Online classes
Online classes are like something is better than nothing in the present scenario. But, to be honest, online classes are super tiresome for me. Why? It’s just plain boring. Learning is fun when you interact with a group of people in person. It also helps you to notice where you lack behind amongst the group and they are there to help you by their motivative presence in the class. I sometimes get frustrated due to the lack of human contact, the absence of a teacher’s physical presence and an inability to discuss it with my classmates. It’s so difficult to just sit at home after having lunch and take online classes. You get what I mean, right? No one will notice if I take a nap by turning off the camera on the phone. Maybe, I may not respond to the teacher calling my name but he/she wouldn’t come to my place to scold me or punish me. Right? But whose loss will it be? It’s none other than myself. I mean, we all lose the thrill to learn and focus on what the teacher is teaching and yes, to pass the test, we have our books at home to cheat and no one cannot prevent me from cheating and this leads to us being off the trail from our pursuits.
Some points to consider:
1. Poverty restraint from learning.
Nobody knows or can tell what my family goes through in times of pandemic to feed ourselves our daily meals. Have we ever thought of why did schools and colleges start to set up classes online? We all look up in a positive way and said it’s for the students to learn our respective courses. In reality, it’s because teachers and all the staff lookup for the necessity i.e., money to provide their family with food and other essentials. And, there is a need to discuss the harsh realities of the student that is living below the poverty line, what about the student who came to schools in such bad conditions that they solely depend on the meal provided by the schools. Imagine, the people living in the streets who go to school with an improper school uniform to learn at least the basic, continuation of the online classes are doomed for them until and unless equipment and necessary items are given to them. Can their families afford a smartphone to take online classes?
2. Technical difficulties
When the power is off and your Internet connectivity fails, I have no options to not cancel my class because my mobile phone battery is too low and I have no Internet. It annoys me most when I am not able to hear a word because of the connectivity issues. Sometimes our mobiles wouldn’t cooperate and started hanging every minute and the next is hearing loss from headphones. How do I tolerate all these problems every day and take an online class and focus on what I should learn?
Conclusion
Visual learning may be an option in this unprecedented situation. Yes, it is beneficial for 1 or 2-hour short term learning courses, but not for a full-fledged academic curriculum. It is useful to some extent but it is not successful.
