Interview with Simon DelGuercio regarding Virtual School

Because of the unusual situation we are in this year, many students at Oratory have decided to stay home and participate in school remotely rather than in person. For those of us who are here at school physically, it’s hard to imagine going a full seven hours online, especially with the technological challenges we faced at the beginning of the school year. Simon DelGuercio, a current sophomore here at OP, agreed to an interview with me. Here, he talks about the good and the bad of virtual learning.

Interview

1. How is virtual school compared to normal school? Is it better or worse?

       As compared to how school was before the pandemic, virtual school is definitely worse. However, if I were to compare it to in-person school now, I would definitely have to say that online is superior. Although there are some downsides to online school, such as lag, people who are at school are having to deal with these downsides anyways and not from the comfort of their own homes.

      2. What do you think are the benefits of working from home? Biggest struggles/frustrations?

       I would have to say that the biggest benefits of working remotely are that I have plenty of space to work, I don’t have to wear a mask,  I can sleep in later than if I had to leave my house in the morning, and I can always have my pets around as well. The struggles of working from home are that I occasionally have to deal with lag and that it is not as easy to communicate with teachers.

     3. Do you feel as though you learn just as much through online school?

       I do feel that I learn just as much from home as I do from being at school. However, I do have to pay a bit more attention when I’m online.

     4. How would you feel about a hybrid system during a normal school year? (3 days in school 2 days virtual)

        I think the idea of a hybrid school system during a normal school year is a good idea. I think students would benefit from staying at home to learn for 2 days a week as they wouldn’t have to feel some of the stress that comes from being at school.

     5. What could be done to make the virtual experience better?

       I believe that the main thing that can be done to make the virtual experience better is for teachers to always have the Google Meet chat where they would always be able to read it. This could be achieved by using a second device to join the meet and read chat from there or by making it so the window that the teacher has open covers the entire meet screen excluding the chat.

     6. Overall thoughts of virtual learning?

       My overall thoughts on virtual learning is that, despite not being perfect, it is probably the best option that we can choose at the time. However, I would like to add that I did enjoy the form of learning last spring where students could learn asynchronously on most days and then had google meets on two days.