Online Learning Is a Disaster: But Who Is Responsible?

A recent surge in COVID-19 infections that swelled in the hotbed of secondary schools unfortunately forced the closure of face-to-face learning and the introduction of online learning. Rather than a slick and well-developed format, the experience has been a staggering farce in technology that has led lessons to be flooded with background noise and technical complications. However, a government scrabbling through the dark is not wholly to blame for this shambolic crisis in the education system. Had they dealt with the coronavirus pandemic better, maybe the jagged red teeth of the infection rate graph would have dwindled back down to the receded gums of safer figures. Despite this, COVID-19 would inevitably have pelted through the country during the winter as new virulent strains of the vicious mace-heads emerged with the return to mixing again at work and school. Online learning was therefore inevitable. For years, we have reiterated how we have progressed technologically, yet we cannot establish simple internet connections to this day even though we landed on the moon around 60 years previous. Surely these extremely wealthy communications technology companies (such as Microsoft and Zoom) can provide a greater programme that is not plagued with background noise and provide devices that can run the programme without freezing?

The government’s management of the coronavirus pandemic was foolish with the mishandling of nursing homes and the corruption of the furlough scheme that placed some (in areas such as Liverpool) into two-thirds of minimum wage. Notably, the minimum wage was designed to be an inflexible limit on an employer’s payment of workers to ensure better living standards. The full minimum wage is arguably too low as house prices, food prices, subscription fees and even the price of petrol has soared disproportionate to the incremental rise of it to £8.21 as of 2019. For Johnson to then cleave this allowance to a much lower amount in a time of vulnerability for the poorest (with foodbank usage increasing by 61% since the start of lockdown according to the Trussell Trust) was greed at its worst. To then hand out public money to his unqualified friends such as his £100,000 donation to Jennifer Acuri and Johnson’s £1.4m handout to his Etonian tennis partner (according to The Independent and The Guardian) indicates the government was disgracefully irresponsible and if anything neglected the worst affected. It is important to also understand that the stress on the NHS from COVID-19 was exacerbated by years of Tory austerity. While the government’s handling of Coronavirus did not solely cause the sudden shift to online learning as of January 2021, it certainly did not help.

However, while Johnson’s government committed many resounding blunders, the big-tech corporations also deserve criticism for the inadequacy of the communication programmes they have released. Considering that the revenue of Microsoft reflects the gross excesses of a business ripped straight from Bladerunner 2049 at around £105 billion as of 2020, they should be able to at least create a functioning programme. While Wi-Fi is varied depending on location, multi-billion-dollar internet providers such as Sky and Virgin on huge profits should also improve the reliability of Wi-Fi. In my experience with Microsoft Teams, it has so far stuttered and stalled frequently as people’s voices become a chorus of shrieking harpies and trampled dog toys. On a new HP laptop, the processing power appears markedly weak yet again showing the sort of technological inadequacy that does not have to exist as many smaller smartphones perform such processes with alarming ease. On several occasions, Microsoft Teams has frozen and the teacher’s voice has ground to a halt like Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey as his circuits were unwound. This could severely affect student’s learning which is already limited to the pool of people with devices able to do online learning. Despite the hard work of teachers, scrabbling around in the uncertainty of this new technology, the communication programmes and Wi-Fi providers are failing us all when we need them most. It is understandable to sacrifice the stimulation of face-to-face learning to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. However, it is inexcusable for simple communication, that has been supposedly mastered ever since the 1990’s, to be so inadequate.

While the government have mishandled a tough situation with the coronavirus pandemic and resultingly sped up the introduction of online learning, it is mainly the technological incompetence of corporations, with the power and wealth to do much more, that has led to below-par online learning.