There’s a persistent myth in education that we need to choose: either digital learning OR hands-on experience. Either technology OR tactile engagement. Either screens OR manipulatives.
At Conduit, we reject this false dichotomy entirely.
Online learning, when thoughtfully designed, doesn’t eliminate hands-on experiences—it transforms and often enhances them.
Let me paint a picture of what this looks like in practice:
Imagine a math lesson on fractions. In our virtual classroom, students aren’t just watching a teacher explain concepts. They’re actively manipulating digital fraction tiles on Polypad, an interactive math playground. They’re physically cutting paper circles at their desks, following their teacher’s guidance through a document camera. They’re building fraction models with Legos or snapping together manipulatives that we’ve sent in their learning kits.
The teacher can see their work in real-time, offering immediate feedback through the document camera that students use to share their physical creations. “I notice that Sarah has discovered a pattern in her fraction model—Sarah, would you show the class what you’ve created?”
This integration of digital and physical tools creates learning experiences that are often more hands-on than what happens in many traditional classrooms, where budget constraints might limit manipulatives and where teachers can’t possibly closely monitor 25 students simultaneously building physical models.
The tools we use make hands-on learning more accessible, not less:
- Document cameras allow students to share physical work instantly, creating a seamless bridge between tangible creation and digital collaboration.
- Digital manipulative environments like Polypad provide dynamic, interactive experiences that would be impossible with physical materials alone (try instantly creating 100 identical fraction tiles in the physical world!).
- Specialized learning kits that we send to students’ homes ensure everyone has access to high-quality tactile tools, regardless of what resources families might have on hand.
- Interactive simulations let students experience phenomena that would be impossible in a typical classroom—dissecting a virtual frog with all internal organs perfectly visible, exploring the surface of Mars, or watching chemical reactions at the molecular level.
For our neurodiverse learners, this blend of digital and physical experiences is particularly powerful. The student with dysgraphia who struggles with physical writing can use speech-to-text for composition but still engage in hands-on science experiments. The student with fine motor challenges might use adapted physical tools alongside digital alternatives. The student with ADHD benefits from the multisensory engagement that comes from integrating physical and digital modalities.
This isn’t just theoretical—we see the impact daily.
Recently, one of our students with significant sensory issues was struggling with a math concept. His teacher guided him to create a model using materials that provided the specific sensory input he craved. The breakthrough was immediate: “I can FEEL how these fractions work now!” he exclaimed. His understanding deepened not despite but because of our ability to combine hands-on learning with digital instruction.
Parents sometimes worry that online learning means their child will be passively staring at a screen all day. Nothing could be further from the truth at Conduit. Our students are actively engaged—physically, mentally, and socially—in learning experiences that thoughtfully blend the best of digital and tangible worlds.
The future of education isn’t about choosing between traditional hands-on methods and new digital approaches. It’s about intelligently integrating both to create learning experiences that would be impossible with either approach alone.