During her daily briefing on Tuesday, August 4, BC provincial health officer Bonnie Henry acknowledged the importance of children being in classroom settings when they’re learning. This importance can extend to both social and intellectual spheres. We all know how important childhood really is: it forms the rest of your life. A close second to childhood is adolescence, and that’s what many Camosun students who will come to the college this fall are transitioning out of.
There are pros and cons to almost everything, and online life is no exception. And let’s stop and think about that for a moment: if you’re working or learning from home, unless you make a conscious, daily—almost incessant—effort to be with people, it’s not just online learning, it’s online life.
An entire life. Online.
Before the COVID-19 crisis, it didn’t require as much effort as it does now.
For many—those who have moved away from kin to work, or those who are naturally introverted—this is how life has been for the better part of six months.
Last year, I went on a solo, month-and-a-half-long venture to the Caribbean. I didn’t speak the language, didn’t know the land, and most importantly, talked to maybe a grand total of six people in that entire time away. None of the conversations went beyond pleasantries. Afterwards, I would find myself thinking about and re-playing the 30-second chat in my head. While this isn’t relevant to online learning, it is relevant to the long-term effects of online life.
Given the average age of a first-year Camosun student, their memories of in-person smiles, hugs, and sitting beside their best friend in class could fade quickly. To a certain extent, online life is beyond our control: it’s just the way of the world. But that also means it’s time to take responsibility for ourselves.
Make sure to get out and see people, and, more importantly than that, make sure to see and connect with what’s around you.
The quality of learning goes down in classes that aren’t possible to structure remotely. Long-term, my grades and studies will suffer even more if I don’t control what I can. The meaning of “keeping on top of things” has changed. It doesn’t just mean getting things done. It means I have to work harder both to learn (I can’t necessarily always rely on the instructor for clarity when learning online) and to make sure that I’m looking in the right areas of life for the right things.
In-class learning for the majority of Camosun isn’t coming back anytime soon. Let’s adjust, see friends safely outside of class, be healthy, and, most importantly, stay calm and diligent.