Right now, the pros of distance learning in school are not at all obvious to thousands of teachers. It seems that distance education is nothing but inconvenience, a threat to discipline and academic performance. But it isn't: distance education has many advantages. 

Here are some of them.

 The opportunity to work with each student individually. 

1) Distance teaching technology helps to find a personal approach to each student. There are times when a shy child is shy to work actively in a classroom where twenty classmates are staring at him. 
But such a shy kid feels freer at a distance, asks the teacher questions in a chat room, and successfully completes tasks. And the teacher can choose additional tasks for such students, which correspond to their aptitudes, to maintain an interest in learning. 
Distance learning is a great chance to get to know your students better.

 2) Automate routine processes.

Simply put, technology can take over the most boring part of a teacher's job. For example, checking homework and compiling classroom statistics. On average, using technologies with automatic checking will save at least 1-2 hours per day, if not more. This system works very simply: the teacher goes to the site, selects a subject, class and topic, finds the appropriate assignment and sends a link to the students, and then just look at the same site to see how they did. 

 3) A chance to learn new technology. 

The high demand for teachers with distance learning experience is a reality. Knowing how to use interactive learning platforms, Google Docs, electronic workbooks, and video conferencing services increases your value in the job market and gives you a chance to find a part-time job at an online school (and there are many such schools, they are growing and in need of new personnel). But even more valuable are the skills to organize your time, work with students remotely, and be able to monitor and motivate them from a distance. If you can manage it now, by the next school year you can try your hand at online tutoring.

4) Game assignments. 

Distance learning involves a very active use of digital technology. Including gamified tasks: online games, quizzes, interactive tasks for ingenuity. Let us not forget that for any child the game is the most natural way to learn the world. And older students like these more dry tasks from the textbook. Games not only make learning fun - they help to evaluate progress and bring to school an element of healthy competition. Learning games are not part of the official curriculum, but we recommend that you dilute regular assignments with them. A child who enjoys learning will make more progress than one who is bored in class.

Minuses of Distance Education

1. Limited choice

Unfortunately, not everything can be learned remotely. In some cases, you cannot do without practical studies under the guidance of an experienced tutor. You can study history or literature remotely, you can become an excellent designer or programmer. But you cannot learn to be a pilot or a surgeon.

Perhaps that will change in the near future. One day, virtual reality technology will allow people from different parts of the world to participate in collaborative lab work. When that happens, the list of professions and skills that can be learned remotely will greatly expand.

2. Lack of face-to-face interaction
Face-to-face learning is not only valuable as a set of knowledge. An important element of offline learning is personal communication. While getting traditional higher education, a student spends several years simmering in the swirling cauldron of university life. He interacts with professors and classmates in an informal setting. These interactions can generate amazing ideas and dramatically change people's lives.

3. the absence of positive "side effects
The fact that distance learning gives a person a specific set of knowledge can be considered not only a plus, but also a minus. By studying remotely, a person deprives himself of many of the positive "side effects" of academic education.

For example, the process of taking notes on long lectures trains the speed of writing, develops mechanical memory, and teaches on the fly to isolate the most important fragments from the flow of information. All these skills are very useful in everyday life, but distance learning does not provide them.