One might have thought that distance education would be a blessing for teachers - no more hecklers, no latecomers interrupting lessons; no need to calm down the class, no need to check whether someone is cheating. Well, not really. Like the rest of the world, which is also adapting to the new reality brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, mischievous students have found new ways to get on their teachers’ nerves.
Osama bin Laden? Here!
Imagine starting an online lecture and seeing that it is attended by former al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, porn star Mia Khalifa, or the fictional superhero Batman – that’s what happens sometimes during distance education. Students log into lectures under nicknames, making it impossible for teachers to identify them. Other popular handles include - I’m corona, cute girl, dead body, and WhenWillItEnd (we would like to know that too, kiddo).
Wrong Outfit is the Best Outfit
Working from home saves lots of time. No more exhausting trips to and from work. You wake up, take a shower, make coffee/tea and you are good to go. You don’t even need to dress up. Mischievous students, on the other hand, dress up and often their outfits are quite provocative. Fur coats, big sunglasses and tea in cognac glasses – this is the most modest outfit you seem to come across these days. Troublemakers with poor taste in clothes turn off their video cameras and post funny userpics. They also resort to the help of their pets. Thus, a lecture on physics may as well be attended by a dachshund.
Born Tech-Savvy
In some cases, students don’t even show up for lectures, they record a video of themselves showing them listening to a lecturer and taking notes, playing it during online lessons while they sleep or play video games.
Cheating
During distance education, cheating has become child's play (no pun intended). Although school officials have said that during exams students will be using a program that makes it impossible to open tabs or find information on the Internet, now students are able to do this. They can cheat even during seminars or verbal tests, as their peers can text them the answers.