By Nola Minogue
Education. For the past century, the American public’s perception of what school is has largely remained the same- a group of students in a classroom learning from a teacher. In the 2000’s, school in the United States did take a turn with new inventions and ideas; high school students now use personal computers as a necessity for their lessons, SmartBoards and projectors became installed in many classrooms, and the creation of websites like Moodle and Aspen have made assigning work and posting grades for it as easy and convenient as it can be.
Yet now in 2020, education has once again taken a turn.
No longer are the days of the standard classroom- everything is online and can be accessed from home. 133 BHS students were recently surveyed on their views on online learning, and what their lives have become like since school shut down on March 13th.
The survey focused on the schedules of weekdays, when school work would be assigned to students. Teachers primarily assign work Sunday night or Monday morning, to be due on Friday, although according to multiple students surveyed, this is not always the case. “I’d just ask them to assign everything at the beginning of the week,” commented one student, “so I can plan my work schedule around that.”
When it comes to sleep, the typical 8 hour standard has largely been thrown out the window. 32.5% of the students surveyed now fall asleep past 1am; however, 63.8% of students do wake up before 10am, most likely to log onto a Google Meet class, or go to work. Nearly a quarter of students are still working at a job during this time, and have to balance school with those commitments. Students also reported on how many hours they’ve been receiving of school work per day: 10.5% said 1, 27.8% said 2, 32.3% said 3, 18.8% said 4, 6% said 5, and 4.5% said they receive 6 or more hours of work combined from their teachers per day. The students who reported high numbers of work received were overwhelmingly sophomores and juniors, with freshmen and seniors seeming to receive lesser amounts.
BHS teachers utilize 10 different platforms to assign work, including Moodle, Khan Academy, and Google Classroom. But is all this extra work working? The Ledger’s survey asked students of what they believe is the best part of online learning, the worst part, and how they feel now compared to when quarantine was still “fresh”. For the best part, being able to work at your own pace and control your own schedule were by far the most prominent answers students wrote in.
When it came to the worst part of online learning, 22 more students responded to the question than that of the best part. “It’s hard to get help right away if I am struggling to complete an assignment,” said one sophomore. “Assignments are difficult to find. I am not an individual learner, I learn better collaboratively…” commented a junior, “I receive almost double the amount of work now compared to when we were in school.”
Many students were also just frustrated with what the world was coming to. “We’ve been in quarantine longer than Brock Turner served time in prison for raping a woman,” remarked one student, while another simply put “Corona sucks”, perhaps capturing the mood for all the responses.
Quotes:
“I feel rundown and wish it would end.”
“I wish I could go out places and see my friends without social distancing, but I feel like I have sort of adjusted to a routine.”
“Every teacher doesn’t realize that you’re getting work from other teachers”
“We can work at our own pace… it’s harder to learn”
“It feels more normal, but it’s also harder”
“It’s hard to get help right away if I am struggling to complete an assignment, it is also very easy to procrastinate.”
“When quarantine began I thought that it was just gonna be relaxing online schooling but now I feel like it is a completely new normal environment.”
“Nothing is really a surprise anymore”
“[I’m] still emotionally unstable
“Tired of being locked in”
“It’s funny how you wake up each day and never really know if it’ll be one that will change your life forever.”
“I was a lot more emotional and stressed out about grades but now I don’t really care that much about it. I absolutely despised staying in my home with no break from my family at first but now I know that I just have to live with it for now because there isn’t anything I can do about it.”
“Bad WiFi ruins it”
“I’m still kind of bored but I’m definitely in a routine now.”
“My teachers have been assigning a lot more than they used when it was “fresh” because they are trying to get in as many topics in before the end of the year.”
“Teachers use varying platforms; assignments are difficult to find. I am not an individual learner, I learn better collaboratively… I receive almost double the amount of work now compared to when we were in school.”
“Doing school work at home is very unhealthy because it blurs the line between home and school and brings some of the stress of school home.”
“My eyes hurt from staring at my computer all day and there is no social interaction.”
“I now feel tired, frustrated, and disappointed. I want to hang out with friends and be able to go places. When this all started, it was a bit of an exciting novelty because I knew history was being made. I thought we’d go back to school and seniors would still get to have their activities. But apparently, March 12th was the real last day of school, and that sucks.”
“The assignments I am receiving are not appropriate for a primary method of learning without a classroom setting and resources”
“If socializing is what students are missing during this pandemic, wouldn’t it make more sense to assign collaborative learning projects instead of busywork?”
“I learned not to take your life for granted.”
“Impossible to learn new material well”
“You’re completely on your own.”
