This week in class we talked about Distributed Learning, which was quite interesting considering I have been experiencing distributed learning for about a year now. For my reflection, I will be sharing the list of the pros and cons of online learning that we discussed in class, as well as my one personal thoughts.
List from class:
Positives:
- You can all type at once
- No commute
- More homework and personal time
- Wearing pajamas and doing class in bed
- Not taking the bus.
- You can multi-task a lot more things on the go
- Lectures can be recorded a lot easier, discussions are saved
- Notes are accessible online
- Ability to multitask during class.
- Less gas money
- More sleep
- Don’t have to worry about forgetting things at home
- We get to meet people’s pets!
- Closed captioning on zoom calls
- Being able to have people’s names and pronouns right there in case you forget
Negatives:
- Tired bodies and eyes from too much screen time
- Lack of ability to study with/connect with classmates
- When the internet is down, no accessibility to class
- Hurts looking at a screen all-day
- I feel like I am way less active and do not get the fresh air I need
- More home distractions
- Hard to do homework after already sitting at the desk all-day
- Tech can really be a pain and not always work when you need it/want it too
- Get tired easily
- Back pain
- No resources for more hands-on classes (music, art, physical ed, tech, drama)
- Headaches (from the screen)
- Difficult to connect with profs
Online school definitely comes with some advantages and some challenges. When it comes to my opinion about online school, I find it really hard to disassociate my feelings about online school and my feelings about the COVID-19 pandemic. Personally, I am an outgoing and sociable person that cherishes the space for connection that can only be provided by in-person learning. I consider myself to be very lucky to be a part of a cohort with all the same classes as my peers. By seeing familiar faces every day, I have gotten the chance to create relationships and feel comfortable speaking up in classes. This is not always the case. I have a lot of friends from different faculties and different Universities who have had not as good experiences. I would say that for most, online school is uncomfortable, boring, and frustrating.
In all, I think that there is definitely a time and place for online learning. Post-pandemic, I think that this year will be seen as a time for adapting and growing. Though I would have never planned to have such an extensive online learning experience, it forced me to further my understanding of online learning and how I can use technology to enhance the learning experiences of my students in the future.