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Virtual school has been taken seriously with the dreadful presence of COVID-19, and we have to make fair use of the time when it comes to school. I shall share my viewpoint of virtual learning. There are many vital things to consider, like communication and academic performance. I will talk about three advantages and three disadvantages of virtual school to represent the overall viewpoint.

Advantage #1: Efficiency of doing virtual assignmentsVirtual school has a special freedom in doing academic tasks, which is absent in regular school. In virtual school, I can do homework early and can easily work on major projects because of this freedom. The freedom is that virtual students can access assignments with ease at almost anytime because of the assignments being almost entirely digital. This freedom results in more efficiency and comfort in doing tasks, giving you an advantage in school.

Advantage #2: Flexibility of virtual school

Flexibility is very high in virtual school for me, of course. I have an X-Period (Extra Period) at my school that is usually very restricted in regular school. However, virtual students like me do not have to attend anything during these 40 minutes, and it, therefore, can be considered as free time. Although virtual students can catch up on academic assignments at this time, this is not really an “advantage” of virtual learning. The reason is that regular students have the same ability to do so in X-Period. To explain more about this useful flexibility, I can also leave classes early sometimes when I finish my classwork before the end of them. Being able to do this results in more free time that I can use. Overall, flexibility can really help in many things.

Advantage #3: More opportunities outside virtual school

I can save a lot of time as a virtual student, leading to more opportunities outside of school. Regular students would have to get home after school, which can take increased time due to things like transportation. On the other hand, I can just jump out of my chair and move on with the day with tremendous ease as a virtual student. I have time saved for things like music class preparation, sports, and hobbies. Overall, virtual learning is comfortable and time-saving.

Disadvantage #1: Being “school-sick” as a virtual learner

If you are a virtual student, you eventually will be “school-sick” as time goes. Let me explain what being school-sick basically means. If you were a regular student before being a virtual one, you would have no problem at the start of virtual school as you are adapting to it leisurely. As time grows, within 3-4 weeks, you will suddenly miss regular school and its fun qualities like talking to friends at lunch. This is normal, as traditional or regular school has been the only type of school decades before. Nonetheless, you will not be motivated to be the same person you were in regular school as a virtual student because of this “school-sick” feeling that lingers for a long time.

Disadvantage #2: An unpredictable workload of virtual tasks

I explained the comfort and efficiency of doing virtual assignments earlier. Still, there is, of course, a bad side to it. It is the actual work you do to maintain that efficiency and advantage. Regular students have unique guidance when doing assignments, but virtual students don’t have that guidance. This virtual workload is “unpredictable” because of the projects, homework, and other things piling up at unexpected times. Virtual work can increase stress for you and can even affect your academic performance and grades if you don’t keep up with it.

Disadvantage #3: Virtual school’s effects on your health

Virtual school can also impact your health negatively. Screen time is one of these negative factors that come in when you are learning virtually. You have to look at a screen almost all the time as school passes each day. If you think of the duration of school, which is nearly 6 hours and 30 minutes for me, the bad things of screen time will almost certainly come to virtual learners. One of these things is that excessive screen time will stress your mind and negatively influence you. Another significant negative factor is that your physical health will be degraded while being a virtual student. As regular students walk around the halls to their classes and carry materials, you would not do this as a virtual learner. My Physical Education class alone has only video workouts instead of engaging sports, instructed exercises, and group interaction that is usually there in regular school. This lack is due to the technical difficulties of having a Physical Education class virtually. All of this makes you less motivated to do physical things, and your physical skills will drop as time goes by when being a virtual learner. Your overall health can be hugely impacted by being a virtual learner, which is really bad, especially for children.

My viewpoint on virtual school overall is pretty balanced in terms of advantages and disadvantages. The ultimate thing to advise to virtual students is that virtual learning can be hard or easy for you depending on how you figure it out and use it in your academic and daily lives. I do things like setting up my room and changing it in different ways to make virtual school more enjoyable. You can do far more things to power through virtual school, like having a journal to write in or exercising for your better health during the current pandemic. Hopefully, this article can help you in this current situation.

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Comments

  1. Very well stated, both pros & cons. You are a very insightful, intelligent, multi-faceted young man, congrats on adding author to your bio

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