Disconnected Learning: In-Person Vs. Online

Being a father, I’m always interested in studies on early child development. One particular research titled ‘the 30 million word gap’ caught my interest. The study details an incredible word gap of nearly 30 million more words that children in higher income homes are exposed to than children in welfare homes. If you have toddlers, it’s worth your time reading about this study here.

What I found most interesting, besides the actual study, was a comment made by researcher Dana Suskind, when asked if the vocabulary count includes words heard on television. “You know, there have been studies where children learn how to use a puppet. And they have an individual adult showing them how to learn to use the puppet. And I think they learn in one or two tries after watching it. And they have that same person who's been videoed doing the same thing and it takes six times for the child to watch it on TV. There's just something sticky about human-to-human.”

There is something sticky about human-to-human.

Commenting on a study she lead at Stanford about vocabulary development by toddlers, researcher Adriana Wiesleder stated, “Mere exposure to speech directed to others or on TV is not enough to drive early vocabulary development. Toddlers learn language in the context of meaningful interactions with those around them.”

Meaningful interaction with those around them.

I was struck with these two very revealing quotes, not for their relevance to babies and their vocabulary, but to how appropriate they are for Muslims looking to technology for religious knowledge. Many of us are turning to online recordings of lectures and classes for our spiritual education. While there is nothing inherently wrong or prohibited with such undertakings, let us fully understand the deficiencies involved with overly relying upon them. “There is something sticky about human to human.”

Another relevant example can be found in this NPR report on the waning popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). 2012 saw the meteoric rise of MOOCs with Udacity and Coursera plastered all over the headlines. The hype claimed MOOCs were the future of higher education. However, 2013 brought a harsh reality check. Less than 50% of online registrants ever viewed a lecture and only a paltry 5% were actually completing the courses - numbers considerably lower than traditional brick-and-mortar institutions.

In explaining why MOOCs haven’t succeeded, the NPR reporter concluded, “What was missing, many students complained, was a human connection beyond the streamed lecture.” The back-and-forth between the students and the professor. The peripheral conversations between students. The competitive pressure to perform brought on by fellow students. All these factors, large and small, play an essential role in rousing the intellectual juices of students.

Sitting at the feet of our scholars is an age old tradition that dates back to the practice of our beloved Prophet ﷺ and his honored companions.

In this day and age of Youtube, podcasts, and other forms of electronic communications, many of us are turning to technology for our spiritual development. But it can’t be stated enough that face-to-face human interaction is the ultimate form of learning. Attending lectures and sitting with our scholars can never be replaced by the impersonal form of recorded speeches and distance learning.

There is definitely something sticky about human to human interaction. I’ve listened to countless lectures by Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmed, but none of them gave me the type of spiritual boost as the one I experienced after performing Umrah with him. I’ve also watched dozens and dozens of video lectures by Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui and Shaykh Mohsen Al'Najjar, but none of them affected me like my short sittings in their company.

There is nothing earth-shattering in what I have mentioned here. Most will readily acknowledge the importance of sitting with our shuyookh. Suhbah (companionship) is an essential requirement by many spiritual teachers. I am simply reminding myself and the reader to be wary of becoming too reliant on the virtual avenues made so readily available to us.

I will finish with a fairly popular tale of a group of students sitting with their shaykh. They sat quietly in anticipation of a lesson. Time passed but the teacher said nothing. The shaykh was silent for so long that eventually one of the students respectfully broke the silence with a whisper. “Shaykh, could you share some words of wisdom from which we could gain benefit?” He looked up and replied, “If you cannot benefit from my silence, how can you benefit from my speech?”

Needless to say, that benefit and barakah (blessing) of silence, while physically sitting in the presence of a teacher, cannot be replicated with the push of a pause button.

Let us not become content with our hi-tech forms of learning. Disconnection from our teachers comes with serious costs. The baraka of taking out time, travelling to a masjid, and sitting in the company of angels as well as our fellow Muslims, all the while sitting with and listening to the inheritors of our Prophet ﷺ must never be underestimated.