How Students Are Entering A Completely New Hemisphere of Education By Thomas Schottland

 

            

It certainly is a strange back to school time for students across the nation. Due to the current state of the Covid-19 Pandemic, many schools have been forced to go fully virtual in terms of education. This is definitely new ground for many teachers and learners to navigate in order to provide the same quality schooling that one would receive in-person. However, there are many variables that pose as obstacles for virtual learning. One of those being internet access and quality. Oh, if only I had a dollar for every time I've been disconnected from my online class or had any sort of technical difficulties such as loss of audio or the presentation view, I would be a millionaire! Another issue is the scheduling! Though it is not universal across the U.S., here in Sparta, we only have 4 classes a day, each for roughly an hour. This was made to reduce screen time, though it makes learning a little more difficult as we are only able to see each of our teachers 2-3 days a week. This can cause students to get behind on work and have issues sticking with the material. Let alone the fact that students are forced to eat lunch at 10:15 when most usually have Breakfast at 7:30 am. The break time is certainly not enough as many students have been complaining of eye pain due to staring at the screen nonstop. Finally, we see some classes (certainly electives) such as Art having to completely overthrow material to fit the virtual setting. Hands-on activities essential to learning have been tossed in the trash. In all, we have not yet seen the impacts of virtual learning on student's education, but there will have been some negative effects, and maybe a few positives, but for the majority of those who want to go back to in-person schooling, we just need to cross our fingers and put on those masks and do our part to get back to normal...if there is one anymore:)