The Covid 19 pandemic in 2020 brought with it some drastic changes. Some people have christened it the New Normal. One such is the advent of online classes.
At no point did I ever imagine attending class virtually. However, it happened. For the better part of 2020 and 2021, I attended virtual classes. Truth be told, the classes are usually boring owing to the lecturers repeating ‘Can you hear me?’ every two seconds.
It is not all gloom though. Google Meet app was the preferred platform before transitioning to Microsoft Teams. In this Google platform, you can scroll down and view all those present. Those with their cameras on provide some sort of entertainment. First, people are in all manner of dressing; night dresses, head tarbuns, vests, some bare chest e.t.c. For morning classes, a good majority of the students are in bed and you can even see they are in their duvets.
Second, some are there just to see what is going on. They are more of testing this platform or are present owing to the fact that they have nothing better to do. It is simply not their main business. From Faith’s end, she can see them partaking in their meals. Anyway, the weather is one that demands some good company. In absence of good company, food comes in handy to keep one warm. During one of the sessions, she noticed someone who was sipping a drink that appeared to be some red 60-year-old wine from France or South Africa. Perhaps from Italy. Wow! Such class. But then again, could be some Ribena, who knows?
There are those who never bothered to know how the platform works. Whenever they join, they forget to mute their mics. At one point, a phone call conversation lasted for a few minutes, all being in a local vernacular language. The lecturer had to stop for a while. Faith higly doubts that the person making the call had an idea that their phone call was being broadcasted and heard by around 130 other people with many not understanding a single word.
She spots those who blankly stare into their cameras. From her end, she can see big lips, eyes, and nose. There is a chat section where all the fun is. Some participants will be there making fun asking stupid questions. Others will be busy reproducing jokes they heard from Trevor Noah and other lame comedy shows they binged watched the last night.
All in all, it is a good experience save for the frequent internet and electricity disruptions. It however denies students the chance to interact physically and use those lame pick-up lines that they saw in some movies. It eliminates the drama but for some of us, we are here for the violence. Anyhow, to online classes shenanigans.
