Allowing students to attend classes from home by way of online or video conferencing would be beneficial for students because it would allow them to not have additional school days at the end of the year due to weather and allow them to not fall behind on work due to an illness or family situation. By offering distance learning as an option for students to attend classes from home, they'll be able to continue their learning while not having to worry about falling behind or having to attend school later into the summer.

Many states in the United States get snow on a yearly basis, and as much as students love snow days, sometimes they can hinder a student's learning progress by preventing them from being able to travel to school safely. Many states have a law saying that if too many days of school are canceled due to inclement weather, school days will unfortunately have to be added onto the end of the school year, so students can complete their education for that year. This can cause problems for many students as they might have a summer vacation already planned that'll have to be adjusted due to the extended school year. For instance, there was one year where my county had to add school days onto the end of the year due to additional snow days and that had messed up a lot of student's plans for the summer. Personally, I was able to adjust my vacation plans; however, I had many friends who ended up having to miss the last week of school due to this. If schools offered distance learning on these snow days, where students can still attend class online with their teachers, they can prevent additional school days at the end of the year due to weather.

Distance learning by way of online or video conferencing is also beneficial to students because it'll allow them to stay on track with school work and not fall behind due to an illness or family situation. There have been countless times where a student has been sick with a serious illness or had a family situation that prevented them from going to school for a week or so. Just missing one day of school causes a student to fall behind on a lot of work, so missing more than a week of school can definitely hinder a student's learning progress. I've had friends who were sick with an illness, like pneumonia, and were out of school for about two weeks; it took them weeks to be able to catch up and make up all of their missing work. Although a student should rest and recover when they're sick, being able to listen in on class could help them have less work in school significantly. Another example where distance learning is beneficial for students is when they have a family situation. A student might be out of school for a couple days due to a family situation and could fall behind on work. Being able to go to school online or video conference would help that student stay on track with work and not have to spend a week trying to catch up on missed work when they return to school. For example, I had a family member suddenly pass away a while ago, and I had to attend their funeral. As a result, I had to miss a couple of days of school and fell behind on a lot of work. Because it was so sudden, I couldn't plan ahead with my teachers and eventually was stressed out when I came back to school due to the amount of work I had. If online learning had been an option for me, I would've been able to stay on track in school and not have to deal with the stresses of catching up on missed work.

I understand that online learning might not be beneficial for all students since each student has their own way of learning and that some students might not have the technology for it at home; however, distance learning would be able to get rid of additional school days due to weather and help a student stay on track when they need to miss school. Online learning could also be implemented easily due to the fact that everyone has a chrome book in school, so many schools could install an app on the chrome book that allows for online learning to be possible. Although many students would not like online learning, I think it would be a beneficial option to implement into the school systems in the long term.

Many students struggle during the school year because of missing school days, whether it's due to weather or due to a family situation, and distance learning would be a great option for those students to be able to stay on track with the school curriculum while missing school. Offering online learning will help a student continue their education, prevent them from falling behind in school, and create less stress for them to catch up on missed work; therefore, I think online learning would be beneficial for students and that schools should implement it into their systems. 