Sitting in my room, I behold a sight I never expected to see: perpetual suffering. Virtual learning is an unexpected window into what isolation looks like up close. I can see students limp with boredom. I can see teachers resisting the urge to scream at their uncooperative computers. I can see my hand, burning with the eternal desire to turn off my camera so I can fall half asleep. Everything is a mess, and everybody is losing. Teachers are bearing the burden of confusion, and students are bearing the burden of self discipline.
COVID-19 left nothing but destruction in its wake. When you enter a classroom, it is nothing but a discombobulated mess. In one class, homework is as simple as filling out a google form in your email rather than classroom. In another, everything has to be written on paper, scanned, and then pasted into a google doc. Dealing with this "diversity" is not the hardest thing in the world. However, it does give a particular insight into how lost some teachers are. It is evident that many never expected to be hurdled from their traditional paper and pen class into a foreign digital landscape devoid of even the slightest sliver of familiarity. From the nuances of due dates and times, to which tab assignments are under, it is clear that no one is helping these teachers, neither faculty nor students. Some teachers post assignments as announcements, while others hand out tests as PDF files. For those of you who don't know, you can't edit PDF files without making a copy in an external application. Some problems aren't even caused by lack of knowledge on the teachers' parts. I have personally seen google meetings glitch out many times, muting the teacher and removing their presentations. A good five minutes is then spent in silence, as the poor teacher embarrasses themselves with their hyper realistic miming skills. Classes that are usually hands on also seem to be struggling, as they've deformed into a hollow shell of what they used to be due to the virtual landscape. You can hardly call it robotics when there are no robots.
Speaking from my own experiences, paying attention in class is much harder virtually. As students are in their homes, entertainment, food, and every other distraction sits just around the corner. Even worse, it takes a single press of a button to get away with anything. The very idea is, in itself, demoralizing. This demoralization leads to some amount of a slump which would not have been present otherwise. The luxury of on topic distractions are also lacking. For example, when documents or slides have pages listed in the hundreds, students are left to their thoughts and misery as it slothfully loads.
In these first few weeks of dedicated virtual learning, some have thrived, others have fallen. Overall, everything is a mess.
- Andrew Reza
COVID-19 left nothing but destruction in its wake. When you enter a classroom, it is nothing but a discombobulated mess. In one class, homework is as simple as filling out a google form in your email rather than classroom. In another, everything has to be written on paper, scanned, and then pasted into a google doc. Dealing with this "diversity" is not the hardest thing in the world. However, it does give a particular insight into how lost some teachers are. It is evident that many never expected to be hurdled from their traditional paper and pen class into a foreign digital landscape devoid of even the slightest sliver of familiarity. From the nuances of due dates and times, to which tab assignments are under, it is clear that no one is helping these teachers, neither faculty nor students. Some teachers post assignments as announcements, while others hand out tests as PDF files. For those of you who don't know, you can't edit PDF files without making a copy in an external application. Some problems aren't even caused by lack of knowledge on the teachers' parts. I have personally seen google meetings glitch out many times, muting the teacher and removing their presentations. A good five minutes is then spent in silence, as the poor teacher embarrasses themselves with their hyper realistic miming skills. Classes that are usually hands on also seem to be struggling, as they've deformed into a hollow shell of what they used to be due to the virtual landscape. You can hardly call it robotics when there are no robots.
Speaking from my own experiences, paying attention in class is much harder virtually. As students are in their homes, entertainment, food, and every other distraction sits just around the corner. Even worse, it takes a single press of a button to get away with anything. The very idea is, in itself, demoralizing. This demoralization leads to some amount of a slump which would not have been present otherwise. The luxury of on topic distractions are also lacking. For example, when documents or slides have pages listed in the hundreds, students are left to their thoughts and misery as it slothfully loads.
In these first few weeks of dedicated virtual learning, some have thrived, others have fallen. Overall, everything is a mess.
- Andrew Reza
I agree; it's so much easier to get distracted now that we're at home left to our own devices. I really enjoy reading your writing - you have a very unique writing "voice." Looking forward to reading what you write next! :)
ReplyDeleteI like the humor you used in your piece and in your title!
ReplyDeleteI agree that students have suddenly been thrust into a system of education in which they hold the most responsibility, and must discipline themselves in order to succeed. And the dread students experience from even just being in the meeting is quite relatable.
ReplyDeleteSo mean Andrew! I'm clutching my chest in disbelief. Lol. I really liked your voice in this piece, keep up the great work :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the idea that everything is a mess for both students and teachers. I also enjoyed your opening paragraph as it really set a good idea of what the rest of the post would be like to read.
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