Page 9 - 2020 Altiora Vol 72

LIFE ON Z OOM | 9
LIFE ON ZOOM

| 9

ONLINE LEARNING - YEAR 12 STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE
ONLINE LEARNING - YEAR 12 STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE
Given the short lead-in time provided to normally did.
Schools regarding the statewide lockdown All my teachers were extremely helpful
in March, much was said in the media about in trying to minimise our screen time and
teachers’ and students’ ability to adapt to maximise our learning as they too tried to
online learning, and the particular concerns quickly adapt to a very strange learning
surrounding students in Year 12, who most system.
feared would bear the greatest challenges
in 2020. Once the lockdown period had I struggled to stay motivated as did many of
passed, we asked our student leaders for their my peers; we desperately wanted to go back to
observations of this strange period in their school. By the final few days of online learning,
education: our teachers had become master organisers in
online Cloud software making it really easy for
I’ve spoken before about change — how it us to go back and solidify our knowledge of the
can be scary, uncomfortable, easily resisted content that we covered at home.
— but ultimately inevitable, and often for the
best. Frankly, when I’ve said these things in We are all extremely grateful for our teachers
the past, it hasn’t been with the foresight of who did everything they possibly could to
an impending worldwide health emergency… make learning easier for us during and after
but even if this experience hasn’t always felt online learning.
‘the best’, it still feels like some sort of twisted Balint Boda,
Balint Boda,
privilege to get to ride it through in the midst Year 12, School Vice Captain
ear 12, School Vice Captain
Y
of Year 12 at BMGS.
Throughout this time, I’ve been perpetually Online learning was, to say the least, unique. It
grateful for the care and attention we’ve was definitely different staying at home, which
received at every step of the way (thanks, came with its own challenges but also benefits.
teachers!). Trying as the experience has been,
I’ll still cherish the unexpected delights — like It was great that instead of waking up at
the countless times I accidentally turned up 5:45am for my 7:30am class I could be ready
to a Zoom class wearing pyjamas, and the to go with time to spare when only waking up
giggles shared while helping each other up at 7:15am! It felt really weird not being able to
the learning curve of Zoom (I’m thinking see my friends for so long, although FaceTime
of the time when someone unmuted right after ‘online school’ helped to stay in touch.
before yelling at a sibling to be quiet, in no Coming back to school since the period in
uncertain terms…). 2020 has been a year isolation has made me so grateful for face-
of immense, difficult changes for all of us, to-face teaching and its power in keeping
but it’s also shown how quickly we can learn, motivation levels high!
and forced us to take a moment to consider April Foster-Powell,
oster-P
owell,
April F
what’s important. At any rate, if this is the first
ear 12, School Captain
Y
year that students have actually wanted to Year 12, School Captain
go to back to school after the holidays, surely
anything is possible from here on in…
Nicholas Ma yrhofer ,
Nicholas Mayrhofer,
Y ear 12, School Captain
Year 12, School Captain
The build-up to online school was strangely
exciting. Nobody knew what to expect; we
were all a little bit nervous but curious to see
what would happen to our cohort and the
HSC, our major works and our jobs.
The reality only set in after about three days
of online learning; this definitely wasn’t going
to be anything like ordinary time off school. It
was an impossible task trying to do homework
and assessments in the evenings when I’d
been staring at my screen for hours already.
The workload seemed to suddenly increase,
yet we were covering content at the speed we