Pros and Cons of Remote and Online Learning

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PROS

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“I get to try creative new ways, sometimes met with success. My favourite course to teach online is my mixed science course (SNC4M) because I'm able to completely curate the topics to be relevant to the pandemic, and the topics are up for debate with opinions.” (Teacher, Toronto, ON)

 

"Seeing my students and yet also having reduced teaching hours. I had 28 35-minute lessons per week with 150 (approx) kids over three grades (9, 10 &11). Now each year level is combined for online classes and I have just 5 teaching hours a week (2 with 9s & 10s and 1 with the 11s). We are also having sometimes fruitful and sometimes more informal club meetings online with our MUN (Model United Nations) club. They debated Covid crisis management a couple weeks ago. Recently our classes are a bit less formal but that's OK too. We chat and connect. It's a highlight of my week. We use Zoom.” (Teacher, Istanbul, Turkey)

 

“My colleague that I work with closely (he does the literature section of English and I handle the writing and composition part, but we coordinate on our novel studies) helped me set up Google Classrooms years ago so now that our school is using that as the primary homework distribution platform, I am ahead of the curve for once. I also helped my friend and colleague who teaches French (I miss her!) learn some tricks with it. That felt really good.” (Istanbul, Turkey)

 

"I have been delivering online training to teachers around the world - positives include curious parents trying to improve their home learning, and the interaction with strangers.” (Istanbul, Turkey)

 

“Being able to work at my own pace and being able to have all my assignments in one place and having it organized.” (Student, Brampton, ON)  

 

“I am finishing a lot quicker and have a lot more free time.” (Student, Brampton, ON)

 

"I've loved it!  I enjoy the challenge of setting tasks that families can enjoy together (I've started a science unit on bubbles!) and that support the children's learning without asking parents to become instructors.  

My daughter is in her first year of secondary school).  She has only had 8 days of remote schooling so far.  The school has communicated very well (unusual for them).  On Friday I emailed them to say our family laptop had stopped working and on Monday (a holiday) a man drove to our house (40 km from school) to drop off a Chromebook, so that was a huge positive." (Teacher, Havelock, New Zealand)

 

“I have learned so many things about technology! I think going forward I will be a lot more comfortable having students submit homework online, or engaging with them via tools like JamBoard.” (Teacher, King City, ON)

 

“I get to sleep in a bit more, due dates are a bit more flexible, and even though classes are structured, I can start work for my next class before it offically starts.” (Student, Orangeville, ON)

 

“as someone with social anxiety, online classes have made it easier to participate. I am able to focus a lot more from the comfort of my home.” (Student, Istanbul, Turkey)

“Well, there's no classroom management, so that's nice! And the commute to "school" aka my kitchen table is even better. Jokes aside, I've had a lot more student engagement than I anticipated and I'm picked up some cool new resources to use. I'm glad I can give kids some normalcy in their days even if it's just doing their French homework.” (Teacher, Grimsby, ON)

 

“Marks cannot go down (compared to the marks before the quarantine)"  (Student, Toronto, ON) 

 

“Some of the work we do is connected to COVID-19, which is pretty cool!” (Student, Toronto, ON) 

 

"Being able to create interactive inquiry based activities for my students and seeing them

collaborate on a live Jamboard." (Teacher, Toronto, ON)

 

Cons

 

“I mentioned earlier that there are barriers to student motivation including the removal of the risk of dropping in grades. Students have already been conditioned after years of learning in school to use grades as a motivator, and the risk of failing as well if they do not keep up. We cannot simply undo that now. Learning has become a chore for our students over the years due to routine, having to develop frustration tolerance, and learning curriculum material that they feel does not apply to their lives, among other factors like parental pressure and variations of force/discipline at home related to school. Our director reached out to students who are not learning because they cannot drop in marks in a video that the students who the video is intended for will never watch. In the video, he suggested that students reach out to him to discuss why they should learn, if they are struggling with learning online. This shows a level of disconnection from the front-line teaching profession that a lot of executives in the board have exhibited consistently. What would they say to us if we were to reach out to our students at-risk of failing by sending them a video and asking them to reach out to us? Would they have recommended something else because these students already lack the intrinsic motivation for learning, so much so that they refuse to use the device and internet that we have supplied to them at this time? Then why does the director think that this video will reach those students and motivate them?” (Teacher, Istanbul, Turkey)

 

"It is hard to reach every student. It's hard to keep kids motivated and I am seeing less of return on homework than previously. I feel our school is putting undue pressure on kids to perform at ""normal"" levels when that is quite impossible in my opinion. There is a very rigourous schedule for all grade levels. Our smallish private school is K-12, and even the kindergarten kids have 3 or 4 online lessons per day. It seems a bit much for a small child, since my high schoolers can't even keep up. (Teacher, Istanbul, Turkey)

 

“In the beginning our management was also expecting us to roll out online learning as of March 16. That week was officially declared spring break by the Ministry of Education here and our school was told by the ministry to wait a week. There were also a ridiculous number of on-demand meetings outside of regular working hours (ie 9:30 pm on a Sunday night and the same on a Friday night) and when people complained they were reprimanded. That seems to be much calmer now and according to admin we have had very positive feedback from our parents saying we are doing a good job with it.”  

 

“I miss the social aspects of school; connecting with kids and colleagues. We have a tight department with a great department head who I am proud to work with. She is amazing and pulls so much together and keeps calm. I miss our jokes and fun. I miss the kids' weird little dramas and the funny stuff they do (who broke up with who, who pranked who). I miss one year 10's ongoing narrative about his fish-shaped pencil case, Mr. Ocean, and I miss the weird little doodles on homework sheets and desks. "

“Technical difficulties - everyone using the internet at the same time, and of course the lack of face to face interaction.”

 

“Not being able to have face to face interactions and being able to ask questions and have things explained. 

Harder to understand work and get help.”

 

“I don't really take in as much as I normally do when I'm actually in a classroom learning from a teacher in person.”

 

“The kids are working full time at a local grocery store as people keep quitting and trying to get assignments completed at the same time.”

 

“There is too much work for every subject.”

 

"My daughter has had some stresses with her studies (first year of secondary school) and prefers to do her work privately, so we are still trying to find a balance for that.  She also has had hurt feelings over some things teachers have said to her during Zoom meetings which she felt were putdowns.  We are now sitting in (in the background) on her Zoom meetings.” (Parent, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia) 

 

“My main challenge as a teacher has been parents who will not get with the programme!  I spent 2 days before our Level 4 lockdown making sure every parent and child could connect to our platform, could see Learning Tasks and submit them.  A few parents decided they'd just sort that out in 2 weeks, when the term began.  That led to people messaging me at 8:30 on Easter Sunday morning to ask me to walk them through the steps!  I also have a parent who waits until my availability time is over to message me with a big long complaint about how she cannot get the system to work, and then ignores all my questions and offers of help.  I usually have to take a long walk after those." (Teacher, Havelock, New Zealand) 

 

“To be honest I like online learning a lot but I am missing the school environment with my peers.” (Student, Brampton, ON) 

 

“Not being able to engage all students.” (Teacher, Toronto, ON) 

 

“Videos take a long time to make and upload; staying on the computer all day hurts my eyes and my body; I often wonder if I am doing enough or if I am doing way too much (we don't really know how any of our colleagues are conducting their lessons so you can't compare); not all of my students are participating and I don't know if it is because they can't or if it is because they don't want to.” (Teacher, King City, ON)

 

“I don't get to see my friends, I have to work around other family members who need to use the computer, and everyone is always home so it's not very quiet most of the time.”

 

“Submitting my drawing homework has been challenging as I cannot properly scan it.”

  

“As a French teacher, it's really hard to speak French in an online lesson. I can't use facial expression or body language which is key when teaching a second language. I'm also feeling the mental drain of not being able to interact with my students and see their successes, that is a huge part of teaching and I miss it.” (Teacher, Grimsby, ON) 

 

“I prefer a classroom environment, because studying at home makes me get distracted or less productive sometimes.” (Student, Toronto, ON)

“The challenges are how much time it takes to explain things online. I also feel like when teaching on a Google meet, I am talking to myself. I also get frustrated that all my students aren’t linked in to do it for various reasons.” (Teacher, Toronto, ON)