Classroom over Online Learning

The global pandemic has prevented school from reopening, forcing students to convert to online school. This conversion came with many problems and concerns including the way online learning stacks up against in-person learning. There needs to be cooperation between teachers and students for learning to be achieved. However, this cooperation is completely absent with distance learning. 

Zoom classes have allowed opportunities for students to be completely disengaged from learning. For example, students can turn off their camera and microphone, and do something with no relevance to the class. With their cameras off, there is no way to know if students are paying attention in class or playing video games. In a traditional classroom setting, teachers can easily call on students and have them participate in class. Due to the leniency of online learning, a student can stay silent and not actively participate. 

Students have different learning styles that online schooling cannot always accommodate. A kinesthetic learner is someone who prefers hands-on learning and wants to be actively solving the problem rather than watch others solve it. With online learning, the only way a teacher can instruct the class is through auditory and visual methods, leaving the kinesthetic learners at a disadvantage. If kinesthetic learners are left out and unable to learn a lesson in their preferred style, then there could be long-term harm, especially if it is a foundational lesson.

Teachers are still learning how to fully adapt their lessons to meet the online guidelines. Group work has been an important part of how teachers taught in a physical setting. Creating a sense of community through face-to-face interaction, helps increase attentiveness in class. However, when learning digitally, relying on group work to build teamwork and help students learn becomes more difficult, as face-to-face interaction is not required. This limitation means that lessons often taught through group work will be much less effective.

On the surface, it may seem impossible for online school to produce the same feeling as being in a classroom. There are still current format flaws of online learning such as group work, hands-on learning and face-to-face interaction. For online school to resemble in-person learning, websites and apps that encourage group activities, like Flipgrid and Discord, can be used. These apps can help imitate being in a classroom, making distance learning more successful.  

There needs to be a compromise between teachers and students for online school to feel like what it once was. Online learning is lacking because this cooperation is absent. A cooperation on the teachers half would show the students that they are trying, giving the will for the students to try as well.