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!