Due to the global pandemic caused by the virus CoVID-19, schools everywhere have resorted to a digital way of teaching and learning. This may seem like a better alternative than the physical encounters students and teachers had before, but online learning has produced a number of problems for both learners and educators alike. In this article, I will provide some main problems that us students ourselves are facing.
Technological Problems: For one, a common misconception is that our generation is better with technology and therefore have the learning easier. This is not true. Not only does being surrounded by technology provide many distractions, but we have problems with the gadgets and devices that we cannot control as well — lagging, Wi-Fi problems, unusable microphones and cameras are only a few examples. These things, at times, cannot easily be fixed, and yet, some teachers cannot seem to understand that. This leads to us being put on the receiving end of the backlash caused by what we cannot even control.
Slow Learnings: In addition, many teachers believe that online learning is easier for students, and therefore teach on the same pace that they do on physical learning. In reality, it’s not, but they still keep doing it. We thank the teachers who slow down for all of us students who cannot learn quickly because of the distanced learning; they really are a blessing to us. For the majority of us, the studies being taught are made more difficult by not having physical contacts with out educators; actually, a lot of us have lost that personal connection with them because of the technological barriers. Our experience with technology does not dictate our speed in understanding lessons, and that’s what we need more people, teachers and parents alike, to understand.
Time Management Gone: Another challenge we face is our time management. Believe it or not, a lot of teachers at school give a lot of work on a daily basis. And we mean, a lot of work. What does this mean for us students? It’s simple: we do not have time for our personal doings. Actually, scratch that, it’s complex: the total amount of work we have by the end of the day is so high, making it so that we don’t have time for ourselves anymore. They give us activities and assignments like they’re not taking into consideration that we have families to spend time with, friends to speak with, ourselves to deal with. It’s not fair; on our side, we have loads of work — and we understand that on the teaching side, they have a lot of work as well. So a solution is: why not lessen the load for everyone, learners and educators alike? Wouldn’t that be better? We would be able to focus more on revising the lessons until we understand them fully, and they could create new lesson plans to make it more interactive or something like that. It would surely do so much for everyone concerned, and it is only not implemented because the system is so obsessed with the fact that these assignments and off-hour projects are what push our minds to the greatest. No, instead, they are what push our energies, our souls to the limit.
Solutions: What can we do to fix these problems? Well, all we ask is for the adults, especially the teachers, to understand us. The higher-ups need to consider (and possibly even communicate and connect) with what the students are facing. Because while we see that even teachers are being thrown loads and loads of work, we ask everyone to not be blinded by them and see what we have to face daily as well. Should we be able to fix this in the near future is up to them now. But we all so hope: challenges today shall turn into ease and patience tomorrow.
Jon Zaccary C. Regala, Grade 10 of Far Eastern Private School
