Trinity Clark
Editor-In-Chief
Going to school in the traditional way gave me a chance to hear other people’s opinions on topics that actually applied to my daily life and that is what I miss the most in our current situation.
In complete honesty, I am impressed by how the teachers at Ironwood are adjusting to online learning and by no means is this editorial meant to criticize the honest efforts of Ironwood’s staff to give its students an education. Rather, I am writing today to say how I feel the vital activity of discussion has been lost in this online format. While I am no expert on how to conduct and/or lead an online course, I have done school both entirely online and in the traditional manner before the current situation so I bring up this topic based on my personal observations.
Students lose their voice when doing school online. It is not that they are afraid to say something but rather they are not given the chance. Traditional schooling has a lot of time for students to connect when they are not working. Passing in the halls, eating at the lunch table, and meeting up after school for sports or clubs are all examples of times when students could come together and choose a topic to talk about. Albeit much of what we talked about was by no means intellectual but for me there were a lot of times that I kept up to date on news and changes happening around me thanks to talking to my peers.
In an online setting the point is to learn. The course is set up such that students get onto topic immediately and are left with as much work time as possible. This means that the student is responsible to find time to reach out to those around them and, based on what I have done and those around me have done, they opt out of doing so. Recently, I have made more of an effort to text or call people I want to talk to, but it is nowhere near what I would if I were seeing these people in school 5 days a week.
I am sure there are plenty of people who can relate to this sentiment, so I would love for Ironwood’s online classes to give more of an opportunity for discussion. Unmonitored meetings where students can just speak freely are obviously out of question due to some people that would abuse the setting, but maybe there could be a 5 minute period before each class where the students could turn their mikes on and talk. Perhaps virtual assemblies could be organized as well. The chat could be open, students could show off their skills like before, and maybe we could do our school chants with the microphones on. I think time for students to chat among themselves is vital to us staying connected at this time.
Image Credit: Eliott Reyna on Unsplash
Comments