Covid has impacted the lives of many people in numerous ways, with limited interactions being a large factor. Schools have all shifted virtually for the safety of the students, which significantly changes the lives of the students. Virtual school has many advantages and drawbacks that I will detail.
1. Virtual Assignments Assignments are now all submitted digitally, which is a major change of pace. Typing is much less strenuous than writing everything from hand and tends to be much faster. Not having to worry about getting paper, pens, and pencil ready is a huge relief. Time limits are now on all assignments so it is easy to know when everything is due. For many of the assignments, they also allow you to still do it on paper. You just need to take a picture of it and convert it to a pdf. This is very helpful for assignments where it would be more convenient to write on paper, such as math. 2. Travel Time is Nonexistent Going to school virtually is a breeze compared to physically going. You save all the driving time and don’t have to rush to go to your homeroom on time. Virtual homeroom involves just simply logging into zoom before a set period of time. You also avoid the commotion of hurrying to your other classes as they also follow the same format. Going back home is extremely easy since you are already there. I was able to get more sleep since I just had to wake up a few minutes before class started rather than an one hour earlier. 3. Less Interactions Most people are not as enthusiastic to participate online since they can not interact with other people. Some people don’t really know their classmates so they also do not participate as much. It is much harder to learn more about your classmates in the digital landscape but that does not mean it is impossible. Participating more can help your classmates know you better as a person. Some teachers separate students into breakout rooms, which are just smaller meeting rooms where you are put with a couple of students. The goal of breakout rooms is for the people to work together to complete an assignment. People are not always as cooperative and usually just turn off their cameras and do the assignment another time. It can be frustrating when people do not participate, but that only happens in some circumstances. 4. Easy Access to the Internet Many instances in physical class I would feel as if the word was on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn't figure it out. This problem is alleviated in virtual class as the internet is easily at your fingertips. If you have a difficult question, you can easily search online to find the answer. You can look up many confusing definitions or subjects and find thousands of websites that can help explain a topic better.
5. Limited form of Teaching One of the most glaring problems of online learning is that teaching is not as effective. Many teachers struggle to effectively teach their assignments to their students virtually, forcing the students to learn on their own merits. Self teaching is practically required for the harder classes, which is made more difficult as those classes have harder to grasp subjects. Though there are many ways to learn by yourself, it is definitely not the same as a teacher teaching the subject. Distractions also are present, which can make it hard to genuinely focus at times. Many people feel as if their education is being limited and that it is up to them to fill in the gap caused by virtual.
Many new changes occurred because of the virtual environment. My life as a high school student has largely changed because of covid.