In an age of technology, schools are increasingly integrating computers, tablets, and cellphones into classroom use. People have been both against and for this new process, as they cause many distractions but also are thought to streamline the learning process. One new topic of debate is at home video conferencing in place for class at school. Students would be able to wake up in the morning, get on their devices, and attend class. However, I believe that students would not benefit from video conferencing at home because technical difficulties and distractions are common, and an engaging student to teacher or peer relationship is harder to maintain online than in reality.

Although computers and cell phones these days are already advanced compared to a couple of years ago, they are still not perfect. Technology is not very predictable, and this is not very beneficial to a person's learning. When students experience problems like no internet and glitches with their device, they will not be able to attend their class online. For example, if students were to wake up to a thunderstorm and find out that their power was out, they would have to take transportation all the way to their actual classroom while missing class time and content. Their education would be interrupted, contradicting the fact that video conferencing was supposed to make learning easier for them. These technical difficulties, while occasionally solvable at home, would be completely cut out at an actual school.

Being a student myself, I know for most that in a home environment, I feel far less focused than when I am at school. Pets, family, and simply things going on around the house are distracting while being taught new material and would be impairing a student's ability to retain new information and focus on the task at hand. Furthermore, if their parents were not at home, they would have to watch pets and take care of younger siblings while attending class at the same time. Also, teachers would not be able to control their students' internet or phone use at home. All of these distractions would cause focusing problems not usually found at school. This would not be beneficial to students' education and could also be avoided if students went to a physical school.

The last reason why students would not benefit from video conferencing at home is because it would lack an actual student to teacher or peer relationship. A teacher would have a hard time focusing on one student's question while trying to keep the attention of their entire class online. While answering a question of one student, the rest of the class could be leaving the conference. This relationship is hard to fake as teachers are supposed to be mentors for so many students. Forging lasting friendships with peers would also be difficult in on online setting where an entire class can hear your conversation. Since communication with others is a necessity at succeeding in jobs and in the real world, these conversations would be especially important to technology addicted teens. Without actual face to face contact, it will be hard for students to get real life experiences that can shape their futures. The video conferencing would contribute to this hardship rather than benefit the students through its constant internet use.

With technology already being such an important institution in students' lives, I do not think that they would benefit very much from using online conferencing in place of an actual classroom. These days there are rarely any boundaries between children and their phones or TV, and the longer they use them the more immersed they become in other people's lives rather than their own. Real life interaction with teachers and peers simulate real world experiences for students, and they learn important communication and team working skills there. But video conferencing at home basically contradicts everything that school is meant to be. Rather than establishing a focused environment where children can learn from physical teachers and peers, it makes school an artificial and imaginary thing that has a far more diminished role in students' lives than real school.