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We are encouraging social isolation

Senior leadership
The regular calls for computer programmes and online learning to replace face-to-face interaction in the classroom are a dangerous move towards social isolation, says Marion Gibbs.

Every few years a movement to abolish schools, or schools as we know them, arises. Recently I was listening to a radio programme espousing the virtues of every child learning at their own pace through computer programs and the internet, with little, if any, face-to-face contact with a teacher or any need to go to a school. The programme was examining such a set-up in America, rather than the UK, but the same issues arise here.

It is certainly true that some learners are more comfortable working on a computer and testing out their own knowledge and skills in relative privacy, rather than exposing their perceived shortcomings to others in a class. But where is all this leading us? 

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