Online education opens up many possibilities for education. It provides a good method for delivering education unbound by place or time, enabling content to be accessible at any time and from anywhere. Even if there is significant research in the field of digital education, classifying and describing the online methods is difficult, given their diversity. For the purpose of clarity, this paper uses the following classification of the online methods: content sharing, teamwork, virtual classroom.
Content sharing includes materials such as presentations, videos, graphics, documents, animation, delivered to a large number of people by means of personal websites, blogs, vlogs, webcasts, social media, or podcasts. Students can just read, watch, or listen to the contents without doing anything else or by reacting to the shared content in the forms of comments, surveys, questions, feedback etc. This type of digital content includes online books, dictionaries, personal sites etc.
In the past, students had to carry their books at school and some parents used to complain about the heavy schoolbags of their children. The great advantage of online course books (www.manuale.edu.ro/) is that students can work at school or at home even without bringing their books. All they need is a proper device and a good internet connection. Moreover, many printing houses such as Macmillan, Cambridge or Oxford offer online versions of their dictionaries without any costs. The learners do not need heavy dictionaries anymore because they can find the meaning of the new words only by typing them on the website (www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/).
Webcasts, blogs, personal websites are other examples tools by means of which teachers can share their knowledge with their students. There are plenty of examples over the internet that can be useful not only for a certain teacher or class, but for everyone who everyone who needs knowledge (www.rethinkela.com/podcast/, jeremyharmer.wordpress.com/)
Some of the most used applications that allow teachers to transform their teaching ideas into stories, cartoons or videos are Flippity, Narakeet, Wizerme, Prezi, Bookcreator, etc (bookcreator.com/, prezi.com/).
As mentioned before, the digital content can be uploaded without any further action from the audience. At the same time educators have the opportunity to provide students with many interactive online tools. It is not necessary to multiply the worksheets anymore, since students can work using online exercises. There are many digital applications that allow teachers to create and organize in libraries their own worksheets or games such as Liveworksheets, iSLCOLLECTIVE, Digitaledu.ro, Edupuzzle, Bamboozle etc. (en.islcollective.com/, digitaledu.ro/, www.liveworksheets.com/, www.baamboozle.com/, edpuzzle.com/). A wide list of the learning applications that teachers can use in their daily work is found on the site of The European Centre for Modern Languages: www.ecml.at/Aboutus/AboutUs-Overview/tabid/172/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
Online teamwork involves the exchange of messages between people involved in the field of education. Emails, chats, discussion forums, social media are the easiest way of interaction between teachers and students. People all over the world can find pictures and videos about the current situation in the world with one touch of the screen. Consequently, students have access to instant communication with native speakers; they can update information about what happens in their environment much faster than before; they can meet new people and they can improve their communicative competence in the foreign language they study at school.
Virtual classrooms mean real-time audio and video sessions for multiple users. They are mainly used for meetings and give the users the possibility to make high-quality and low-cost calls over the Internet. Virtual classrooms are online learning environments used by both students and teachers to communicate with each other. A virtual classroom is the imitation of a traditional classroom, but also adds various digital resources, such as chats, whiteboards, audio conference, or screen sharing. Microsoft Teams, Vedamo, WizIQ, Google Classroom, Moodle or BlackBoard Read are only some examples.
The educational field cannot be neglected when talking about technology and digital development. The problem is that in this field, each change comes with many questions. The “literature on the efficacy of online courses is expansive and divided”. Despite the advantages of technological progress, people are still questioning the efficacy, the quality or the outcomes of this type of education. Both traditional and online teaching have their benefits and shortcomings, but the most important factor in the efficiency of teaching and learning a second language is the human resources. Both online and traditional teaching methods can be used effectively in order to achieve the same goals.