The two sides of e-learning

The two sides of e-learning

Pro

By Eduardo Andrade, Editor-in-Chief

The 2020-2021 school year has gotten off to an unusual start. For the first time, students are in online school full-time. Though there are drawbacks, the district appears to be too eager to return.

“They are moving way too fast. It feels like they are almost using us as test subjects,” sophomore Ryan Gans said. “That isn’t what they are doing but that’s what it feels like.”

By a wide margin, the biggest advantage of online schools is the public health factor. e-learning is much safer and reduces the risk of coronavirus spreading among students and teachers by keeping them away from crowded classrooms. Many teachers and students, are ‘at risk,’ and the only way to truly protect them is by continuing virtual education.

“If students attended school physically, the number of cases could’ve soared,” said freshman Andrea Nguyen.

Another benefit to online class is the start time. Studies show teenagers desperately need more sleep. Even the 20 minute delay in class time has noticeably improvemed student’s sleeping habits. Plus the ability to work from home has simplified the morning routine of going to class and removed what can be a pretty big hassle for some students, who can travel upwards of 40 minutes to

“Students have more time to sleep because they aren’t spending it to commute between the campus and their homes,” Nguyen said.

Online class has also helped some stay organized. Since everything that’s due is online or in Canvas, it’s impossible to miss an assignment because it wasn’t written down.

The convenience factor of online school has also been a major plus. For many students working from home is just more comfortable. They can create their own ideal learning environment and thanks to the fact that students stay at home, nobody ever forgets to bring their homework to class. There are no lines for bathrooms or lunch, and no restrictions on what you can eat or order.

“It is very nice to be able to wake up, brush my teeth and hair, then get right into a Teams call from the comfort of my room,” said Gans.

Despite the downsides, online school has been the better option for many students.

“As much as I knew it would affect my ... grades and mental health, (online school) was the right choice,” said Gans.

GRAPHIC BY EDUARDO ANDRADE

Con

By Javier Garcia, Sports Editor

Even if something is necessary, there can still be flaws or areas of improvement present and e-learning is not exempt of this.

There are some problems not really in anyone’s control, for instance, a student’s internet is slow giving a bad or even incomplete learning experience, or a teacher who has been teaching in a classroom on a whiteboard for 15 years and is now trying to shift their whole curriculum while stumped by issues with apps like Canvas or Teams. Point is, there are issues prevalent to e-learning that take the whole “learning’ part out of it, again, to no one’s fault.

“There have been days where I end up just staring at my laptop screen almost the whole time, one class after another,” senior Kayce Briggs said.

The major takeaway when shifting to e-learning is the removal of the social aspect of school, which isn’t always just chatting up with friends but the friendly competitions to score higher on the next quiz, or a teacher giving you that push you needed, or just having people around you. These little interactions have been replaced with boxes with our classmates’ initials over them, just as the ambient noise of pencils writing and papers flipping were replaced with the white noise of silent chat rooms when the teacher is tired of being the only one talking.

Granted, some of these issues have been addressed. Originally, some classes could go the whole 113 minutes from beginning to end without leaving the screen, but that issue was quickly resolved when teachers were directed, after a meeting between administration and PBHS Voice, to give students substantial breaks during every class. And I understand that distance learning has been the best way to keep us all safe from COVID-19.

But there’s only so much school staff can do. I’m sure I am not the only student who has rolled their eyes at their computer, thinking, “Man, I want to go home right now,’ while sitting in your very own house. That is the soul-draining effect of E-learning.