Technology has been a huge component to help stimulate learning in students. With the availability of the Internet and technological devices in most schools today, there is a copious amount of resources students can use to help advance their learning in and out of school. From watching educational videos to doing online interactive activities, technology can be a student's friend to understanding more than what is taught in a classroom setting. There is so much the Internet can provide that we sometimes don't even need to be in a classroom to be able to learn. Distance learning has become so much easier with technology and the resources it has. Therefore, students would benefit from being able to attend classes from home because students can stay in touch with online communication, students can have access to many online programs to assist them in their learning, and students can use online resources to do assignments.

There are so many ways to communicate without being face-to-face with someone, so it's very easy to be able to know what is going on in a class solely from being online. In fact, relationships between teachers and students can be fostered well if the student is dedicated to communicating with his or her teacher often. With all the modes of communication made available, a student can contact a teacher via emails, video calls, voice messages, texts, or phone calls. I have taken a couple online classes for my convenience, and being able to communicate with my teacher has always been effective. I always got a timely response from my teachers, and they were able to reach out to me often to see if I had any questions. In my online Spanish class, we had a requirement to have a call with our teacher every week to talk about how we were doing on our assignments, so there was a good connection developed throughout the course. There are even options where you can collaborate online with students on assignments, which contributes to having more of a connection with others. Effective communication online can help students feel closer with others that they can't directly talk to.

With the abundance of programs avalable to students online, there's no doubt that a student can still learn just as much online as in a classroom. To learn the basic concepts, there are interactive programs embedded in a lot of online classes where you watch a video and answer questions to see how much you know about the concept. There are also live video calls to go over the material and talk to each other directly. This can mirror how a classroom environment is. I took an online SAT class where we would have to report to a video call portal at a certain time, and the teacher would make sure that we were able to answer questions as we learned the material. This has been a great way to learn for me, because I can still be just as engaged as I would be in a classroom. The best part of the system was that the teacher could save that lesson as a recording for us to go back and revise information at any time. Like this, there are so many variations of online classrooms where teachers teach as much as they can to students in order for them to be successful. So many students I know love this method of learning because it feels nice to be able to do the same things you could do at school in the convenience of your own house. Online teachers could get students to learn so much, all thanks to technology being able to replicate the feel of being in a classroom.

Any class requires students to be able to apply what they know with assignments and tests. Luckily, students online can do this easily with assignments and assessments embedded into their courses. There are many types of assignments that can be assigned with due dates because of the many things that can be done online. For example, in my history class we got a variety of assignments like writing essays, making a podcast, filling out graphic organizers, making slideshow presentations, and more. There are so many online devices that could be used for these type of assignments such as Microsoft Word, Google Slides, Google Drawings, and voice recorders. These are even used in classrooms everyday to do assignments, so online students get access to the same things that schools use. For test taking, there is often a system that online students have where they don't have access to any other tabs online to avoid cheating, and they get timed to represent how tests in school are often timed as well. Online classes are treated fairly in this sense where students don't get an advantage of being on the Internet to help them on tests, just like how it would be in school. Online students being able to do assignments similar to students in school makes online classes require just as much work and dedication as a normal class has.

To conclude, the advancement of technology has been the underlying reason why online students can get similar opportunities as school students. Distance learning doesn't hinder from the fact that students can make an effort to work with teachers and students, in order build good relationships when it comes to school work. Being online allows for effective learning where students can feel involved in the learning just as a student in school would. Online classes also provide the ability to be able to do a wide variety of assignments and assessments. Many students who don't have the convenience of taking a class at school now have the great opportunity to learn just as well as someone in a classroom would. Education has truly bettered from technology being able to serve so many purposes, and it can reach people of so many different locations who can now use the Internet for their learning everyday.        