This Video Conferencing Thing Is Just Not Working, Part 2
Between Zoom classes and homework, students are spending upwards of 8 hours a day on screens just for school alone. Photo: Angelina Chiu
The Midwood Argus is an open forum for student opinion. The views expressed in the paper should not be taken to represent those of the administration, faculty, or the student body as a whole. To submit a letter to the editor, click the button on our homepage.
By STEPHANIE FERRARA, KALIYAH KING, JEFFREY HUANG, KENDRA CHIN, KERRY LEE, MADINA GULOMOVA, and NATHALIE CAMACHO
In the blink of an eye, millions of students have moved from sitting in rows in classrooms to sitting behind computer screens in their own homes. For 3-6 hours a day, students now stare at their screens as their teachers go over lessons. When one meeting ends, another begins, with little to no break in between, and then hours of online homework are sure to follow. This new style of learning is having an effect on students’ physical and mental health, and while teens say there are some benefits to video conferencing, most feel the cons strongly outweigh the pros.
Though we expect a return to the physical classroom sometime this year, some education experts have predicted that this “temporary solution” is here to stay, as a growing part of the educational mix. But how do teens feel about that? The Argus surveyed 270 Midwood students of diverse backgrounds to get their views on video conferencing and how it compares to the physical classroom. Here’s what we found. (Read the first part of this report here.)
The physical discomfort from endless Zooms is real.
Seventy-three percent of the students we surveyed said they dislike staring at a screen for long periods of time. And 72% said that throughout the day, they suffer from headaches and eye strain due to the video conferences they have to attend five days a week. Only one in five disagreed.
“When you are in class, you do not have the chance to step away from your computer because work needs to be completed at that very moment, and so your focus is staring at a screen,” said sophomore Alasia Sanchez.
72% of the students we surveyed are getting headaches or eye strain from online classes.
“My eyes burn sometimes after school -- I have to keep washing my face and eyes,” Dolan Ma ‘22 said. “My vision has gotten worse, too.”
Diana Russo, a sophomore, said, “I went to the doctor recently after not going for a year since Corona started, and my vision dropped from -2.0 to -2.75, which is most likely from the eye strain we get from being on screens because of school meets.”
“My eyes have been hurting a lot more since starting remote learning,” Anna Poddubni ’22 said. “You know how when you turn a camera on and it’s blurry sometimes because it hasn’t focused? After staring at my computer for a long time, my vision sort of starts looking like that.”
“Staring at the screen all day while also putting in all of my focus is so tiring and that leads to headaches for me,” sophomore Whitney Leung said.
“I get headaches because even after school, I still have to do my homework online,” junior Angelina Chiu said.
Bad “Zoom” posture can cause problems, too. “Physically, I feel more pain than I did before, especially in my back, which I experience from sitting in front of Zoom meetings for long periods of time,” junior Trinity Low said.
Madge Franck ‘21 said, “It just gets me more tired, and I get a lot of cramps.”
Students are struggling with anxiety more.
As Tim Walker explains, writing for the National Education Association, there is a millisecond delay during video conferencing that “can trigger the brain to look for ways to overcome that lack of synchrony. The brain begins to fatigue, causing us to feel tired, worried, and anxious.” It's not just the delay. Unsurprisingly, we get more out of in-person interactions. "There's more biochemical bang for our buck during face-to-face contact because it offers a richer stream of social signals,” says psychologist Susan Pinker.
“Video conferencing makes it very hard to relax in my opinion, and it’s anxiety-inducing sometimes,” said sophomore Lucas Paschke. “In a real classroom setting, it’s easy to relax and be yourself since you are surrounded by your friends and classmates.”
All this time on screens is both physically and mentally exhausting, students said. Photo: Natalie Camacho
In many virtual classes, the majority of the students have their camera off at all times. With no proper conversations happening, students find themselves having a hard time making friends and bonding with others. They are less willing to talk with one another than they would be in a physical classroom.
“In video conferences, I am often in a class with many kids that I have not met properly before, since it's hard to socialize with people in video conferences,” Paschke said. “A lot of the time, people do not talk to each other in the breakout rooms with new people, so just sitting in silence is very awkward, as opposed to talking to new people in real life.”
Most teachers prefer to have their students turn on their cameras, but this can make students feel uncomfortably on display. Roughly half of the survey respondents agreed with the statement “It bothers me that someone could be screen-shotting me, recording me, or pinning me to their screen during a video conference.” Twenty-nine percent were not bothered by this, and 21% weren’t sure.
“Honestly, it's a little disturbing,” junior Chery Abdelmassih said. “People go around on Snapchat posting random things that go on in their classes with names and people's faces showing. It defeats your privacy.”
Some students may feel uncomfortable showing their faces while others may be insecure about showing their backgrounds. Responding to the statement, “I am uncomfortable showing my home surroundings during video conferences,” 45% agreed, 35% disagreed, and 20% were not sure.
“I mean, I completely understand,” junior Michelle Rojas said. “Before, when I was moving, my place was a mess, and I didn't want to show it on camera.”
“If students don’t want to turn on their cameras, maybe there’s a reason for that…” one of our respondents said.
“It does feel a bit weird to turn [the camera] on sometimes,” said junior Owaish Khan, “especially if you are one of the only ones who has it on. However, if all the students had their camera on then I would not feel weird. Personally, I do not think people should be required to turn on their cameras because you never know what someone’s home status is or if their camera works or not.”
Having the camera on can also make it hard for students to just be themselves. Kelly Xie ’22 said, “I feel like being myself on video can be really awkward depending on what I’m doing. Sometimes I’ll be stretching with my camera on, and I’ll feel like I should turn off my camera for that. It’s hard to relax during those moments. When my camera is off, I usually feel more relaxed, but overall, being in a [physical] classroom is still more natural.”
All these “invisible” camera-off students make it harder for teachers to gauge whether everyone is taking classes seriously.
Ms. Cecilia Manno, an AP U.S. History teacher, said, “When I’m in class physically, I’m constantly moving within the rows, so it’s kind of difficult to be around me and get away with not paying attention.” This is harder to due virtually.
Without being able to physically observe student engagement, many teachers are relying more on cold-calling to check that students are paying attention. This can lead to stress for shy students.
“I have always been a shy person and rarely participate when in school,” Maricela Martinez ‘22 said. “But now because of the different atmosphere, there are more moments in class when the teacher asks a question and could choose anyone randomly.”
Ivy Tran ‘21 said, “Sometimes my family is quite loud in the background, so I get feedback on my end, and it makes me insecure about participating.”
It’s not surprising that suddenly being the face on the screen that everyone is watching could make students uncomfortable.
“When you're forced to face someone directly, it becomes intimidating and feels as if the conversation is inauthentic and unnatural,” said junior Elijah Martins. “It also feels like it attacks every insecurity and makes me spend more time wondering if I look weird or if I’m doing something wrong rather than paying attention to the true content of the class.”
Many students are feeling an increased lack of motivation.
“The guilt you would normally get from not doing something on time or properly in person is no longer there because you're hidden behind a screen,” Abdelmassih said. “Students are also struggling to build relationships with teachers, so handing in work and completing assignments has just been a lot less significant.”
“Mentally, it's giving me a lack of motivation as every day feels the same,” Russo said. “The repetitiveness of online school is leading me to gradually stay in bed more.”
Low said, “There isn’t a separation of school and home. I used to enjoy that feeling on Fridays, but every task seems repetitive now.”
“I just want to say that it’s very tiring and stressful,” one of our anonymous survey respondents said. “I’m not missing assignments because I want to, it's just a lot of pressure and it's depressing.”
“It’s just work, sleep, work, sleep,” said junior Tiffany Lin. “It’s draining.”
the technology does have some benefits.
Students pointed out that video conferencing does have some positives. The chat box in Google Meet allows students to send messages to the whole class to ask or answer questions in a welcoming way. This allows students who are more shy or unable to use their mic to still participate and be engaged in the class discussion. Around 60% of students in the survey said that they prefer using the chat box to raising their hand during in-person class. Only 22% disagreed (18% were not sure).
“I prefer to use the chat box since I am a shy person,” said Martinez. “It is much easier for me to communicate with the teacher online. Asking a question in person makes me feel really nervous and hesitant. The chat box gives me more freedom on what I want to ask.”
Selinnur Bicer ‘22 is now more willing to participate in class due to the chat box. “I feel more confident writing my thoughts or answers in the chat box rather than speaking,” Bicer said. “It also feels easier to ask questions.”
Sixty-three percent of our respondents have also made use of the helpful subtitles/closed captioning feature during Google Meet to help with their understanding or note-taking.
Regarding the statement “It’s harder to relax and be yourself during a video conference than when you're physically in class,” the teens we surveyed were about evenly split.
“I actually think it's easier to relax because you're at home and you're in an environment you are used to,” said sophomore Sheldon Lipets. “You can get more sleep since you don't need to get up as early for school.”
“I can wake up ten minutes before class, and I can save a lot of time as I do not need to commute to school,” said Tran.
And nobody misses dealing with poor weather and transportation problems such as traffic and train delays. “Online learning certainly has saved many of us the hassle of traveling in the cold and snow,” Jenny Zhao ‘22 said.
Google Classroom’s clearly posted assignments and due dates have helped some students with their time management. “It is convenient and quite transparent,” Saiherr Chowdhry ‘21 said. “I can easily find my assignments.”
Samuel Gutin, a senior, said that he prefers video conferencing over being in a classroom because he has more free time. “I save all of the time that I would usually spend commuting to and from school and instead use it to work on interesting projects like YouTube videos and college applications,” he said.
But overall, the cons outweigh the pros.
In the end, wouldn’t students rather stay at home, where they can sleep in, goof off, and check in and out of virtual class without anyone really knowing? Actually, no. According to our survey, 64% of students disagreed with the overall statement “I prefer video conferencing to being physically in class.” Only 19% favored video conferencing. Another 17% were unsure.
Some of this discontent is due to technical difficulties such as internet and audio connectivity, and trouble submitting schoolwork. Seventy percent of the teens we surveyed said there had been “many times when glitches or lag ruined a video conference” for them.
“I’ve experienced issues daily so far, and sometimes they get frustrating,” sophomore Anna Obertos said.
“One time during class, my teacher’s internet connection suddenly acted out and kicked her out of the meeting while she was explaining,” sophomore Whitney Leung said. “For about five minutes, everyone just sat there, trying to process what just happened.”
Xie said, “Often, my internet gets really laggy. [Today] in my English class, I had four tabs on, which is usually normal for me, and I got kicked out of the call. It said the sites were taking up too much memory and I missed a part of the lesson trying to get back in.”
With assignments that require students to work in groups, teachers often put them in breakout rooms, but students said this is no real solution.
“When I am in breakout rooms, I don’t feel engaged, and I don’t think the other students do either because usually no one talks,” sophomore Zaina Williams said.
Online classes are “not really interactive,” said junior Emine Konal, “Everyone always hesitates to participate. Even when we’re put in breakout rooms, no one really talks. I was definitely more productive when we were in school.”
“It’s really frustrating when you can’t really see your teachers [in person] and it’s hard to form connections and relate to one another,” sophomore Leyli Zeynalova said.
Mr. Marco Machado, a physics teacher, said, “Virtual learning can provide more access to some level of instruction to more individuals, but until the resources are made available to properly train instructors and give them the time to to make virtual instruction as effective as in-person instruction, for which we’ve had decades of time, virtual cannot match the effectiveness of in-person.”
Martins said, “It was fun for a little, but we all miss Midwood, and if we went back, it would definitely be a much better day to be a hornet.”
Alec Blain and Ezana Vucetovic contributed to this article.