Last week I sent an open call to my students for future blog post topics.
First I wrote about how the verbs of being both a teacher and a student have changed and, because of a shift in verbs, we needed a shift in schedule.
Then I wrote about growing into a new mindset that shifts the self-label from “victim” to “hero.”
Today, I honor this student’s contribution:
“A blog idea could be about how a face to face and school environment is more beneficial than virtual classes (or other way around)…”
I don’t think anyone has enough comprehensive data to determine how “beneficial” each environment is for students and teachers (besides the fact that “beneficial” is such a broad, subjective term in this context)… yet. I imagine this data will start to surface the further we get into this grand experiment.
Because I can only speak for myself, I’ll say this: I feel like I’m getting closer to the students I was already close with. Like magnets, despite interfering environmental actors, we are drawn to each other. They are the ones with their cameras consistently on, the ones responding to my emails, the ones seeking feedback on their work above and beyond what’s required. Inversely, gaps have grown wider with the students with whom I wasn’t as close, as if they are floating away untethered in cyberspace, our hands reaching for each other but just not connecting because insurmountable physical forces pull us in opposite directions.
In other words, whether positive or negative, this distance learning situation has exacerbated the conditions upon which we left school. If we left good, we’re good. If we left meh, we’re still meh. Do I have some students “thriving” in the new distance learning environment? I mean, I guess. But they are probably the students who would have been “thriving” in any situation. I would say the overwhelming majority of my students are in the “getting by” category, which is COMPLETELY fine with me, at this point. I’ve ridden them hard all year – we’re all spent. We’re the (dare-I-say “archetypal”) kittens clinging to the clothesline, “just hanging on.”
So, to refer back to the original student prompt, I think this distance learning situation has some really positive and important byproducts – student self-sufficiency, digital literacy, time management, to name a couple – BUT, I think we’re all much better off as humans in face-to-face school. I really worry about the ramifications of the “culture of fear” that even something as prophylactic as a face mask can cause in a generation of young people. I think we’re much likely (primal instinct?) to fear that which we rarely see and if we stay in a “social distance” culture (which I get, is totally necessary right now), I have real concerns about what it will do to humanity.
The gaps that I sense in the microcosm of my classrooms might be evident in the larger rings of neighborhoods, towns, cities and beyond.
Educators, parents, students – what are you sensing? What are the pros and cons of both face-to-face and remote learning?
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