Due to the current circumstances regarding COVID-19, students will not be returning to school until May 1 and will be resuming current classes online. Many teachers are leaning towards the live lesson option and are using Zoom, a conferencing app that combines video, chatting, and collaboration.

Let another week of #zoom meetings begin…. pic.twitter.com/0Xv6wjVeAU

— Johann Stiepani (@JStiepani) March 30, 2020

At first, Zoom felt like it could be a success. Teachers can share power points to provide understanding for visual learners. Many students are bound to have questions, so teachers can directly address any confusion or concerns during a lesson, and Zoom provides students with face-to-face communication with others while everyone is ordered to stay at home.

It all seemed great at first, but two things completely changed my view on Zoom sessions. First, I saw TikTok videos of students completely disrespecting teachers while in meetings. Teachers are already stressed out on preparing their lessons, online learning is bringing challenges that many educators were never trained for.

Not only are they putting in time to benefit the greater good of their students, but they take time out of their day to make sure each and every person understands every bit of content and to be disrespected by a teenager in front of an audience is just crossing a line. It’s even more heartbreaking when there’s teachers out there who truly love and care for their students and get no appreciation in return whatsoever.

The second thing that changed my mind was the effect on students. It’s unethical for teachers to hold mandatory meetings as if they are attending a normal school day. One of my teachers wanted to hold mandatory meetings for each of her periods throughout the day (ex: 1st period meeting would be held at 8:25 a.m.-9:17 a.m.).

This is extremely inconvenient for kids who live with multiple students in their household. Not everyone could afford more than one laptop so sharing is inevitable. It’s unrealistic to assume that everyone is organizing their days the same way they would if we were still physically going to school. Zoom doesn’t have a feature where you can replay a zoom unless it’s recorded by someone. So what would you do if you missed it? You would have missed an entire lesson.

Teachers have to keep in mind that students also have other classes to submit work in and not all teachers are approaching online learning the same. Some require zoom lessons at the normal time that class would have occurred, while others are just picking a time at random, which is creating scheduling conflicts for students.

A good alternative to mandatory Zoom meetings would be prerecordings. A short video explaining the lesson’s topic posted onto Edsby and putting a link code to a Zoom for students who have an questions or need more of a deeper explanation. This way students can still get a proper clarification of the topic and be in and out with whatever concerns they may have. There are many other alternatives, the important thing is just that teachers be flexible.

The pressure of every student right now is at an all time high. Worrying about when you have to do which zoom meetings is just adding to the stress, especially when they are mandatory.