I am thankful for distance learning by Anthony

I am thankful for distance learning by Anthony - November 2020 Scholarship Essay

COVID-19 escalated the use of technological capability in education. Prior to the pandemic, video conferencing over the Internet via wired and wireless devices already existed. However, these capabilities were not implemented as the mainstream services to replace face-to-face meetings. Everyone recognized that video conference and distance learning saved travel costs and reduced travel time for us to be productive without leaving our seat.

Due to the coronavirus everyone was forced to practice social distancing. Most of human interactions were moved to online and over the Internet. Classroom lessons were taught via Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or other collaborative applications. I am thankful for distance learning in several ways. Another Thanksgiving and Black Friday are coming. These holidays come with deep discounts on electronic products such as laptops, cellphones, and other mobile devices that are affordable to students with increased technology advancement such as 5G networking capability for faster data communication. I am thankful for this hardware improvement each year. I am also thankful for the existing free collaborative services that enable students to continue online learning without missing a lesson. Finally, I am thankful for our democracy, our guaranteed freedom of speech and expression whether in private or public settings, and the freedom for private merchants to innovate their technology and to compete for the benefit of the consumers (endusers, students, parents, employees, and the government sector).