Aarshi Majumder, Grade 9
UWCSEA (East)
The world has encountered a viciously, unpredictable battle. These trying times have brought the world to its knees, piercing lungs and brutally collaring lives. We are at war with a mutated, invisible microbe and the casualties have been disheartening, to say the least. In the news, we hear the sound of politicians discussing possible procedures, we hear the gut-wrenching complaints of healthcare workers and we hear the icy drops of saline slowly relinquishing a patient’s life away from a microorganism so polluted with death and suffocation, what we don’t seem to get enough of is positivity.
Every pool of uncertain thought needs to be chlorinated with zeal, strength and love. I picture the globe and then zoom in to see UWCSEA. There are students and students with their Bluetooth headphones, their Google Meets, and digitalised workbooks and I witness a unified, technologically resilient and sedulous society of people.
They are wirelessly integrated over a non-tangible platform. Everybody knows that in order for a connection to form, people need to physically talk to people, laugh with people, learn with people. Still, it was shockingly surprising to me how much more productive, effective and dynamic this home-based learning has been for me. It is always marvellous to see people of different nations, races, genders, ages and personalities come together on one computer screen (as glitchy as that can get!).
I once had to re-enter a Google Meet 6 times because I couldn’t hear what the teacher was saying and I bet nobody could. But then I realised that all along his mic wasn’t turned on, and nobody asked him to do so. Things that like that sometimes make digital learning crazy!
As a student in this school, I can tell you that the efforts taken by both the students and the teachers in this online video-learning tug of war were commendable. With the ever so irreplaceably unsteady wifi, the resourceful but fluctuating internet it was amazing how well we as students comprehensively engaged with content-rich lessons. Not to mention how grounded we have been as a school, holding our virtual hands of compassion and strength during a time of impermanence.
In home-based learning, there is more flexibility and control over your learning and work schedule.
Every pool of uncertain thought needs to be chlorinated with zeal, strength and love. I picture the globe and then zoom in to see UWCSEA. There are students and students with their Bluetooth headphones, their Google Meets, and digitalised workbooks and I witness a unified, technologically resilient and sedulous society of people.
They are wirelessly integrated over a non-tangible platform. Everybody knows that in order for a connection to form, people need to physically talk to people, laugh with people, learn with people. Still, it was shockingly surprising to me how much more productive, effective and dynamic this home-based learning has been for me. It is always marvellous to see people of different nations, races, genders, ages and personalities come together on one computer screen (as glitchy as that can get!).
I once had to re-enter a Google Meet 6 times because I couldn’t hear what the teacher was saying and I bet nobody could. But then I realised that all along his mic wasn’t turned on, and nobody asked him to do so. Things that like that sometimes make digital learning crazy!
As a student in this school, I can tell you that the efforts taken by both the students and the teachers in this online video-learning tug of war were commendable. With the ever so irreplaceably unsteady wifi, the resourceful but fluctuating internet it was amazing how well we as students comprehensively engaged with content-rich lessons. Not to mention how grounded we have been as a school, holding our virtual hands of compassion and strength during a time of impermanence.
In home-based learning, there is more flexibility and control over your learning and work schedule.
Arguably its remote learning’s best selling point. Furthermore, it hands the ability to self-discipline and self-actualise to people on a silver platter. This idle time opens up a world of opportunities to experiment with. Fitness, painting, playing the piano or cooking - with remote learning, you can manage your assignments to incorporate new amusements and personalise your learning path.
Say, if a person were to examine my daily routine during a regular school day with physical classrooms and real people, allowing time for homework and assignments to be subtracted, I would probably have 2 hours to spare every day. In those two hours, I would probably be too tired to do anything! During home-based learning, I learned how to make a pie pastry and bake an apple pie, to make profiteroles and banana bread, and I could only do this because our autonomy had significantly increased. Hours spent playing the piano increased, which I really wanted to happen because I wasn’t putting in enough practice before. |
My school has its own built-in online learning platform called Teamie (also known as the ‘OLP’). This is a very functional and utility-maximised online platform. You can set daily reminders, homework, resources and announcements as teachers as well as having the ability to set actual tests, assignments through Turnitin and quizzes all within a few clicks of the cursor. As a student, Teamie is quite beneficial. The daily updates that we can view with ease really help me to remain organised and the tasks having reminders on them with timings and dates make sure that you are up to speed with all the things that go on in class even if you’ve missed a school day.
I had a bizarre experience with Turnitin, though. When I uploaded my PDF document, it reported a 100% plagiarism rate, but the actuality of that was, the Turnitin software detected a document from my google drive and associated that document to match the text on my document. It seems somewhat counterintuitive as it recognised my own work to match another version of my very same work!
Testing and examinations have been difficult due to lack of intense monitoring which is impossible to do so via online measures. Teachers used technologies to organise students’ work documents like daily agendas, spreadsheets and Padlets. Honestly speaking, for me, this remote-learning has been quite detoxifying. I felt like my life was moving too fast and this peaceful studying from home is rather more worthwhile for me: A person who suits a quiet environment rather than a busy classroom full of many whispers which can often turn into a big chaotic blanket of voices. |
It sounds impossible, and millennials probably couldn’t survive, but I was even motivated enough to abandon the small device that everyone can put in their pockets and can’t live without- my phone! That little technological phenomenon entranced me into gossip and rumours on social media and other virulent applications you can hook yourself onto if you use a phone 24x7 as a high school teenager.
Guest Writer |
During remote learning, I told myself I didn’t need it. A pondering or two let me understand that I only actually used my phone in school. There wasn’t a valid reason strong enough to persuade me or anyone that my life would be inadequate without a phone at home. So, I tossed it over to my parents as per my own will. My life has been undisturbed and harmonious ever since.
More than the individual side to things, the remote learning has brought us the best stage to utilise the values and ideals we as a school society have endorsed, agreed upon and attested to, the UWCSEA values. And what a challenge has been thrown onto us, but as mentioned before, by helping other people, being compassionate and acting with integrity, this battle of health has been dealt with alertness and perseverance. Lessons in school have taught us to respond with humility and avoid prejudice by developing views based on evidence, reasoning and understanding Taking an interest and enjoying the friendship with people of all cultures and backgrounds manoeuvres the UWC mission towards enmeshing all of the values into virtual learning as well. |
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