Online Learning: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Two juniors at Garnet Valley High School describe the ups and downs of online learning as a pandemic has impacted the world.

Moving to Online Learning

As coronavirus rages on, Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania declared schools to be closed in incremental two week periods (this has changed to schools in PA being closed for the remainder of the year).

Due to this The Garnet Valley School District, like many others, has moved to digital learning. Two students Maitreyi Naikwadi and Annie DiClemente share how their lives have changed with online learning implemented.

Adjusting Schedules

With students being responsible for getting assignments done at their own pace both Maitreyi and Annies’ schedules have drastically changed.

“Personally my sleep schedule is very bad, I will go to bed at 4 am and wake up at noon. My ideal schedule would be to go to bed at 1 am or 2 am and wake up at 9ish, but I usually wake up at 10:30 am. Ideally I would start at noon, but I normally start working at 2. This is what works best for me as I am more focused however, that means I have to do homework straight through, which should take me 4 hours but will take me 8 hours.” Annie said.

Workload

As Annie mentions working for 8 hours this raises the question about the difficulty and workload of online learning.

“I am taking a lot of AP’s and the hardest part about it is not only you have to manage your time, but you have to manage your time and also understand the concept. If you don’t understand the concepts and you take the quizzes then the teachers just think you are not doing anything, but you are putting effort into it. It’s just that no one is there to explain things for you.” Maitreyi said.

Staying in Touch

However, even though teachers are not teaching students from a classroom, students find they are still there to help.

“I found email is the best way to get in touch with teachers. Office hours have been good for some classes though. Most teachers are pretty good about keeping in touch and answering questions.” Annie said.