School has changed a lot since the pandemic started, one of the biggest changes being remote learning. About a month ago, a New York Times Journalist by the name of Nicole Daniels asked about 400 high schoolers how they felt towards remote learning. Many said they missed their friends and the ambiance they would have while at school. Some said they felt that they were being robbed from a good and traditional education. The surprise was when some students said they loved it, they said they liked being free from "the stressful environment of school" and being able to work at their own pace and set their own school schedule. Some students even said that they would like for some of the remote learning strategies integrated into their everyday school life. When thinking about whether or not this is a good idea there's lots of things you have to think about. What would that mean for the typical 8:oo am- 3:00 pm school schedule? Would there be days where school is fully online and students don't have to come to school? These are some of the questions students were asked too, their answers were very different from what was expected. Some students said that they would be okay with adding more time into the school day while others said the 8 hours they have to spend at school was already too much time to begin with and that adding time would be worse for the students. For reference, college-bound high school were asked in December if they were open to taking even some of their classes online, fewer than a quarter said they would be open to the idea. The same students were asked late March after a few weeks of remote learning, if they would be open to having some online classes while starting college, about 50% of the students who had said no said that they would be open to the idea. There are mixed emotions about whether it's a good idea is up to debate but the question still stands, should schools change the way they operate once we go back to school?
1) What are some benefits from remote learning? What are the repercussions of remote learning?
2) Do you think that grade level should play a part on how remote learning is used?
3) Do you think that once we are back to a normal school schedule we should still enforce some of what we use during remote learning?
Source:
When the Pandemic Ends, Will School Change Forever? - The New York Times
There are only a small number of benefits of remote learning, including slightly more slack deadlines. The repercussions of it are much heavier; there is a small amount of time where students have access to a teacher, who can help explain material. Another problem is the lack of social contact, and how that will affect group-work later on in the years.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be honest, I am a bit bias in this case because I am so tired of working from home and all the distractions that I have do deal with. I do not want to continue distance learning, I don't enjoy it. I do think that we should be more prepared if it becomes a necessity again, but we should be able to go back to school. It will be different at school, at least for the 2020-21 school year, but we should go back to school in some capacity.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, there are very little benefits of online learning as students are less likely to concentrate on the work at hand. A regular school day might seem taxing but when given time to work in a quiet environment as well as social time with friends, it creates a perfect balance otherwise unachievable. No one wants to continue distance learning but that is the time that we are in right now. I believe that there is a solution to this issue as we could have more block period classes in order to limit the amount of social interaction through hallways. If worse comes to worse, then we have four block days and one day of distance learning. That way, students are able to interact with people and get the quiet study environment they need with the reduction of social interaction.
ReplyDeleteThere are very few benefits to remote learning. While it does allow students to finish work faster and move onto exploring things that interest them, after a few weeks students begin to experience fatigue and burnout. The repetetive monotony of each day catches up to students. Additionally, while traditional 50 minute periods mean that students have to dedicate similar amounts of focus to each class, at least in the moment, remote learning allows students to skip or neglect classes. Students may only study what they need or just prepare for exams that are more important than their letter grades, especially if they already have high marks in their classes. Remote learning makes learning new things far harder, especially in STEM classes. Learning from videos or slides with a voiceover isn't enough in challenging classes, and as students progress and take higher level courses remote learning shows its unsustainibility.
ReplyDeleteI think that distance learning has certain benefits, such as being able to work on a more open ended schedule and similarly be able to personally decide routines on a day to day basis. However, this form of learning lacks the in person experience and deprives students of the opportunity to collaborate more/work together, and be able to discuss ideas and topics in class together with teachers. It is also true that being at home with less pressure and guidance can cause a kind of "checking out" mentality for many, meaning that there is less and less motivation to continue dedicating time towards and investing in doing work for school. These factors are major problems with distance learning, as while it does allow for a degree of increased freedom, it also can also bring these issues regarding the change. For certain classes as well such as science courses which have lab portions included, it presents a new challenge, and knocks the ability of students to be able to perform labs and activities in person and hands on (a critical portion of learning). Overall, I am really tired of being at home, not seeing friends, and learning alone, but do acknowledge that unless the situation improves more across the U.S. and the world, that it is crucial that we maintain safety regulations and try prevent a premature re-entry into the school environment, or at the least hopefully plan out the best way to come back safely and sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's true that remote learning gives students the opportunity to have a higher amount of flexibility in planning and scheduling their days, it has gotten very repetitive. During the first week or two, I liked that I could work at my own pace, but it got very boring to just do all of my school assignments on the computer. I started to miss the various interactions I had at school that kept things interesting, and if I procrastinated too much on assignments throughout the day, my schoolwork could end up taking the entire day to finish. I feel like it is much harder to learn new material without a school environment and it is difficult to stay motivated. I think that we should only continue remote learning for as long as we have to, and I don't see any benefit in keeping any aspects of remote learning when we don't have to.
ReplyDeleteI believe remote/online learning can be incredibly beneficial for certain students, such as those with great self-motivation, self-discipline, maturity, and time-management skills. However, since a majority of students struggle with these skills and have tendencies to procrastinate, remote learning has many more downsides than benefits. Many students who are able to teach themselves through online material likely already did online schooling before the shutdowns, or at least have considered it before. Thus, I personally believe remote/online learning should remain as it always was - an option for those who are able to do it.
ReplyDeleteRemote learning usually differs in how effective it is according to each student and the way they learn. Some students thrive when they are given more loose deadlines, because they have the time-management skills and self-motivation to complete their assignments with full effort. However, there are other students that are not as adept in these skills, and aren't able to concentrate or find the motivation to complete their work. There are people that work better in classroom environments, and there are also other aspects about school such as clubs and sports that people enjoy. We should not enforce any distance learning regulations because there are disadvantages for many people, but it should be a viable option for those who work best by themselves.
ReplyDeleteSome benefits of remote learning include learning at your own pace and flexible schedules. Because there rarely are set times or mandatory classes, students have more leisure time to do whatever they want. Additionally, remote learning emulates how college scheduling would look like, letting students gain an insight into life after high school. However, some repercussions may include a lack of hands-on activities, in-person teaching, or missing out with friends and sports.
ReplyDeleteRemote learning has some benefits, including less stress and being able to structure your time however it is best for you. However, I feel like it is nearly impossible to learn as well remotely as you can in an in-person, interactive classroom environment. Between the social interactions with the students, as well as with the teacher, you can't really get either of these at home. Therefore, I feel as though it is important that we continue in-person learning when it is again possible, as this is where the best learning can truly occur.
ReplyDeleteI think that remote learning has more repercussions than benefits. Although students can go at their own pace, it is much harder to stay focused when you are not in a classroom. It makes it harder to contact your teachers and it limits social interaction with classmates, which could affect the students in the long run. Also, lots of students have no motivation to do their schoolwork and procrastinate a lot more when they aren't at school.
ReplyDeleteI am in agreement with many of these comments under this article that say that remote learning has more repercussions than benefits. I believe that a class well taught bring the same benefits as remote learning described above. I would like to offer another perspective as my mother is also a teacher, she is always very busy working on slide decks and recording everything. She is constantly saying how this is a very stressful process for her and that she much prefers in class learning. I believe that given these two things, when given the opportunity school should return. That being said, I do enjoy aspects of some classes that are being transferred over to other classes. For example, the online calendars that are always in this class and a few others are very helpful and I hope that aspect stays in every class after things return to normal.
ReplyDeleteSome benefits of remote learning is that you can schedule your own work times so that they suit you better. For example, I like to work more in afternoons since I'm not much of a morning person. I also do get more sleep now that I don't have to wake up early. Some repercussions is there's no physical interactions with other people. You can't do some stuff that you would traditionally do in a regular classroom. I do think the grade level could play a part but it's really difficult to say since there won't be true tests since people can cheat so easily on them. I think we can definitely enforce some stuff from remote learning since it is less stressful.
ReplyDeleteSome of the benefits from remote learning is going at the pace in which you would like. One of the nicest things about remote learning for me is being able to sleep in. However, I don't think it's fair to use grade level for remote learning because it isn't the same as face to face classes. However, students do have difficulty focusing and having motivation to complete schoolwork with remote learning.
ReplyDeleteI personally agree that being able to work at my own pace during remote learning is nice, especially since I'm a night owl. However, it does not outweigh the disadvantages of remote learning. As humans, we are known to be social creatures that requires interactions. Remote learning does not provide the necessary physical interactions, consequentially hindering our learning. Although online calls are helpful, learning in class is undeniably much easier to ask questions and discuss topics with peers. Thus, I don't think we should implement how remote learning is used regarding the online aspect. However, I would want school hours to consider starting later as an attempt to let students work at their own pace and sleep in.
ReplyDeleteI think that the benefits of remote learning are many, but that going back to school is a necessity. In school, interpersonal interactions are a key part of learning. While I believe that almost all of schooling could be done online, that key part is something that is very difficult to achieve.
ReplyDeleteI think that remote learning does have its benefits but it can't replace learning in the classroom. The teachers can only do so much online while in class they are able to do more things like interacting with them. Students aren't getting that much out of online learning as most of it is just reading and answering questions.
ReplyDeleteI think some benifits to remote learning is that you can wake up whenever you want and you will not be so tired when you go to do your school work. However remote learning still has its downs and it is nothing like physically going to school.
ReplyDeleteThe benefits to remote learning is that students have a choice in when they complete assignments and people can work at their own pace. The repercussions are that some people can just completely ignore the classwork and other students learn better if they're in an in-class setting. It is also a lot harder to collaborate with other students when it comes to classwork/projects.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are some benefits to remote learning, with deadlines being more slack and students being given more freedom in their schedules, it is ultimately worse than learning at school due to the lack of a learning environment, lack of contact with teachers, poor implementation of school assignments to a remote setting, and difficulty that arises with some students not having the technology that is required for a smooth remote learning experience.
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