As coronavirus has thrust society into new norms, students and teachers alike are learning — and adjusting — to a whole new world of online learning.
“Online learning has proven to be sufficient for the time being, and I am continuing to learn material over Zoom without much difficulty,” junior Abhi Arkere said. “It’s better than nothing, but traditional teaching was much better for me because it allowed me to soak up more information and be more interested in subjects.”
Arkere has been taking classes over Zoom, which is a video communication platform that has seen exponential usage over the last few months. For him, classes take place about twice a week, although some classes still have optional five day meetings.
“It has allowed me to remain focused and retain information, but there’s a lack of engagement and interaction, which has led to a decrease in interest and motivation to gain knowledge about the particular subject,” Arkere said. “I also find myself easily distracted during meetings and find them to be very slow, since loading up web pages or sharing screens can take time. I don’t think online school can replace the benefits traditional schooling has to offer.”
For sophomore Valeria Macri, the social and collaborative environment that in-person school offers can’t really be replicated over video call. She said her classes have been taught using Google Meets, another video-conferencing platform hosted through Google.
Macri said that for the fine arts and sports, the online classroom has been particularly tough, since people can only train and practice individually.
“In general, it’s almost impossible [to practice] for tennis because you can’t really get together, and so people have to be self-driven to continue with their workouts,” Macri said. “But for orchestra, you can’t really rehearse over video, so that’s an impossible task.”
Missing out on meeting with friends and classmates has also been difficult, Macri said.
“Honestly, I miss even walking down the hall and seeing people,” Macri said. “You miss a lot of the social aspect of school online and lose a lot of that peer connection and emotional support you get from your friends.”
Another big issue though, Macri said, was engagement and the content of classes taught over these video platforms.
“I honestly couldn’t really care about the medium, because the medium doesn’t really affect the content. It’s just what they’re doing in that review time,” Macri said. “But I know a lot of times on these calls, students have their cameras off and their microphones off. I feel like to have all of us really engaged in these video calls, it has to be really worthwhile and mean something.”
But despite the differences in online and in-person learning, students and teachers alike are trying their best to adapt to this new normal.
“We’re still turning in assignments, just through different ways,” Arkere said. “It is slightly more difficult than the traditional method, as it involves taking pictures of work and emailing it to yourself, but it has not bothered me.”
Quizzes and various other assessments are now being assigned through Schoology or AP Classroom, which are online platforms for classes to use to grade assignments. Overall, Macri said that classes have transitioned over relatively seamlessly.
“I think the reason online school worked alright this year was because the year was already three fourths of the way through,” Macri said. “But I can’t imagine having to learn a full course like an AP bio or any new class.”
