Nick Haar, Senior, Summit High School
“During the pandemic, online school has taken the world by storm. I, for one, have been swept well into the white-watery wave of internet learning, though not by choice. I’ve suffered a lack of motivation and normally I’d get my assignments done by the night before they were due.
“With that being said, all other aspects of online learning were truly ideal. Online assignments allow for time to be spent more optimally: more on difficult subjects and less on ones I understood. Additionally, they allowed me to plan my own day, without school dictating my schedule from 7:45 to 3:45 every weekday.
Brooke Ludeman, Sophomore, Mountain View High School
“Last semester all of my teachers were on a different page than me, they were going at a fast pace and no one could keep up. Some teachers were very involved and helped a lot; they always answered emails or via text messages. Others only assigned work but wouldn’t follow up as often. Another challenge for me was trying to learn online in general. I am a hands-on, in-person learner which made everything harder to understand. I liked that some of my teachers would give us a weekly schedule and we had the whole week to work on things and every assignment would be due on Friday.
“I do not have a computer to use as my mom is working from home now. I end up sometimes using my iPhone to do work because the iPad doesn’t always load correctly. I have two other sisters in my home that were also doing online high school learning which made it a little noisy and hard to work in quietness. I feel like online learning is a detriment to my learning. I did not learn as much as I would have in person at school.”
Ashley Hillman, Senior, Bend Senior High School
“I have all the resources I need like a quiet place to be, wifi and all the technology I need. Online school has negatively affected my high school experience. It hasn’t been as fun because I don’t get to go to school every day and see my friends. I’m concerned that I will not be able to learn as much as I would in a normal year and not be prepared for college. I will definitely be less motivated and focused because I will be sitting at my house by myself and I won’t be able to look forward to seeing my friends.”
India Slodki, Junior, Summit High School
“I think that teachers who are unfamiliar with an online interface are going to be a big problem. Last year most of our time was spent on learning new systems rather than learning new content, and I’m expecting to see more of the same next year.
“I’ve always seen online learning as a bit of a joke. I have never thought it was a good option or an effective way to learn, and it makes me nervous to know that it may be our only option for a while. Not being able to ask questions or talk things through is a bit nerve wracking. Also, there’s something about the energy of a classroom. Makes me excited to learn.”
Jackson Junkin, Senior, Cascades Academy of Central Oregon
“One of the major disadvantages to online learning is the communication. In a remote learning environment, the ability to communicate quickly and effectively with teachers is diminished substantially which makes assignments more confusing and difficult.
“I feel that remote learning has a negative effect on student social life. Depending on the person this can be catastrophic or insignificant. This is unfortunate because social development is one of the most important facets of high school.
“I believe that I am less motivated and less focused on core school classes. Specifically with the advent of credit/no credit I find myself doing the bare minimum because there is no reason to try.”
This article appears in Sep 2-9, 2020.
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I saw this article in the print edition and was immediately struck by the fact that all the students interviewed for this article are white. That is disappointing to say the least.
It would be good to see a more diverse population being interviewed and maybe you could keep running this article throughout the week interviewing more kids doing just that. And not just high school kids but middle and elementary students as well.
With that said, BLS really needs to listen to students and parents and realize that these IPADS are not engaging, nor are they great learning tools. They are meant to be supplemental tools. We need our teachers/mentors to get back to school in person even if it means outdoor school and half time for now. And as I have suggested to BLS since March, they may want to adapt a year long school with longer breaks in between. This online, distance learning is an epic failure for most children and especially for marginalized and at risk communities. Budget is not an excuse to implement year round school. It would be the same amount of school time with breaks in between and allow students to have actual learning take place.
This so called “comprehensive” plan for Fall, especially at the elementary school level is just more of the same from Spring. It is a huge disappointment. If they don’t start making a change to do something more creative and think outside of the box, they are going to loose a lot of funding as people will pull their children from school. Parents again are their children’s teachers with this plan. They also need to provide text books, work books, science kits etc. and please distribute screen protectors for these I-PADS as it’s damaging everyone’s eyes. I really hope BLS pulls it together.