The Pros and Cons of Virtual Learning: a Debate

By Celina Yang

As the school year began, many districts have decided to pursue online learning, at least temporarily until it would be safe for students to physically attend school. However this new method of teaching and learning had sparked many disagreements in our community. Working parents are having difficulty finding facilities to take care of their children. While some households are having trouble getting technological devices for their children. Still many parents and teachers found it a good idea for school to go online due to the real risk of getting the Coronavirus.These arguments had lead many school, like my own, to plan out hybrid schedule where students only went to school for a certain number of days while the other days were filled with virtual learning.

Opposition: Many opposition ideas I have heard and witnessed include the following: firstly, many working parents are having a hard time looking after the students who would normally be at school. Another would be the lack of technology which would lead to education inequalities. While some districts were fortunate enough to give out chromebooks or ipads to all of their students, many were not as fortunate. This led to the argument that some students would not be able to learn as effectively and as much as those with devices to access Zoom, Google Meets, Canvas, Google Classroom and many of the other educational platforms. Another aspect of the arguments relates to health. Since many students started to learn through Zoom meetings or Google Meets, they tend to be staring at a screen for a very long amount of time since most of their homework is also online. This causes severe tiredness and eye fatigue. For me personally, I have been staring at the screen for at least 8 hours everyday for the past two weeks. And I have noticed that even with my very strong prescription glasses, my eyesight is getting worse. The second problem would be the lack of exercise, in many schools, students have recess, pass periods, and PE where they are at least forced to move and exercise. But since many have to sit for a long period of time on chairs staring at the screen. The lack of physical activity is clearly expected. 

Proposition: The most obvious argument is the health risk physical learning can have. Since the Coronavirus can be passed on, social distance seems to be essential. However, schools with a lot of students can have a very hard time enforcing this method. Another is, it is very hard to wear masks for hours, especially in the summer. And many students with asthma and lung diseases can be seriously ill after wearing a mask for a long time. Even after wearing a mask for 30 minutes, for me, gets me all panting and sweaty. So imagine having to wear it for about 7 hours a day at least. Another small argument can be the effectiveness in the classroom, these safety precautions are absolutely essential, but they can also lead to teachers not being able to teach as flexibly and as much as distance learning. So which side do you support? Or are you in the middle?