Summary

Virtual classrooms provide educators with unique insights into students' home environments, parenting styles, and interests, although they may lack the intimacy of traditional in-person settings.

Abstract

The shift to virtual learning during the pandemic has unexpectedly expanded educators' understanding of their students. Despite the loss of physical classroom intimacy, virtual classrooms have opened a window into students' everyday lives, allowing teachers to observe their interactions with technology, home environments, and relationships with parents. These observations have revealed connections between students' home life dynamics and their behavior in the classroom. For instance, a student's playful demeanor was found to mirror his father's playfulness at home. Additionally, the virtual setting has enabled teachers to infer socioeconomic status through the quality of technology available to students and to discern their interests and potential future careers by the toys and activities they share during class. However, while these insights are valuable, they only partially inform educators about a student's full identity, as in-person interactions remain crucial for understanding personal habits, mannerisms, and the essence of a student's personality.

Opinions

The author believes that virtual learning, despite its limitations in intimacy, offers a new perspective on students' lives that can be beneficial for educators.
Observing students' interactions with their parents in the virtual space is seen as more informative than occasional in-person meetings.
The author suggests that the quality of a student's camera can be an indicator of the family's socioeconomic status, albeit not a definitive one.
Showcasing personal items like toys during virtual classes can reveal students' interests and

How the Virtual Classroom Expands Our World

Although the classroom feels less intimate, it has given us more revelations about our students.

Is it possible to learn more about our students on while they are at home learning via Zoom or Google Meet? I recently wrote an article about how much less intimate the classroom feels during this pandemic (which I will have linked below this paragraph). While classrooms do not seem intimate as they used to be, that is not to say that virtual learning does not have its benefits. Because of virtual learning, we have gotten to learn more about our students’ everyday lives. One of the projects I decided to pursue during my master’s program in college was to keep a journal about how students interact with technology everyday in school. Of course, this was the perfect time to do so because technology is so prominent because of this pandemic.

The Death of Intimacy in Public Schools

All the things that were encouraged by schools are no longer allowed

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The course I did this for was a course about post-humanism, and I wanted to tie what I was learning in that class to what I do for a living as a teacher. This inspired me to track to see how my students interacted with their technology and draw conclusions based on these interactions. I made the observation of the differences between the environment in the classroom in the physical space (in-person) and the virtual space. I continued this project even after I got my master’s degree, and this revelation came to me very recently; even though the virtual space is limiting in the area of intimacy, it allows us access to a window into our students’ lives, which lets us to get to know more about our students based on the environment we see on screen.

I am not suggesting that virtual learning allows us to get to know our students themselves better. People have gotten to know each other better when they spend time with each other in-person. The virtual space creates distance in that regard. The advantage that comes from the virtual space is that we learn more about the student’s environment. This includes what the house looks like, what he or she has in the house, and what the relationship with the parents is like. It makes us aware of what our students’ homes are like. It allows us to see our students in a way that is not possible in the physical space of the classroom. With that being said, a student’s upbringing is only part of their identity; it does tell us the full story of a student’s identity.

Student and Parent Relationships

In my journal, I have taken notes on some of the interactions students have had with their parents, and I have learned a great deal about those relationships. For example, I have one student in my classroom who has a very playful sense of humor. He thinks that every social interaction is playful. It is a great trait to have to just laugh at life. However, when you ask him a serious question, he laughs at it like you were joking with him. On one of our virtual days, he was contributing to a classroom conversation, and his dad was talking in the background. He yells to his dad, “Be quiet! I’m trying to talk!” His dad quiets down, and when he is done talking, his dad comes to the screen, puts both hands on his shoulders, and shakes him playfully. This explained to me why this child was so playful in class; his dad is playful with him at home.

Before virtual learning, we only saw or talked to parents under certain circumstances. We saw them at back-to-school night, conferences, and talked to them on the phone every now and then. We could only draw conclusions about how they were as a parent based on these interactions. Now, we can observe their parenting on the camera. Observing something yourself is the best way to gather information; that is what we are taught is the most effective method of research in college. We are no longer limited by interactions we only have every once in awhile. In the virtual space, we can observe the household ourselves.

Inside a Student’s House

While seeing parenting styles is probably the most valuable observation one will get in the virtual space, it is not the only one. What the house looks like and what is in the house tell you a lot about the student. We can see what exactly the student’s family can afford. Perhaps one example in itself is the quality of a student’s camera. This is not to say that the student who has a higher quality camera is richer than a student with a lower quality camera. It just says that a student can afford a high quality or low quality camera. Still, it is an indicator of how much money a family has to spend, although it is not a very strong indicator. You can draw conclusions, but they are not backed up by hard evidence.

One thing my students like to do particularly in the virtual space is show off their toys during morning meeting. Obviously, this shows us what our students like to play with, but it also shows our students’ interests. The other day, my students were showing off all their Toy Story toys. When we see these toys, we know that our students like Toy Story. Seeing students’ toys tells you a lot about their interests. You learn what books and movies like. You can learn even more than just the media they like; you can learn what they like to do. I am fully convinced that I have a future engineer and architect in my classroom. I know this because he shows us what he builds with his Legos, and he’s really good at building with them. Based on this observation, we know that he is good at building and has spatial intelligence. The objects students own say a lot about their personalities.

Conclusion

While the virtual space does not allow us to get to know our students as intimately as the physical space does, it can offer us a wealth of information about our students. We can look into our students’ lives in a way we did not think about before. We can observe what happens in their homes every day. We can see what was not seen before. While we can learn about students’ environment in the virtual space, this does not mean we know the student better than we did before. A students’ environment is only part of their identity. The environment only tells us so much about a student. We know how they are raised and their interests, but we do not know their habits or mannerisms as well. We cannot get as much of a feel for their personality. We do not know what gives this child his or her own identity unless we spend time with the person in-person. The virtual space may tell us about a student’s everyday life, but it does not tell us about what makes the student who he or she is as a human being.