Closures force students to teach at Home, pictured here is a student doing math on a laptop at home on March 25, 2020
Early last year, the world was shocked by the sudden outbreak of the Communist virus (Covid-19), which spread rapidly from Wuhan, China, to the world. At this point in the year, more than 100 million people have been diagnosed with the disease worldwide, and more than 2 million people have lost their lives. Around the world, we are being shut down by wave after wave of the Epidemic. Our countries are shut down, our cities are locked down, adults are working from home, and our children are left with online classes. The order has changed, are our children OK? Veteran media personality Ho Leung Mau shares his observations.
It’s been almost a year since the full lockdown started last March. It is now quite common for students to attend classes online from elementary school to university. In Canada, different provinces have different practices. Many schools in the east have adopted online classes; in the west some schools have adopted a rotating approach, which is to keep the number of students at a social distance that can be maintained enough to orderly return to school in groups and by different classes.
According to He Liangmao’s observation, the way students attend classes online started in the first half of last year when the blockade was to begin, not realizing at the Time that there would be after-effects. Now after nearly a year of implementation, the negative effects of online classes on the educated are coming to the surface. This model of online classes has an anti-epidemic fatigue for both students or teachers. Some university teachers, it is known, are feeling frustrated after a long period of online class mode. In particular, some university classes need to do some internship, to go to the laboratory, some may need to go to some specific sites to do experiments, some need to have some outdoor expeditions; some anthropology and social science courses also need to do some interpersonal interviews and interviews. In this online class model, all aspects are affected to a greater or lesser extent.
Five major problems arise from taking online classes
According to He Liangmao, there are five major problems that arise for students as a direct result of taking online classes.
The first is a psycho-emotional problem. Long hours of online classes at home, and online teaching is usually not as effective as face-to-face classes. Because it is impossible to control the concentration and absorption of students studying at home, it is not possible to assess and communicate in a timely manner without a face-to-face communication, which makes students seem to be very interactive online, they can talk and ask questions instantly, but they are not really in contact with other students, they are in the virtual space online.
After getting used to this mode of online teaching, some students may feel frustrated. Because staying home alone for a long time, students’ learning mood and academic performance both tend to drop, and once they drop, it is very difficult to improve.
The second issue is health. This health issue means that those students are not attending school, and there are no extracurricular activities managed by the school, including no full physical Education classes. At home, physical activity is relatively less, exposed to the fluorescent screen instead of longer time. With less training for some physical activities in proper adolescence, cardiorespiratory function may be a problem. Add to that the fact that sleep is more irregular because of online classes, and students’ time management is more likely to get out of control.
The third is behavioral problems. Because there is no way to engage in normal school social and extracurricular activities, it can easily lead to teenagers being withdrawn and detached. The thing about online classes is that they get people used to communicating online. In addition to classes, there is an extreme reliance on video games, online information and activities. It is not a problem for the behavior of teenagers for a short period of time, but now that it has been almost a year, the implementation of this online class model has created a problem for Parents to manage the behavior of their students. Parents cannot control online classes because students become legally over-using computers. So much so that the real Life of teenagers has been replaced by the online world.
The fourth is the Family problem. Being home for a long time and being a homebody has created behavioral differences. The relationship with parents and the way they interact with friends online have also become problematic. Teenagers used to go out to make friends, find classmates, and even have a lot of outdoor activities. Now it’s all flocking to the home; coupled with the lockdown caused by the epidemic and the restriction on gathering orders, children are dominated by home life. Everyone faces each other 24 hours a day, space is limited, there is more friction, and conflicts are bigger. Whether the parents are going out to work or work from home, it causes a lot of distress. Maybe the kids just lock themselves in their rooms too.
Fifth is the social distortion phenomenon. For teenagers, it is just the right age to live in groups, but this group, group life is almost nil in today’s online classes, and their groups are just inside a bubble of families.
Even family members use chat software to communicate with their neighbors, replacing real human contact with Internet communication. The etiquette of mutual interaction has become dysfunctional in all aspects, even to the extreme, and interpersonal relationships have become quite inappropriate. This dysfunctional social pattern can cause developing adolescents to become lonely and out of place. Taking classes at home is not healthy for adolescents in the long run. After the epidemic has passed, it will bring many problems or worries for them to re-enter the community and adapt to society.
He Liangmao said that the five major problems he sees emerging due to the online class model are worthy of the attention of educators and social workers, and should be supported by appropriate work. It is important to consider how to drive children away from their addiction to the Internet, thinking that the Internet replaces everything.
Can closing schools stop the spread of the epidemic?
He Liangmao said that there is a debate in the community on whether closing schools will help the spread of the epidemic. Many governments, in order to comply with the epidemic prevention regulations, are rather tight than loose in terms of social distance and social detachment, resulting in a period of complete school closure at all last year, only to be gradually relaxed to the point where all classes are not suspended now.
He Liangmao found a contradictory phenomenon, that is, the government in the closure of schools, restaurants and other aspects of the restrictions are very rigid, but in public transport, such as sky train or public buses, although there are social distance limit requirements, but no restrictions on the gathering of people groups. He questioned, “If students have to take the bus to school, is it still the same? Would this be a double standard?”
Schools are no more dangerous than other public places
In fact, blockade or not, there is no guarantee of absolute safety either way. A story on the Epoch Times website talks about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Duke University Health Center each released studies at the end of January this year that showed that face-to-face teaching is generally safe if schools take appropriate safety measures.
Ho Leung Mau agrees with this view. He said, “It’s hard to maintain a strict so-called two-meter social distance on transportation now; you go shopping and everyone automatically keeps a certain distance, but you can hardly count the number of people at the door like last year at the height of the epidemic, when one came out to get one in. At that time, everyone was very nervous, but now everyone is very conscious of keeping a certain distance if there are a lot of people, not people close to people. If the school can do this, what is the problem with normal classes? It is okay for the school to stipulate that no one can enter without wearing a mask. If you forget, the school can provide masks and recover the cost, these are all things to consider.”
Is it really necessary to get only online classes? Especially those universities, where space can be moved, classrooms can be arranged according to the number of people, more people will use a larger but, seats keep a larger distance (such as 6 feet), and can require masks. I think the officials concerned are not afraid of doing more wrong, so they seem to lack some flexibility in this regard.”
School reopening should be on the agenda
Some parents are now starting to complain that students’ academic performance is declining after classes online, suggesting that just relying on home learning is not enough. According to Ho Leung Mau, “Now it is a dual system, teachers have to take care of school students and at the same time they have to take care of students in online classes, which is an added burden for them. In terms of staffing, teaching assistants also have to do a lot more work. I believe the school could be reopened if the school could use clearer measures to compile teachers, students and classrooms.
Due to the government’s epidemic prevention policy, parents and the community as a whole are still limited in the help they can provide to students. Ho Leung Mau said that schools have to arrange classes, and parents are very passive and limited in what they can do, and can only adapt to the school’s arrangement; moreover, parents in Canada seem to be less active and more loose, and I don’t see any parent organizations lobbying or acting in this regard.
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