Why Remote Learning Was a Negative Experience for So Many Students
by FERMIN PEREZ
No one would’ve expected a virus of this magnitude in their lifetime. Covid-19 took the lives of millions. At the beginning of the pandemic in New York in March of 2020, for many students not being in school for two weeks was a sense of relief. Little did they know those weeks would turn to months and those months would turn to more than a whole year. Students, including myself, felt like online learning would be a lot easier. Think about it, you do work on your computer in the comfort of your home. I can’t speak for everyone but boy was I wrong. Many would agree with me, including parents of younger children who were frequently distracted, as well as older students who would let their classwork pile up. Although some students had success during the remote learning period, we were all under the circumstances which begs the question. What are the consequences of students learning online for a whole school year? To what degree will it impact their futures?
On March 15, 2020 the mayor announced that NYC schools would be shut down until April 20 which came as a shock because schools hadn’t been closed like this since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. One month of school meant no work, right? Wrong, the idea of remote learning came to be where classes would be held through video conferences on sites like Zoom and Google Meet. Not going to school and spending hours there sounded great. Developing a new habit to adjust to this period was essential since there was talk about the entire school year becoming remote. The big difference was that students wouldn’t have the presence of a teacher to keep them on track, which could lead to long-term effects such as an extensive learning loss and negatively impact the test scores of students.
Being at home made it easier for students to become distracted. Many students have siblings who are younger. These students were often responsible for helping their siblings during the remote learning period. Students whose parents were essential workers had to take care of their siblings and for others, they had to take care of themselves but of course that would be impossible for anyone under the age of 13. Parents themselves had to struggle because they were working during this pandemic meaning they would frequently be exposed to the coronavirus. Not only did they have to risk bringing the virus home but they also sacrificed hours of essential sleep to help their kids. Tracey, a 57 year old essential worker, explained the struggle of having to look over her child’s schoolwork while having to work long hours during the pandemic. “They took attendance and you had to be logged in six hours a day. But there's no way you can expect a parent to be logged in for six hours a day with their child. Then there was homework, so we would do homework during the day. I just slept when I could — I didn't get much sleep ... And we didn't have a choice”. Even while having the time to help her child, it was still a struggle because of the long hours she had to work giving her little sleep which not only impacted her but her son as well. Many parents suffered the same struggle with some not even having time to be there to help their children with school. No one liked the idea of remote learning except the child.
It was very difficult to get a grasp of certain materials. But students are supposed to struggle, that is a crucial step in being able to learn. Writing down things has always been essential in school because it helps you remember and learn materials, but also in doing so, students are able to develop handwriting and important communication skills. Melissa Prunty is a pediatric occupational therapist who specializes in issues with student handwriting and she is concerned about how technology can negatively impact a student’s skills.She notes, “One problem is that handwriting is very individual in how it develops in each child. Without research, the risk is that we make too many assumptions about why a child isn’t able to write at the expected age and don’t intervene when there is a technology-related cause”. Now with remote learning, the increase of the use of technology is drastic. Handwriting skills are essential to a student's overall development according to Ms.Prunty and remote learning will only inhibit that. A 2014 study showed that taking notes on electronic devices such as laptops would result in “shallower processing” which meant that people weren’t grasping information in a way that would help you memorize later on. To add on to Ms. Prunty’s concern, studies have proven that writing down notes, problems or homework helps the brain process the material which can help you memorize it and master it. As for technology, it's easier to type things down but it will only be empty words that your brain is processing which leads to the term “shallow processing..” Overall, remote learning isn’t fulfilling the purpose of school which will only setback the students development.
What is one thing teachers despise the most? Is it co-workers? Incorrect work? I’m not a teacher, but if I were one, it would be cheating and distractions. I’m sure most, if not all teachers, would agree with me. Being in school made it difficult for students to cheat but now, with no supervision, everything school-related was on the internet, so who could stop them? Google became their best friend and I wouldn’t blame them. It was very difficult to get a grasp of certain materials when you were learning about it through a screen. With the addition to being able to get most of your answers through the internet, most if not all of the work being assigned was to be done and submitted online. With all of these challenges, a students' development would fall behind because not being able to build proper communications skills could impact their futures drastically. From elementary students to college students, getting through the remote period was a negative experience, even if you passed your courses. School during the pandemic made students feel like the only thing that mattered was being able to pass your course at all cost which impacted the students ability to learn information whereas cheating helped them in a short-term manner.
Andrew Labit, a student from the University of Missouri stated, “Unlike in-person work where you have to show your work, where you actually learn something, online is just ‘get to the answer, that’s all we want,” Online learning has made students rely on technology only to get work done which defeats the purpose of learning. Not only are students failing to grasp important material that they may need in their future careers, but it also builds bad habits where they will always rely on something to get certain things done. Even elementary school children are building bad habits during this remote learning period. There’s nothing more than parents being annoyed at their child's constant video game obsession. Well, now imagine a child being home for months with nothing to do. This nightmare came to fruition with many children finding loopholes to lie to their parents. During the “Covid Era” there was nothing that could stop children from choosing video games such as Mario Kart over finishing an unsupervised assignment. Being online and doing your work was a responsibility that many students didn’t have, mostly because they were at home and had the freedom to do what they wanted. In a survey conducted by ParentsTogether Action,, studies showed that students of low income were 10 times more likely to report that their children were doing little to no remoting learning. A student can easily be on Zoom or say they are “doing their classwork,” but in reality you never know what is going on behind the screen. Without supervision as well, students could do as they pleased. There were many children left unsupervised because many parents were essential workers and with school only being online, teachers weren’t able to supervise their students. Video games helped students keep their mind off of the world crisis that was going on around them and alleviated the fear of the pandemic but too much video game time also became a distraction that wouldn’t be allowed in school. Overall remote learning was becoming a disaster.
Remote learning made me realize that I need to work on my work ethic. Having a good work ethic includes being able to work wherever and whenever so there should’ve been no excuse to being able to get work done. Unfortunately, I let too many things pile up which only lead to me falling behind. Many students were able to pass their classes, but still weren’t able to grasp the material. For some time I wasn’t able to do either. I passed my classes through slim margins eventually but it wasn't something I was proud of. Even now I’m still struggling after building those bad habits, but being able to go back to in-person classes is somewhat better. We still have to use computers as if we were home, but I know in-person learning is very beneficial. My brother who spent half a year doing online classes like me is in Pre-K. Because of his young age and my parents not knowing how to speak English, I was the one that spent most of the time helping him during his classes last spring. He would be distracted from time to time and we would only focus on getting the work done. Now, he’s been spending his entire school year with real in-person classes and I clearly see his improvement. Hopefully we can put this remote period behind us and go back to the classic ways of learning.
Works Cited
Bellafante, Gina, “Are We Losing a Generation of Children to Remote Learning?” NY Times, 6 Nov. 2020.
“ParentsTogether Survey Reveals Remote Learning is Failing Our Most Vulnerable Students.” ParentsTogether Action 27 May 2020.
Shapiro, Eliza. “New York City Public Schools to Close to Slow Spread of Coronavirus.” NY Times, 15 Mar 2020.
Stinson, Annakeara. “There’s One Big Reason Why You Should Still Write Things Down Whenever You Can.” Elite Daily 1 Mar 2018.
Subin, Samantha. “How College Students Learned New Ways to Cheat During Pandemic Remote Schooling.” CNBC 21 Mar 2021.
Wong, Venessa. “Parents Who Double as Essential Workers Are Struggling More Than Ever. Here Are Their Stories.” BuzzFeed News, 14 Sep 2020.
On March 15, 2020 the mayor announced that NYC schools would be shut down until April 20 which came as a shock because schools hadn’t been closed like this since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. One month of school meant no work, right? Wrong, the idea of remote learning came to be where classes would be held through video conferences on sites like Zoom and Google Meet. Not going to school and spending hours there sounded great. Developing a new habit to adjust to this period was essential since there was talk about the entire school year becoming remote. The big difference was that students wouldn’t have the presence of a teacher to keep them on track, which could lead to long-term effects such as an extensive learning loss and negatively impact the test scores of students.
Being at home made it easier for students to become distracted. Many students have siblings who are younger. These students were often responsible for helping their siblings during the remote learning period. Students whose parents were essential workers had to take care of their siblings and for others, they had to take care of themselves but of course that would be impossible for anyone under the age of 13. Parents themselves had to struggle because they were working during this pandemic meaning they would frequently be exposed to the coronavirus. Not only did they have to risk bringing the virus home but they also sacrificed hours of essential sleep to help their kids. Tracey, a 57 year old essential worker, explained the struggle of having to look over her child’s schoolwork while having to work long hours during the pandemic. “They took attendance and you had to be logged in six hours a day. But there's no way you can expect a parent to be logged in for six hours a day with their child. Then there was homework, so we would do homework during the day. I just slept when I could — I didn't get much sleep ... And we didn't have a choice”. Even while having the time to help her child, it was still a struggle because of the long hours she had to work giving her little sleep which not only impacted her but her son as well. Many parents suffered the same struggle with some not even having time to be there to help their children with school. No one liked the idea of remote learning except the child.
It was very difficult to get a grasp of certain materials. But students are supposed to struggle, that is a crucial step in being able to learn. Writing down things has always been essential in school because it helps you remember and learn materials, but also in doing so, students are able to develop handwriting and important communication skills. Melissa Prunty is a pediatric occupational therapist who specializes in issues with student handwriting and she is concerned about how technology can negatively impact a student’s skills.She notes, “One problem is that handwriting is very individual in how it develops in each child. Without research, the risk is that we make too many assumptions about why a child isn’t able to write at the expected age and don’t intervene when there is a technology-related cause”. Now with remote learning, the increase of the use of technology is drastic. Handwriting skills are essential to a student's overall development according to Ms.Prunty and remote learning will only inhibit that. A 2014 study showed that taking notes on electronic devices such as laptops would result in “shallower processing” which meant that people weren’t grasping information in a way that would help you memorize later on. To add on to Ms. Prunty’s concern, studies have proven that writing down notes, problems or homework helps the brain process the material which can help you memorize it and master it. As for technology, it's easier to type things down but it will only be empty words that your brain is processing which leads to the term “shallow processing..” Overall, remote learning isn’t fulfilling the purpose of school which will only setback the students development.
What is one thing teachers despise the most? Is it co-workers? Incorrect work? I’m not a teacher, but if I were one, it would be cheating and distractions. I’m sure most, if not all teachers, would agree with me. Being in school made it difficult for students to cheat but now, with no supervision, everything school-related was on the internet, so who could stop them? Google became their best friend and I wouldn’t blame them. It was very difficult to get a grasp of certain materials when you were learning about it through a screen. With the addition to being able to get most of your answers through the internet, most if not all of the work being assigned was to be done and submitted online. With all of these challenges, a students' development would fall behind because not being able to build proper communications skills could impact their futures drastically. From elementary students to college students, getting through the remote period was a negative experience, even if you passed your courses. School during the pandemic made students feel like the only thing that mattered was being able to pass your course at all cost which impacted the students ability to learn information whereas cheating helped them in a short-term manner.
Andrew Labit, a student from the University of Missouri stated, “Unlike in-person work where you have to show your work, where you actually learn something, online is just ‘get to the answer, that’s all we want,” Online learning has made students rely on technology only to get work done which defeats the purpose of learning. Not only are students failing to grasp important material that they may need in their future careers, but it also builds bad habits where they will always rely on something to get certain things done. Even elementary school children are building bad habits during this remote learning period. There’s nothing more than parents being annoyed at their child's constant video game obsession. Well, now imagine a child being home for months with nothing to do. This nightmare came to fruition with many children finding loopholes to lie to their parents. During the “Covid Era” there was nothing that could stop children from choosing video games such as Mario Kart over finishing an unsupervised assignment. Being online and doing your work was a responsibility that many students didn’t have, mostly because they were at home and had the freedom to do what they wanted. In a survey conducted by ParentsTogether Action,, studies showed that students of low income were 10 times more likely to report that their children were doing little to no remoting learning. A student can easily be on Zoom or say they are “doing their classwork,” but in reality you never know what is going on behind the screen. Without supervision as well, students could do as they pleased. There were many children left unsupervised because many parents were essential workers and with school only being online, teachers weren’t able to supervise their students. Video games helped students keep their mind off of the world crisis that was going on around them and alleviated the fear of the pandemic but too much video game time also became a distraction that wouldn’t be allowed in school. Overall remote learning was becoming a disaster.
Remote learning made me realize that I need to work on my work ethic. Having a good work ethic includes being able to work wherever and whenever so there should’ve been no excuse to being able to get work done. Unfortunately, I let too many things pile up which only lead to me falling behind. Many students were able to pass their classes, but still weren’t able to grasp the material. For some time I wasn’t able to do either. I passed my classes through slim margins eventually but it wasn't something I was proud of. Even now I’m still struggling after building those bad habits, but being able to go back to in-person classes is somewhat better. We still have to use computers as if we were home, but I know in-person learning is very beneficial. My brother who spent half a year doing online classes like me is in Pre-K. Because of his young age and my parents not knowing how to speak English, I was the one that spent most of the time helping him during his classes last spring. He would be distracted from time to time and we would only focus on getting the work done. Now, he’s been spending his entire school year with real in-person classes and I clearly see his improvement. Hopefully we can put this remote period behind us and go back to the classic ways of learning.
Works Cited
Bellafante, Gina, “Are We Losing a Generation of Children to Remote Learning?” NY Times, 6 Nov. 2020.
“ParentsTogether Survey Reveals Remote Learning is Failing Our Most Vulnerable Students.” ParentsTogether Action 27 May 2020.
Shapiro, Eliza. “New York City Public Schools to Close to Slow Spread of Coronavirus.” NY Times, 15 Mar 2020.
Stinson, Annakeara. “There’s One Big Reason Why You Should Still Write Things Down Whenever You Can.” Elite Daily 1 Mar 2018.
Subin, Samantha. “How College Students Learned New Ways to Cheat During Pandemic Remote Schooling.” CNBC 21 Mar 2021.
Wong, Venessa. “Parents Who Double as Essential Workers Are Struggling More Than Ever. Here Are Their Stories.” BuzzFeed News, 14 Sep 2020.
