I won’t lie about, or go easy on our circumstances. If anything, I think we need to be more honest and open now than ever before. So here it goes… I do not like online learning. I do not like sitting in my kitchen while I try to learn how to be a teacher. I do not like laughing to myself when I should be laughing in a room with 33 other people. This brings me to my main message for this post…

Our chat last week about the different modalities of learning, and the gradient or combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning is, like everything else, not clearly good or bad. I can name some great benefits for online learning – the accessibility, flexibility, availability of resources, and being able to get out of bed ten minutes before class starts. I do not wish to discount all of the important work that technology can and does do for learners and educators. I do not wish to indicate that I feel this entire program so far (as it has been online for us almost entirely) has been useless or futile. In fact, it has remained a light amongst the roller coaster of darkness that the pandemic has brought. My lovely cohort and the instructors alike have demonstrated hope, determination, and an ability to constantly pivot.

Online learning has been satisfactory given the circumstances. HOWEVER – I truly believe all deep and meaningful learning is experienced in person. I know I am missing out in some ways. I need to hear people’s voices echo through a room instead of ruffle through my headphones. I need to see the laugh lines form in each person’s face when someone cracks a “dad joke.” I need to feel the presence of other people who have similar goals as I… or just the presence of others in general! I think that we have done an “acceptable” job of creating a classroom community, but true human connection, and true friendships are built in moments of simultaneous presence. The experience of undergoing this format will be invaluable to me as a unique insight that many other educators will not have had. That said, what this format of learning has really taught me is how much I love to be surrounded by people, and that we should never take for granted getting to show up to class with a physical body. My future students will be reminded daily to pay attention to their surroundings, and to be be wholly present.

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash