Student Voices: Digital versus Traditional School by Nitya A. and Sarah W., 7th grade

Digital versus Traditional School by Nitya A. and Sarah W., 7th grade

Thoughts on Digital School:

Sleep: You definitely get more sleep because you don’t have a set time for class. This means you can wake up whenever it feels right for you and do your work whenever you want.Since you control what you do throughout the day and when you do it, you can move your schedule to get more sleep.

Disruptions: You won’t get disrupted as much. Instead there is a due date and the teachers give you more freedom to be productive on your own time and/or scheldule. This leads to more sleep, and a good look at self-control for future jobs/projects.

Engagement: Since you don’t have teachers to make you stay focused on what you are supposed to be doing in online school, you can become very lazy and not do work. When your work is due and you haven’t done it, it can be very stressful for some students. In online school, there is no one to enforce rules and tell you to stay focused so you can procrastinate a lot and not be very engaged in what you’re doing.

Flexibility: Since you don’t have a set schedule, you can change your schedule in any way you see fit as long as you complete your work. You have lots of flexibility when it comes to online school and when you do your work during it.

Time for extracurricular activities: You have more time for your extracurricular activities because you can choose when to do your work and when to do something else. Also if you finish your work early, you can use the time that was not used for school to do some other activity. Since you don’t have to sit in class for most of the day and limit the time you have for extracurricular activities, you can have more time to do other activities.Lastly, even if your extracurricular activities outside of home are canceled, you can still do other things inside of your home to keep active.                                    

Thoughts on Traditional School

Sleep: You will get less sleep because of the schedule for school. This is because when you have normal school, you have a set amount of time for each class and a set amount of time you are in school. Since you will most likely have homework for after school that may take up lots of time, sleep is also limited and you have less of it.

Disruptions: There will be quite a couple disruptions because you have so many breaks between classes and you might not be completely focused due to those “disruptions”. Since there are many disruptions and you aren’t focused on the task at hand but rather talking with your friends or something else, your grades, performance, and participation might drop drastically.

Engagement: Engagement may take a toll on many kids during online school because during normal school you are being watched over and teachers are making sure that you’re doing your work.

Flexibility: During normal school many kids don’t have a lot of flexibility during their day. They have to get ready to go to school, come home and go to their activities, then do their homework and go to bed only to do the same thing the next day. This means that students don’t have much room to change their schedule or be flexible.

Time for Extracurricular activities: During normal school there are many opportunities for Extracurricular activities. But for some this makes your schedule a lot tighter and harsh to manage. While others may miss all the excitement and activity going on whether it’s going to soccer practice or a ballet class.

Thank you, Nitya and Sarah, for comparing the two types of school from a students’ point of view!