Vendors forget one typical question when they approach our business for sales. Now we’re getting pitches for online materials (like who wants to be stuck in front of a PC?).
So the real question as always: ‘Does it help OUR students?’… The great online experiment of education during Covid was generally reckoned to be a massive failure worldwide.
No doubt that there were some success stories… but for the average class/kid being stuck in front of a PC 7 or 8 hours a day was NOT a success. I think companies like Caves struggled to be relevant then, and are struggling to be relevant now caught in the whiplash of online/offline.
But most parents and teachers generally thought that online classes were a disaster for their kids’ learning. So I think online materials might be suitable for using for online make-up classes, but they’re really not a replacement for class no matter what Cengage thinks. I’m not a huge fan of online teaching, which is bizarre since I’m quite capable of doing it.
It’s mostly presentation and very limited interaction (fill in the blanks, blah blah). It’s kind of putting the cart before the horse then trying to drive up a hill. But humans like to do that. Or perhaps I’m missing something. Cracks open a French grammar book… what do I see? Fill-in-the-blanks & matching exercises!!! LOL!!!
