Covid-19 has become one of the largest global pandemics since the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009 and has completely changed our ways of living. The way we’re living currently feels a lot like a dystopian world in a film or book however is it possible that some aspects of this are the future for us? With technology developing at a rapid pace, it’s allowed us to operate just fine from home and so I’ve naturally been thinking that in the far future, how possible is it that this approach will be our way of life. I was thinking about this with regards to learning, working and communication and that I could see a world where learning and shopping is all done online along with meetings and work being done from home where possible. As a result, the positives from the current self-isolation situation with the environment cleaning up worldwide and pollution virtually disappearing would continue. Specifically, dolphins are starting to appear in the waters of Italy again during the current lockdown situation and additionally air pollution in china is clearing up a lot since no one has been travelling via car or public transport.
One key way among many others in which our lives have changed during Covid-19 is through education with all learning being virtual and done through apps like Zoom, Kast and Skype. It’s really incredible to think about how far technology has come to allow for this to be a possibility. This begs the question of whether people in the future will resort to online learning and education as an alternative to save on travel and also being able to attend colleges and universities from around the world. With the current situation where lectures, lessons, exams, essays and assignments are all done and submitted online anyway, the online education infrastructure is developing at a rapid pace which would allow for several people to be able to learn from home using online resources. Even if this was just PowerPoints, recorded lessons and lectures posted to online sites like Blackboard, this could help students drastically in the future with regards to online learning without having to travel especially if they would normally struggle to make it to school each day. Whilst there are a lot of affordances to an online education system, there are still a lot of constraints with this. For example, some students wouldn’t learn certain key skills that most young people learn from physically going to school like time management, motivation, communication along with many others. Additionally, a lot of important friendships are developed during school and with an online education system, this would be a lot harder for children to develop long lasting bonds with other students if they couldn’t spend free time with each other in person. Also, students may lack motivation at home to wake up for classes or could get more easily distracted from things around them as the learning environment just isn’t there. Personally, I could see an education system in the future where the learning environment is there however some students do study at home taking the same course with recorded resources online if it benefits them.
Despite all these changes to learning and work being done online, one thing I don’t see moving completely online is social events and gatherings, I mean how can it? The essence of going out with friends or visiting family in person will never truly be replaced as it’s spending time with others in person that pretty much stops us going crazy. In fact, after the situation returns to normal, we’re definitely going to see social gatherings almost everywhere and a surge of people out and about.
With all these new developments in our ways of life, it’s not to deter from the fact that the Corona virus is one of the most devastating situations to have happened to us in recent years putting several people into critical condition requiring intensive care and sending many people into recession with their services not being required during lockdown. This is why it’s adamant that we keep up with social distancing to help out our NHS workers keeping us alive. Ultimately, I don’t see these changes to learning happening anytime soon but it’s definitely something that’s developing at a rapid pace due to our current situation which is why I assume the infrastructure will be at a point to support an online education system in the future. If you want to read more into this idea, there’s an article from the BBC linked blow relating to this same topic.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200331-covid-19-how-will-the-coronavirus-change-the-world
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