During this odd time in society many things are changing, we are all doing our best to adjust to the situation but not every alternative is seen in a positive light by every single person involved. 

Seeing that this corona virus pandemic has disrupted many different factors of our lives, we are living in a totally new “normal”. Everyone has to cope with this disruption, and everyone copes in different ways. Some thrive from spontaneous activities, others thrive from structure.

One essential thing in many people’s routines is education, this can be seen in different forms whether it is just reading a book about a topic one would like to learn about, or in a more structured form like school or college meaning that one immerses themselves in a set of classes that cover a wide variety of topics. This is where online learning comes into play and there are many different platforms being used nation-wide to set this in motion, The Albany City School District has been using Google Classroom and other Google applications to accomplish this task.

Google Classroom is a perfectly decent platform and I have no problem with it. As teachers adjust to online learning there is sure to be some human error in its usage, but nonetheless Google Classroom is very organized and easy to use, plus many classes have been using this platform prior to this situation so it has been a very comfortable transition for those who have had the opportunity to use this before. My favorite thing about this platform is that it sends you a notification 24 hours before any assignment is due, this has saved me plenty of times in the past. As for online learning, my workload has been very manageable and my teachers have been very understanding about the variety of situations students are in and the resources available to them.

I interviewed some students about their perspective on online learning and Google Classroom, while reading these quotes it is important to remember every platform and situation has its strengths and weaknesses.

Faith O’toole (An Albany High School senior) : “I think it’s a great way to still talk and communicate with my teachers and keep my education sharp in these very shaky times.”

Christina Mirabile (An Albany High School senior) : ”Personally I find online learning has been a lot more stressful than I had ever thought it would be. However google classroom if used properly has allowed extremely easy access to work and materials which im thankful for however I feel that it allows for teachers to easily assign more work than they normally would.”

So overall, it is safe to say online learning is definitely different from “normal” school and one has to adapt to this new style of learning, however Google Classroom has been a reliable educational platform that is allowing students to continue their education in this strange time.