Imagine waking up in the morning, looking out the window, and seeing a few feet of fresh, untouched snow outside. The roads are covered because the snowplows have not gone through yet, and people are just starting their day. Well, contrary to a typical snow day, students still have to get up to do schoolwork because school was not canceled, it was transformed in a virtual way. The idea of virtual classrooms taking place when there is too much snow on the ground first became a test trial in Bergen County of New Jersey in 2014. In this case, since it was a trial, Pascack Valley Regional High School planned to try this experiment on a wintery “snow day” in February of the school year, so beforehand, the students were told what they had to do and attending school online was treated more like a homework assignment itself. Then, another neighboring school, Park Ridge, decided to try the virtual school day, too, in 2015. Andrew Wyrich, a New Jersey journalist, wrote an article called “Making a Virtual School Day Count” discussing how the trials took place and the changes that are being made to make a virtual school day successful. He wrote, “The virtual days in both districts will be optional -- students can either log on at home or come to school as they normally would. Teachers will be in all of the facilities, the buildings will be open and the cafeterias will be serving food.” The schools must remain open and functional in order for the virtual day to be counted as a full school day, according to New Jersey state law (Wyrich).
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What does this mean for school in the future? Well, the idea is that students will have to attend school from home by attending online classrooms if there are too many snow days in that particular school year. Some schools all over the country have already adapted to the virtual classroom system. Colleges are allowing Postsecondary students to attend their classes online rather than driving to the campus, and there are K-12 schools that are ran completely online. Despite the successes of virtual classrooms, though, they are not helping students any more than a normal classroom setting would. In fact, virtual classrooms are causing more harm to students than they are good because students who attend class online can be easily distracted and lose track of their responsibilities, the teacher has no control over the classroom so the learning environment declines, and, like any time dealing with technology, there will always be technical difficulties. If learning is a real interest of the student, then an online classroom may be the right place for him or her; however, more often than not, high school students just want to be kids and not have to worry about too much responsibility. In a regular classroom, a student is being forced to sit in a desk and participate, which normally keeps a student on track with schoolwork. Of course there are always some students who would really rather be anywhere else than in school – like hanging out with friends, so they refuse to pay attention, but most students will do what they need to in order to pass. In school, however, students still get to see their friends, but in a virtual setting, they do not. Not only do students lose that social interaction with friends, but they lose the collaboration with other students and the teachers, which makes it difficult for many students to focus solely on schoolwork. Pulitzer Prize winner and writer for the Los Angeles Times Newspaper, Carla Rivera, interviewed college professors and students at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, who were dealing with online classes and wrote an article on whether those people thought the classes were helpful or not – she found that several people did not think the classes were helpful. “One study, by the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, found that students who took remedial classes online were far more likely to withdraw or fail compared with students who took traditional classes,” Rivera included in the article to prove that Pierce College was
What does this mean for school in the future? Well, the idea is that students will have to attend school from home by attending online classrooms if there are too many snow days in that particular school year. Some schools all over the country have already adapted to the virtual classroom system. Colleges are allowing Postsecondary students to attend their classes online rather than driving to the campus, and there are K-12 schools that are ran completely online. Despite the successes of virtual classrooms, though, they are not helping students any more than a normal classroom setting would. In fact, virtual classrooms are causing more harm to students than they are good because students who attend class online can be easily distracted and lose track of their responsibilities, the teacher has no control over the classroom so the learning environment declines, and, like any time dealing with technology, there will always be technical difficulties. If learning is a real interest of the student, then an online classroom may be the right place for him or her; however, more often than not, high school students just want to be kids and not have to worry about too much responsibility. In a regular classroom, a student is being forced to sit in a desk and participate, which normally keeps a student on track with schoolwork. Of course there are always some students who would really rather be anywhere else than in school – like hanging out with friends, so they refuse to pay attention, but most students will do what they need to in order to pass. In school, however, students still get to see their friends, but in a virtual setting, they do not. Not only do students lose that social interaction with friends, but they lose the collaboration with other students and the teachers, which makes it difficult for many students to focus solely on schoolwork. Pulitzer Prize winner and writer for the Los Angeles Times Newspaper, Carla Rivera, interviewed college professors and students at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, who were dealing with online classes and wrote an article on whether those people thought the classes were helpful or not – she found that several people did not think the classes were helpful. “One study, by the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, found that students who took remedial classes online were far more likely to withdraw or fail compared with students who took traditional classes,” Rivera included in the article to prove that Pierce College was