*Pictured is a screenshot of the group that participated meeting virtually through Webex and the title slide of the presentation my partner and I made during this activity.*
This event was a Webex meeting on October 5th with Dr. Troy Hicks. It was ironic that we were meeting online to discuss the extreme circumstances of online learning during COVID-19. I actually enjoyed this event and activity more than I thought I would. I chose this activity because I wanted to learn more about how online learning affected other communities besides mine. Obviously, I know the toll it took but we read some articles that focused on the more positive aspects too. I was also really pulled in by the idea of learning about how online learning affected those in lower-income communities. This event and activity tied in really nicely with looking further into the academic life of our university because we explored aspects of online learning that were useful and could continue being implemented in the future. I was pleasantly surprised by what we actually discussed during this meeting. We started off by reflecting on our opinion of how online went for us personally. This was really interesting because the words we used to describe this experience were overall negative and very similar, some the same. Next, we had a chance to read three articles. One was a positive outlook on the switch to online learning, mostly because of the increased ability to learn and focus due to fewer classroom distractions and disruptions. The next article was about the stark difference between the privilege of private schools moving online because they could afford the resources needed, versus the downfalls of other students in public school systems. The third article focused on the negative aspects of online learning. I was thankful we got to read these articles because I wouldn’t have read them on my own time. But, I learned a lot from them and was able to connect, extend, and challenge some of the topics and ideas brought up in the articles. We also shared what we thought about the articles in a breakout room. After we shared our thoughts altogether, we had the opportunity to create a presentation or graphic compiling the best ideas from online learning and how we could implement those in the future. It was a very intriguing conversation to talk about how we viewed the future of learning from what we’ve witnessed up until now. What stuck with me the most from this activity and from the articles was realizing what students actually went through during emergency online learning. It’s crazy to think about how those in less fortunate communities faced these challenges. I’m very happy I got to be a part of this discussion and learn more about other communities during this adversity that we all faced.
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