Covid-19 and the online classroom experience
By Eder Leonel Torres.
We live in uncertain times. Covid-19 is to stay with us for a long time if not forever but people tend to have different views about the pandemic and the changes that come with it. Receiving online classes is one of those changes, some have welcomed the experience positively while others may struggle with it. Experiences could go from having poor internet connection to having to take care of children while attending an online lecture. Each student may have something to share with this “new normal”. However, the point of this article is to highlight important differences between online and classroom learning. Although for some students online learning can be grateful since no traveling is required and, in some cases, hiding behind the screen to do anything one wants while the class takes places can feel delightful. No more social anxiety at school for those that may experience it.
Online learning tends to not provide an environment of inclusiveness and friendship since students do not get to see or interact with classmates in real life, socialization is not required. It also reflects isolation in a world where social interactions are being framed by a global pandemic. On the other side, the classroom provides a healthy atmosphere for physical and intellectual interaction. Being in the classroom disengages students from the world of media and internet. Often you hear professors say words like, “all right folks cellphones off” and even if this was not the case, professors usually find it disturbing to find a student checking their cell phone while the class goes on, unless it is class related. The classroom environment incites the student’s imagination without any technological or media interference. In fact, imagination is stimulated by interacting with real life experiences. The online learning system is a unique experience in human history as we know it. Through human history, students had experienced different learning methods from the philosophical school of Plato located on a property “that included a grove of olive trees”. We also find in Africa children receiving lectures under trees. However, we don’t know a period in history where teaching was not associated with classroom interaction. Apart from a school system delivered through mail that started in the 19th century.
We find ourselves in a unique time, masses of students receiving classes online. However, human innovations have not come without their negative consequences. When the industrial revolution was in its infancy many poets and intellectuals at the time expressed their discontent to the new system. They argued that industry was going to destroy the environment and create a new mechanism of social control. The industrial revolution changed the course of humanity, it altered human interactions and created new social classes and systems of governments. 260 years after the industrial revolution we find ourselves in another scientific revolution, the rise of artificial intelligence, technological devices, as well having to live with a global pandemic. The future appears uncertain, we cannot predict with certainty how these new changes in health and technology are going to impact the future to come.