As the school year began, I’m sure most of us were disappointed, but not exactly surprised to be informed that the school year would begin with virtual learning. School is about learning and socializing with people your age. In my opinion, virtual learning is hindering these crucial steps in development, which is why in this article I will be covering how virtual learning affects your mental health, productivity, and overall development.
Being isolated, sometimes your only interactions with peers can be through a screen. This can have a heavy toll on emotional health. A study showed that virtual learning caused a 10% increase in the amount of children whose emotional health was affected negatively by school (Wood and Mascarenhas).
From this data alone we can already tell that virtual learning has a significant impact on kids emotional health, but to add on to this, in a survey of ISB students in grade 10, all people who were surveyed considered themselves less happy in virtual learning than in real school. Emotional development is critical in adolescents and children's growth, so virtual learning is a clear detriment to students health.
You may argue that students who experience bullying, long transit times, and social anxiety prefer online school for good reason. I would counter that getting over, or improving social anxiety is part of a child's development that would benefit them in the future, and experiencing long transit times is 1, good training for future situations where you would have to wake up early, and 2, becoming more responsible for your sleep is a life skill. Bullying in school is an issue that should not be ran away from, but instead reported and taken care of.
In school, motivation and being productive in class can prove to be a large problem for many. From my research, zoom can exacerbate this issue.
Zoom can absolutely affect productivity. The loss of the real-life element takes away the "ingredients for inspiration" that are necessary for growth and effective learning. The University of Michigan recently did a study on over 50 science and math classrooms and found that students that had friends and teachers they were comfortable thought that they were more engaged, more likely to finish classwork, and more likely to find work more interesting (Kilday, J.E. and Ryan, A.M., Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol. 58, 2019). The real life element of school is critical for these connections.
“We have taken away the context that supports their engagement in school and their overall well-being, plus they are dealing with the tremendous uncertainty about the future.” Says Beth Doll, PhD, professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. These factors all effect how hard a student can work, and how happy they will be while working. A demoralized and unhappy student base is not a good recipe for growth and skill advancement.
Outside Academics
Some highly important aspects of school which are greatly impacted by virtual learning are the non-academic aspects. Sports and services are the two main areas affected greatly by online school. Sports have been completely shut down, meaning that many athletes who had been waiting and preparing for what could be their last season with their preferred sport would no longer get the chance to play. Many ISB athletes are disappointed by this, especially as sports make up a large part of their lives, and in some cases, futures and careers.
Moving onto services, the ones that require real-life meetings (for example, bake for change) cannot function in online school. This has a variety of effects. Firstly, the benefits that the services, whether it be on the community, or ISB will be nonexistent. Secondly, the students that relied on these services to gain service experience and time will no longer be able to participate. Thirdly, the experience of helping people, and of trying out new things will be lost on many students. All in all, not being able to participate in services has many effects, and very little to none of them are positive.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, virtual learning is something that we all have to go through. Overall, virtual learning does seem like a bad thing, and unfortunately, this has been proven to be true. However, just because we’re stuck in virtual learning does not mean that you’re stuck inside. Go outside, meet some friends, play some sports, maybe even just go on a walk. In the end, we’re all just in a non-ideal situation. Make the best of it, at least until we can return to school in real life.
Bibliography:
Follow These 5 Time Management Tips and Never Say “I Dont Have Time” | Let’s Expresso. 1 Aug. 2018, www.letsexpresso.com/self-betterment/time-management-tips/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2021.
“Marketing Implementation: Definition, Aspects.” IEduNote, 25 Oct. 2020, www.iedunote.com/marketing-implementation. Accessed 21 Sept. 2021.
Muñoz, Christina. “Mental Health Implications of Virtual Learning on Student Engagement.” IDRA, Mar. 2021, www.idra.org/resource-center/mental-health-implications-of-virtual-learning-on-student-engagement/.
Planner, Tempus. “5 Reasons You’re Not Being as Productive as You Could Be – and Some Great Solutions to Them!” Tempus Planner, tempusplanner.com/blogs/news/5-reasons-you-re-not-being-as-productive-as-you-could-be-and-some-great-solutions-to-them. Accessed 21 Sept. 2021.
Stringer, Heather. “Zoom School’s Mental Health Toll on Kids.” Apa.org, 2021, www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/online-learning-mental-health.Wood, Ada, and Lauren Mascarenhas.
“Virtual School Can Be Damaging to Children’s Mental Health, CDC Study Says.” CNN, 26 Mar. 2021, edition.cnn.com/2021/03/26/health/cdc-remote-learning-kids-mental-health-wellness/index.html.
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