My Thoughts on Online Learning

Believe it or not, students across the world made the switch to mostly or all-virtual classes almost one whole year ago.  I can’t even fathom the idea that all the craziness going on now has been going on for an entire year.  While I can’t say with confidence that I like online learning, I think I’ve gotten a lot more used to it by now.  As students, we’ve adjusted to the online classes and the Zoom calls because we had to.  

I think virtual learning has its pros and cons, just like anything else.  An obvious bad thing is that it isn’t the same experience as being physically in a classroom.  It’s easier to get distracted by our phones an interrupted by poor wi-fi connections.  But on the bright side, you don’t have to get out of bed for an 8am! 

I think fieldwork has been the biggest challenge I’ve faced since starting virtual learning.  It’s hard enough to get children engaged when you’re in a classroom with them.  It’s even harder to get them to log onto the class during online school.  Even then, they get distracted easily, wi-fi interrupts the lesson every few minutes, and classroom management goes out the window.  It’s interesting to figure out new and fun lesson plans during this time, but it’s also hard to keep kids on track when it comes to virtual lesson planning.