In the coming era of budget cuts to education, distance learning could become the norm.

The temptation for those in charge of education budgets to trade teachers for technology could be so strong that they ignore     1     disadvantages of distance learning. School facilities are expensive     2    (build). Online classes do not require buildings and each class can host hundreds of people at the same time,     3    (result) in greater savings. But moving away from a traditional classroom     4     a living, breathing human being teaches and interacts with students daily     5    (be) a disaster. Physically attending school has hidden benefits: getting up     6    (early), interacting more with peers, and building better relationships with teachers. Moreover, schools should be more than simple institutions of traditional learning. They are places where students     7    (offer) counseling (咨询) and other support.

Those policy-makers are often fascinated by the latest technology in education and its potential to transform education overnight.     8    , online education does not allow a teacher to keep a struggling student after class and offer help. Educational videos are unable to make eye contact or assess a student’s level of engagement. Given these     9    (expect), schools should not become permanently “remote”. Technology, however     10    (advance), should simply be a tool of a good teacher.

3 . Five years later, he quitted his job to work full-time on Khan Academy(可汗学院). The 75-person team is now based in Mountain View. The lesson style hasn't changed much, but Khan Academy now, besides science and maths, includes videos by experts in the ________ , too.

Today, Khan Academy has 15 million students in 190 countries. The You Tube channel has over 500 million________ . Khan’s ________ for the future has been supported by everyone from Bill Gates to Barack Obama.

While Khan is perhaps YouTube's biggest ________ in the field of learning, the platform is filled with instructional videos. There are video tutorials(视频教程)for changing a light bulb, assembling baby buggies, or learning the guitar.

It’s easy to see the attraction: ________ puzzling over an instruction manual(说明书)written in 15 languages, you can just watch someone ________ you.

Watching a video isn't just quicker than reading a manual—according to Khan, it's making us ________ . He argues that, by giving us a ________ level of knowledge, they help us get more out of experts.

________ , traditional educational establishments are welcoming YouTube, too. Universities around the world are ________ with video-based learning through massive open online courses, or MOOCs. While there has been some________ over whether lectures online devalue(贬……值)universities, almost everyone agrees that video tutorials have a role to ________ in teaching.

Khan believes that by teaching basic concepts ahead of classroom time, videos ________ teachers to focus on individual students. And by ________ the data Khan Academy gathers on each student—where they ________ or re-watch a video—teachers can know how much their students understand. This, says Khan, is the future of education: “empowering personalization”.

5 . The best online language classes for kids

We’ve researched the best language classes for kids and provide a list of them below.

Preply

Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Arabic, Chinese

Ages: No age limit

Preply is an online platform that connects children to over 140,000 tutors (私人教师) for 1-on-1 language classes. Because Preply tutors set their own prices, you can find someone to fit you with hourly rates starting from just $10.

Bilingual Bebe

Languages: English, French, Chinese and Spanish

Ages: 3-12 years old

Bilingual Bebe offers small group online language classes for kids. The instructors use various methods to attract students: playing games, singing songs, reading books and socializing with classmates. All classes are 45 minutes long, and pricing ranges from a monthly subscription of 1 class per week for $149 to5 classes a week for $745.

Language Workshop for Children

Languages: French, Italian and Spanish

Ages: 2+

The Language Workshop for Children provides 1-on-1 private language lessons to students either online or in person. For private lessons, parents can buy a set of 10, 20, 30, 45, or 60-minute classes. Tutoring ranges from $110 to $125 an hour.

Duolingo

Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Russian

Ages: 3+

Duolingo is a free app for language learning. It offers a wide variety of language courses broken down into bite-sized lessons focused on reading, listening, and vocabulary.