distributed properly, they gradually build up. If these embankments are not cleaned up regularly, the level of water increases, and then there will come a time when the river will flow outside the embankments. Thus, these embankments will be a waste.

It has also been observed that while the areas protected by the embankments are safer from flood, those outside the embankment’s limits take a major hit. Once the flood strikes, the water is channelled in greater volume and intensity towards areas outside the embankment limits.

There are about 450 embankments build along various rivers in Assam and at least 180 embankments have breached.

4.     Poor construction

When any engineering work is done near the river, one should know the nature and geography of the area and river.

Poor construction strategies lead to embankment breaching, which could be a result of a lack of embankment maintenance or constructions without proper study of the nature of the river.

In the case of Assam, one should know that you cannot and should not tame Bhramaputra or for that matter any river. Particularly this one is huge and very unstable. Therefore, before any kind of construction one should study the subject in detail.

5.     Political issues

Improper construction can also be a result of politics, like, corruption.

Some journalists say that during these floods some contractors are in profit who build these embankments. When floods arrive, poorly constructed embankment breaks, the contractors get another contract after the floods for rebuilding and hence they earn money.

6.     Other than these several natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides also lead to floods. The unregulated release of water from dams is also one of the causes of floods. Some hill cutting projects are also responsible for the disaster.

Every year these floods kill lakhs of people, thousands of animals, destroy their homes. Frequent floods cause residential disturbances. People have to move every time the place is hit by a disaster.

In the coming years, the flooding will become more intense if proper actions are not taken.

Local journalists and environmental experts have suggested various solutions every year but no attention was or is given.

A few easy ways that can be implemented immediately to tackle the floods, and are budget-friendly: an integrated approach, using community knowledge to practical solutions, employment approach for the local community, early warnings, no more embankments, banning constructions on floodplains.