As I have been doing online learning since the end of January, there were times that were challenging, yet exciting for me. With my online learning and the school year having now come to an end, there are various lessons that I have learned through this experience. As online learning wasn’t something that I expected or chose to do, I and most of my peers, have experienced a lot of difficulties and challenges over the past four months. Since this has been an experience that was new to everyone, I believe that we have all learned different lessons from it. For me personally, I realized that we are all fortunate to have the level of technology that we enjoy today. This advanced technology allowed me to continue my learning even during a time like now where the world is suffering due to the pandemic.

Before the pandemic totally changed our situation, I didn’t realize how thankful I should be for the technology we have today and how advanced our world has become. Carefully thinking about my daily life, I realize that, except for when I’m in bed, I’m almost always relying on technology, from the laptop that I use every day to my phone and the internet. Confined to my home, unless I absolutely have to go out for something, I have had more time to actually think about my life. I was so used to my normal lifestyle, and I didn’t realize how fortunate I was until after I was forced to stay at home after the outbreak of the virus. Before, I was able to meet my friends and family freely, but after the outbreak, many restrictions were put in place, and people started to avoid meeting others. One of the biggest changes brought by the virus was the closing of our school and our classes moving online. At first, it was hard to adapt to online learning as it was drastically different than face-to-face classes at school. Also, looking at the computer screen all day long was stressful and exhausting. 

Before, I didn’t realize that meeting and talking to people was something special in life, as it was something natural that everyone did on a daily basis. With social distancing and online learning, my life has become extremely dull now that I’m not able to meet people. Every day seems repetitive, as I do the same work continuously at home in the same room. But thanks to the technology we have now, I’ve been able to survive through this time period. I was able to continue my learning in a different way, gained opportunities to face and adapt to new situations, and connected with my teachers and friends. Through online learning, I was still able to fulfill the ｒｅｑｕｉｒｅments for graduation: teaching elementary school students and working collaboratively with my peers from different science classes. Also, our school has decided that our finals exams will also be done online, using the advanced technology I mentioned above.

Although this whole situation was unexpected and we did experience some difficulties, I believe that we were able to make the most out of this experience. The technology and prompt management the school has employed also allowed us to learn in an environment as similar to actual school as possible and end the year as scheduled. It was an eye-opening experience for both students and teachers as we have never tried this system before. I feel fortunate that the technology and tools we needed to manage the current situation were available to us in this time of need.

Ashley Minju Song
Senior (Grade 12)
Chadwick International