I've been teaching in person and had to transition online during COVID-19. I agree with all of his points that going online can degrade the experience. but al

I've been teaching in person and had to transition online during COVID-19. I agree with all of his points that going online can degrade the experience. but all of this pre-supposes what it means to teach and what it means to learn. Some comments mention children, but the OP is a Yale law professor. Seems like esp. higher ed needs to be a little more open minded in their thinking going forward given the circumstances. > it’s important to acknowledge what online learning misses. It seems to me that by only describing how a zoom meeting is lacking vs. an in person classroom he's missing what an online learning environment is capable of creating. A lot of his arguments seem to be centered around grabbing and holding someone's attention in a digital environment, which I also empathize with, but I think some things can also be a symptom of an educational system whose purpose is not always actual learning- i.e., is the purpose of grade school educational, or is it day care for working parents? Is the purpose of yale law school learning about law or is it to serve as a gate keeper in the legal profession? etc. When the whole reason people are sitting there has not much to do with what you're trying to convey, it's no wonder they have trouble paying attention. That being said, if students are interested and expectations are aligned, some things that I found that some things were actually improved upon in a digital setting: (specifically I teach at a coding bootcamp) - one-on-one teaching can feel more intimate and effective, (as in a zoom breakout room) since you are not speaking to that student in the classroom where others can overhear or that you don't also have to speak to the whole class at the same time. Sharing someone's screen feels more like you are right there with them. - the asynchronous nature of doing things online means that people can come more well prepared vs. having to have everyone in sync in a classroom all the times, in real time. - it's logistically simpler to not ask 30 ( 50? 100?) people to all gather in the same physical location at the same time. I suppose this is obvious, but when you stop to consider this, physically transporting yourself somewhere else is, at best, tangentially related to learning something. - also obviously, it's easier to convey certain things on a screen than it is in person speaking / on a white-board. Specifically I mean being able to focus in on a diagram or example. On a projector or on a white board you simply become limited by real estate that you get back on a whole screen. (edit: formatting)