Published by Raymond Alvin on 11/12/20
Due to Covid-19, school has been moved online. Ever since then, the quality of education seems to have gone downhill. At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, when everything suddenly moved online, many of my teachers were not very prepared for the transition. We did not even meet in most classes and just had worksheets to complete. In these classes, we had to learn the information on our own and figure out how to do all of the schoolwork. For some people, this works out just fine. I did not have too much trouble figuring out what to do and learn. However, I did feel tempted to learn only what is necessary to complete these assignments and to disregard the things that I didn’t have to know to complete them, especially because many teachers did not give out any tests either. This is why distance learning does not work for everyone. Students who are motivated to learn and to maintain good grades will stay on top of their work and make sure to get everything done. Many students who do not care as much about their grades still get things done at school because their teachers constantly remind them of work that needs to be done and are easily able to help these students. However, with distance learning, these students do not get these reminders. Teachers usually only communicate with students over zoom and are unable to easily talk to individual students about their specific situation. Additionally, distance learning works much better with older students. I have no idea how students in kindergarten and lower elementary school grades are dealing with all the technology needed for zoom meetings and online submissions, especially while many of their parents are busy with their own work. However, things have certainly improved this school year. Teachers had time to get organized and plan their classes over summer. Now, we have daily zoom meetings and tests but distance learning is still certainly not as personalized as normal school.
