How does Zoom influence online education and the digital divide for Canadian highschool

students?

Introduction

Zoom is an online video conferencing platform run out of San Jose, California. Zoom

allows teachers and students to communicate and collaborate on assignments and work. The

platform’s CEO Eric Yuan says his number one priority is to “do the right thing for society”. Zoom

does a phenomenal job of completing this task, when accompanied by the right resources, such

as proper hardware, software, and internet access. Not all students have enough financial

resources to thrive in a digital learning environment. Public, Private and Alternative schools all

have different in person programs and online adaptations. When faced with a massive hurtle

such as COVID-19, schools are forced into a “distance learning program”. in the words of Temp

Keller, one of the heads at Templeton Academy and a previous chairman of Blythe Academy

based out of Toronto says that “Let’s call it what it really is, emergency remote education”. He

also goes on to talk about the most important things during a crisis like COVID-19 is to “accept

the financial losses, but most importantly need to gain ground”. The question is, is this true? Or

does financial stability amongst students have more to do with their learning than we

anticipated.

Zoom is one of the most popular online communication platforms in the world. It boasts

an astonishing 300 million zoom meetings per day which is 290 million more people than they

had at the end of 2019. Zoom uses Java, Kotlin. Toolkits – Android Studio. SDK – Android SDK.

Video Chat – WebRTC to program their platform. Zoom, primarily used on laptops and desktops

allows people from all over the world to connect to video conferences for a multitude of reasons.

The platform is mostly used for work meetings, and digital schooling. Zoom is also a financially
accessible platform for all. It is free of charge and is compatible with iOS, Android, Linux, MAC

and windows. Zoom also values accessibility and simplicity. Zoom’s easy to interact interface

allows users to easily and seamlessly maneuver their way around the platform. The software

was rated 5 stars by the CRN for following commitments to partnering companies and for their

positive reviews on their platform. Zoom’s owner, Eric Yuang, is quoted for saying “We really

don’t look at our competitors. The market is big. If you focus too much on competitors, you can

lose focus on the customer. If we make our customers happier, we are going to win”. This just

shows the values that zoom has and wants to be recognised for. The company based out of

San Jose, wants to provide everyone with the ability to digitally communicate with each other,

and ultimately bring people closer together. Zoom also has a free option that many other

competitors don’t have. Zoom has a monthly fee for hosts or “members'' of the platform, who get

extra benefits. On the other hand the “free” option allows everyone to connect and

communicate. Zoom is one of the largest platforms in the E-Communication industry, and has a

massive influence on other companies and customers, so what are they doing to make their

service beneficial? COVID-19 has been a major setback for many companies, businesses and

schools. Zoom allows companies and schools to stay connected with their employees and

students. The easy to use interface allows easy virtual communication that connects everyone.

Digital Divide

Digital divide is one of the largest problems involved with virtual communication and the

zoom platform. 16% of Canadians don’t have access to a home computer and 6% of Canadians

have no access to the internet at all (“Canadian Internet Use Survey”). This leads to a large

dilemma for schools. In a society leaning towards a more digital based system. 11% of

Canadians don’t have access to the internet at home and that leads to a massive problem in

regards to the online education system. The average Canadian income is $54,630 a year, but

over 12.4% of Canadians were impoverished in the year 2019. Although overall poverty rates
are decreasing in Canada, the digital divide is still increasing due to the evolution of technology

and lifestyles associated with newer technologies. Zoom being a free platform prides itself on

accessibility and availability to the mass public, but not everyone has access to the hardware

needed to run the software. In Toronto, Canada during the height of the pandemic the TDSB

which has over 157000 students received 20000 requests for computers. That means that at

least 12.7% of Toronto students don’t have access to a laptop in their residences. During

COVID-19 schools across Canada and the world were forced into mandatory lockdown. This

creates a large problem for schools especially in the public school system that have a harder

time adapting to hurdles and challenges due to the amount of students and lack of funding. A lot

of frustration was expressed by families and students in the public school system. The TDSB

adopted a policy where classes were optional, and your mark couldn't worsen throughout the

virtual learning program. This means that the participation rate of classes and the amount of

work completed plummeted, and participation was way lower than what it should have been

during the closing term of school. This solution is a great way to mitigate the digital divide

amongst students and families though. Due to school not being mandatory students with fewer

resources and less access to the necessary technologies don’t have to worry about not being

able to complete work. On the other hand, private schools and alternative schools were much

more adaptable at switching into an “emergency remote education program”. The digital divide

inside of the private, boarding, and alternative school system is less relevant; it is still apparent.

Temp Keller a board member of Templeton Academy an alternative school based out of

Nashville and Washington in the USA and a former board member of Blythe Academy in

Canada says, “It was a real struggle making it an even playing field for all of our students, we

had to distribute computers, and make sure some of our families were given all the support they

need” (Keller).
 Home & Leisure

More schools have organized full-time classes online in real time, we’re seeing kids hit

their limits with certain kinds of screen time. Many schools stopped grading students or even

taking attendance in the chaos of last spring, but those formalities are back. Kids have to log on

and often be seen on a camera to be counted as present. There are new rules about what to

wear, where they’re sitting and how they can move their body. And cameras and microphones

are, for many students, not optional. Experts say not all screen time is the same, and blanket

rules over how many hours to allow aren’t effective when you add in remote school. Families

can feel powerless to control how much screen time schools are tacking on to their children’s

days, especially when they need some of it to get their own work done. Students' home life is

getting affected greatly by the lack of effort schools are applying into their online education

programs. Zoom fatigue is also becoming an apparent issue for many students and adults

spending the majority of their time at home. At the end of 2019, roughly 10 million people in the

United States attended meetings on Zoom. By May 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic shut the

country down, usage had exploded to 30 million. For educators and their students, Zoom and

other video conferencing platforms, however imperfect, were indispensable in powering remote

instruction for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. The optimistic view was that

videoconferencing would for the most part be left behind as things returned to normal. But they

haven’t. Ten months after the pandemic broke out, many educators continue to teach and

interact with their students, parents, and colleagues via video conferencing software, either part

of a hybrid model or full-time. It should be no surprise then that ‘Zoom fatigue” has and will

continue to be a serious challenge for many of these educators. Zoom fatigue occurs when we

feel tired after overusing video conferencing. It is not, however, merely a matter of tired eyes, a

stiff neck or an achy lower back. We can actually feel exhausted after spending too much time

on these calls. Dr. Brenda Wiederhold, a clinical psychologist says “that it lies in the fact that

communication over these programs isn’t in fact real-time”. For educators and students, learning
over a computer isn’t really all that efficient and brain science tells us why. “Our brains are used

to picking up body language and other cues, not to mention increases of dopamine, that are

experienced during face-to-face communication,” states Wiederhold. “On a video call,

something is off, and our subconscious brain is reacting to that. Communication isn’t in real

time, even though we may think it is." Despite high-speed internet connections, there’s a lag,

maybe a millisecond delay and that can trigger the brain to look for ways to overcome that lack

of synchrony. The brain begins to fatigue, causing us to feel tired, worried and anxious”. Not

only is zoom fatigue a massive issue for students around the world, but doing work at home with

a lack of face-to-face interaction is leaking into sleep schedules, and affecting daily routines.

Bibliography

“Canadian Internet Use Survey.” Statistics Canada, 2019,

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/191029/dq191029a-eng.htm. Accessed 17

March 2021.

Keller, Temp. Interview. By Samuel Wolfson. February 4. 2021.