10+ Things That Make Virtual Teaching SOOOOO Much Harder Than Face-to-Face

 

I'm a pretty patient person in general, but if you want to set my blood boiling, just suggest that we teachers have had it easy during Covid and that's why we don't want to go back into the classroom.  Few people appreciate how incredibly difficult it is to sustain virtual teaching over a long period of time.  I an my colleagues are exhausted, and because I'm tired of explaining why, I've summed it all up in one handy list. 

1. Building relationships. The #1 struggle: building relationships with students.  Why does this matter? Because, as every teacher worth their salt understands, there are only three ways to motivate students: (1) grades (works for some, but not all), (2) fear (not an optimal option), or (3) relationships - you make them care enough about you and your good opinion that they don't want to disappoint you. Now try establishing a relationship with a student virtually: no video feed, no private jokes, no body language, no quiet chats - we can't even compliment them on their clothes! Good luck with that.
2. Lesson planning & prep.  Transforming all those lovely lessons we teach in the classroom to work via virtual takes an incredible amount of time and effort.  One reason being a first year teacher is so brutal? Because you're inventing all your lessons, basically from scratch. During virtual learning we all became first year teachers again.
3. Be sure to have a backup plan for your backup plan! Because anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong. Your mic will crash ... or theirs. You computer will crash ... or theirs. The entire network will crash ... or theirs.  A particularly clever student will figure out how to hijack the screen, or spam the chat, or amuse the class by using emojis to craft lewd images.  For no particular reason, three of your students (but only three) will sound like robots. Google will forward all the completed assignments ... except one.  Successful online teaching means anticipating even the stuff that can't possibly be anticipated.
4. Technology. But first, before we put our lessons online, we've got to learn how to use the ?>*$#! technology! Class management systems. Screencasts. Hyperdocs. Educational apps. Interactive trainings. Document cameras. Online classrooms. Multiple screens. And the learning curve never ends, because just when we've mastered a tech, along comes an upgrade, a replacement tech, or whole new procedures. It's hard not to feel constantly overwhelmed.
5.  Helping students with technology.  I’m not talking about helping them set up encryption protocols here – I’m talking about the 20-minute dystopian nightmare that is trying to get 20 kids to log into a single website, enter their ID, create a password, and then figure out how to do the work.  Whoever dubbed this the “digital generation” is waaaaay off-base; I can personally attest to the fact that there’s a huge disconnect between the skills that help students master social media and video games vs. the skills they need to use the internet effectively.
6. IT Support.  Not only do we need to be experts as using tech, but we need to be able to support the tech issues of our students ... and sometimes their parents too. Keep in mind - most teachers can't even figure out how to change the staples in a copy machine.  And you have NO idea how many creative ways a student can find to mess up a computer until you give 30 middle schoolers laptops and a task they don't feel like doing.
7. Virtual classes ... are exhausting! Just try spending 70mins opening, running & closing apps while simultaneously answering students in chat, answering students in private chat, monitoring student attendance/participation/engagement/socio-emotional health, monitoring breakout rooms, building relationships, fixing tech issues, conducting mini-conferences, and modeling enthusiasm for your topic ... and then do it all again 10mins later ... and then again 10mins after that.
8. Videotaping & posting work. Because when class is over, class isn't even close to being over, at least not until we've downloaded the videotape & uploaded it to where our students can find it, uploaded all the class materials to your virtual classroom, and posted new announcements to all our classroom management systems
9. Office hours. Don't let anyone tell you that office hours are an adequate substitute for face-to-face help.  Most teachers are masters of the art of speed-tutoring: Andrew, have your sister help you with those flashcards! Beth, you got an F because you confused photosynthesis and cellular respiration! Dewayne, you need to read the directions more carefully! Iman, the answers are in the notes we took yesterday! Office hours simply can't replicate that kind of efficiency or coverage.
10. Virtual meetings .... are so much less productive than the real thing! Everyone's obsessed with being courteous and not talking over each other. Every decision takes three times longer to make and the majority of decisions end up being bad, because the last thing people want to do is contribute ideas that might make the whole uncomfortable ordeal even longer than it has to be
11. So many emails! Between student and parent emails, it's not unusual to end the school day 20-40 emails in arears ... but unlike other jobs, we don't have time to answer emails during the business day, so it's all homework.  And we can't even dash them off, because tone is critical - we can't risk the kids perceiving us as cold (relationships, remember?) or parents perceiving us as unhelpful. 
12. Accountability.  One of the most frustrating struggles of all ... being accountable for the performance of students who you have absolutely no control over. Maybe they're watching your class and paying attention ... or maybe they're sleeping/gaming/texting/walking the dog/down in the kitchen fixing themselves a big ol' sandwich. But when they end up with an F it's the teachers that are always held responsible because our lessons were too ambitious/grading policies unfair/lessons insufficiently engaging/practices inequitable ... or perhaps we just aren't giving students enough grace.
13. And now ... do all of the above while simultaneously taking care of your own kids who are home full time, doing their own virtual learning  Cook them breakfast and lunch, check to make sure they're attending their lessons, help them with homework, provide those additional sports/amusements they would ordinarily be getting through organized clubs, sports and socializing with friends.  And then, when you've wrapped that up ... time to start catching up on that grading!

Covid's Legacy - 25 Things That Have Changed Forever

Now that vaccinations have begun, the end of Covid is finally in sight.  But in at least 25 different ways, the world that Covid leaves behind will never be the same. 

1. Where We Work.  Now that employers have discovered that work from home doesn't impact efficiency, they are likely to expand (or really, continue) offering this flexibility ... especially since it's cheaper than maintaining office space.  Longer term, they may result in Americans becoming less transient; why move to a new location if you can stay where you are literally phone it in? 
2. When We Work. Speaking of flexibility, employers have also learned that business doesn't have to be conducted during business hours.  Imagine a world where you don't have to ask for leave to go to the doctor, because you can just work around your appointments  ... how nice will that be? 
3. How We Work.  Now that we're learning how to use all these technology tools, expect companies to place a premium on making sure they are interoperable. 
4. How We Conduct Business.  Though face to face meetings with clients will never go away, Covid plus climate change may contribute to a reduction in busniess travel - especially those "arrive just in time and leave right after" jaunts. 
5. How We Interact With Our Co-Workers.  Dogs in zoom meetings, anchors broadcasting from their dining rooms ... it seems likely that some of the barriers smashed by Covid - like acknowledging the fact that coworkers have home lives - may never be restored. 
6. How We Socialize.  Thanks to Covid, even Grandmom and Granddad have finally learned how to zoom, which is likely to change the way extended families communicate with remote relatives; possibly also how families celebrate holidays. Could this be the beginning of the end of families travelling long distances to attend holiday celebrations? 
7. How We Get Our Groceries. Now that we've all had a taste of just how convenient grocery delivery can be, it's safe to predict that these services will continue to enjoy increased popularity even after we're able to leave our homes again.
8. How We Shop. Ditto online shopping, especially holiday shopping. Because while Christmas shopping in crowded stores may be a Christmas traditions, it's probably not anyone's favorite Christmas tradition. 
9. How We Buy Our Homes.  Can you imagine anyone buying a new home in the next 5-10 years without considering: "Yes, but could we shelter in place here for a year if we had to?"  Realtors are already reporting that Covid is transforming in the real estate market. 
10. How We Exercise.  Now that so many of us have created new workout regimes outside of the gym, it's likely that some of us aren't going to be all that anxious to shell out hundreds of dollars to return. 
11. How We Spend Our Free Time.  Anyone who didn't have a hobby, has one now!  And while not every new garden is going to get replanted next spring and many of us will never make another loaf of sourdough bread, many of us have discovered new passions that will endure far beyond Covid.
12. How We Access Entertainment. While plenty of us missed going out to movies and restaurants, a certain number of us enjoyed the convenience of having first run movies and restaurant meals delivered to our door. It seems clear that theaters are restaurants are going to need to continue to cater to both 
13. How We Learn. While the verdict is still out on virtual learning, Covid accelerated the process of getting computers into the hands of students and teachers got a crash course in how to use technology as a "force multiplier," increasing forever their toolbox of educational apps and strategies.
14. How We Think About Internet.  It shouldn't have taken a national crises like Covid, which forced humans to rely on internet as their only access to work, friends, and resources, to reinforce the importance of assuring access to high speed internet for all Americans. 
15. How We Think About Health Care.  Doctors and patients report surprising levels of satisfaction with telemedicine roll-outs compelled by quarantine.
16. How We Think About Socio-Emotional Health.  Not that we weren't worried about depression long before Covid, but quarantine definitely promoted such concepts as mindfulness and the importance of social connection to the forefront
17. How We Think About Ourselves. There's nothing like having to adapt to new circumstances to help us internalize that change isn't necessarily as scary or as difficult as we think. At least some of us are going to emerge from this with a more flexible attitude towards change.
18. How We Think About Retirement. Having been given a chance to see what retirement is going to be like - stuck in the same house with the same person day after day after day - it's not preposterous to speculate that couples will be making new, much more specific plans for how they're going to pass those long years together. 
19. How We Think About Nursing Home Care. How many people are going to be willing to confine loved ones to managed care after all those ghastly news stories about elderly victims dying, alone and uncomforted, in hospitals?
20. How We Think About Science. When crisis strikes, Americans have in the past turned to science for - if not comfort - then at least truth. Thanks to the politazation of Covid, however, some people seem not only to have lost their faith in science, but to have decided that all facts are subject to opinion. Remains to be seen how much mischief this causes in the future.
21. How We Handle Future Epidemics. Whichever party happens to be in power for the next 20yrs, you can bet that one of the first things they do is make sure that they've got a viable plan for handling any future epidemics. Because if our government is good at nothing out, it's good at closing barn doors after the horses have bolted.
22. How We Think About Climate Change. Thanks to slowdowns in manufacturing, some countries saw clean air for the first time in generations. It's a lot easier to raise awareness of an environmental issue when people can actually see it for themselves
23. Rethinking the Relationship Between The Stock Market and the Economy. New relationship between stock market & economic health. Rather than focusing on the quantitative aspects like funding rounds and revenue, investors will place a greater emphasis on the qualitative aspects, such as an organization’s structure, team, culture, flexibility, and profitability
24. How we vote.  One of the biggest lessons learned from Covid?  A lot of people reeeeally like the convenience of early voting and/or vote-by-mail. I have a hard time believing we'll ever go back to the way things were.
25. How We Think About Government.  While it may be too soon to do "lessons learned," we can look back in history and make some inferences: one of those being that once we smash through milestones, we tend to leave them in the dust. In other words, get used to huge government bailouts as a response to future crises.