Hello again friends!
Welcome to week 6!
This weeks theme is online learning.
I really didn’t enjoy online learning, I felt completely disengaged and disconnected from the class.
I do recognize that online learning can be very beneficial for students with anxieties, cognitive or learning differences; it allows them to watch videos at their own speed, watch videos with subtitles, and even pause and rewind. And while I can acknowledge that this has benefited many students, I also would be put in that category as students who would “require the accommodations”, but in my case, I would not want them. For me, my learning differences are exasperated at home and through a computer screen; for me, my accommodations are extra support in person and the overall accountability of being apart of a class. I think that really emphasizes how different everyone is, and even though we, as students, might have similar learning backgrounds or abilities, something that works for one might not work for the other.
| Benefits for me | Disadvantages for me |
| -Replacing standardized tests with practical projects -Was able to live where I wanted -More freetime -Less restrictions; more opportunities for exploration and experimentations | -Impersonal; loss of social connections -Loss of motivation -Distractions and difficult to stay engaged -No accountability -Disconnection |
Being in person for me, is accountability. I need to be in the classroom to feel as though people are “watching me” to make sure I’m staying on task, and knowing there would be consequences in person.
On the Jamboard, one of my colleagues wrote ‘online learning cannot replace in person learning’ and I also believe that. I believe that when COVID pushed learning to be online, students could do the bare minimum and pass.; students could look through their notes and were allowed to hand things in late, which don’t get me wrong, obviously we want to allow students to be able to re-do assignments and not be pressured by a date. But students have lost the ability to take accountability for their learning, and have learned that they can do the bare minimum and they’ll still graduate.
The one thing I really liked about online learning was that all my professors decided to eliminate exams and implement more projects and experience hours. I really like this, because obviously a test is going to measure how good you are at memorizing things but projects are where you can really see if a student understands and is motivated by their topic.
Until next time,
xoxo