9th class, CLASSROOM VS. DISTANCE EDUCATION

During the COVID-19 lockdown, everything was different. My daily routine was ruined. The school system completely changed and it was a hard thing to deal with and get used to, both for teachers and children. A lot of my schoolmates loved it, because they could be free most of the time and do nothing. But that is exactly why I hate that kind of learning. I consider myself a pretty good student who likes to get things done with as much effort as I can give. I am lazy too, but I finish things when I have to. “Normal” school helped me a lot with that; even if I felt it as a pressure, teachers’ remindings of what has to be done everyday forced me to do it and in the end I was glad that I did it and that I did it OK. But the system of distance learning gives you the opportunity to do things only partly, with help or cheating. It can’t provide you the “extra” things like competitions and other events. It also points out the differences between people – some people can’t afford enough technology equipment for the whole family, especially when a lot of jobs are shut down because of the pandemic.

When you are in face-to-face school you are forced to listen to the teacher but during lockdown you can just mute yourself or turn off the camera and do whatever you want to. That’s why our knowledge level went downwards a lot. The standards lowered enough to cooperate with the knowledge level and I think that’s not OK. No matter how boring that may sound (especially for teenagers) it is good to have some sort of routine and some rules. And that’s what the lockdown learning doesn’t provide.

As I said, I don’t like distance learning and I think combining it with the normal one would be even worse. The children would be confused and the teachers would have a lot of work doing everything twice. I think the work done and explained would have better results than the one explained on distance, which would cause just a bigger difference gaps.

I just hope everything goes to the way it was before as soon as possible.

Lučka, 9.b

My experience of distance education has ups and downs. For example, it’s good because you learn to use your computer better, you can get more sleep than usually, and it is more comfortable to work from home. But there are also bad things. For example, you don’t get much exercise like walking to school, walking from class to class, you don’t get to hang out with your friends so much and learning itself is more effective in school.

I think learning in school is better because it’s more effective and you get more explanation and from my own experience learning from home is harder because it is a lot easier to distract yourself – there’s a leak of concentration.

If corona pandemic stops it will be better to be in school. But if pandemic continues, I suggest learning one week in school and one week from home. That way we get enough explanation and decrease the risk of getting sick from coronavirus.

Matevž, 9.c