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Camera On or Off?

By: Lorelei Bonifanti

them, when in school we can usually just talk to the teacher one-on-one.

Should Students Be Required to put their cameras on during Zoom?

In our zoom classes, unlike many schools that are doing virtual learning this year, we are not required by the school to put our camera on so that the teacher and students can see us. However, some teachers encourage students to put their cameras on frequently, while other teachers make it more of a requirement for them to be on for the duration of class for various reasons. While there are definitely reasons students should be enforced to put their cameras on, there are surely just as many reasons that students prefer to have their cameras off during class, so that they are not visible to their classmates.

For the argument that students should be obligated to be seen on zoom, being able to see their students lets the teachers know how a student may feel or what they might think about the lesson through emotions that show on the pupil’s faces. It’s hard to see easily whether the class is understanding a lesson when you can’t see their face and can only see a blank screen. An argument against this would be that the students can use the reactions or participant bar on zoom to show how they feel, or just tell the teacher. However, many students may be afraid to use these things since it then tells the whole class that they are having trouble with something, which might embarrass

On the other hand, lots of virtual learners like to keep their cameras off during class because they don’t want the whole class to see their face zoomed in and focused on their iPads. Since zoom has a grid of students displaying each classmate’s profile for the entire class to see, this is slightly frightening to some students to think about. Because of this,they decide to turn their camera off so that they are more comfortable and focused on the lesson, rather than worrying about how they look on the screen. It’s surely important for each student to be comfortable during their classes because it’s difficult to pay attention to what the teacher is saying when they are also looking at themselves and fixing their appearance constantly-which is something I’ve noticed and done myself-when the student is on camera. Of course, during in-person school, all of our classmates can see us the entire class, simply because we’re sitting there with all of them, and there’s no way to disappear like you can on Zoom. But, in class, not everyone is looking at about 10 students at the same time the way the zoom grid has set up.

Another reason keeping ourselves visible is a good idea is that when we have our camera on, is because it’s a nice way to further connect with our peers, especially since when in breakout rooms, students are usually supposed to collaborate with their classmates and work on whatever’s been assigned together and it’s awkward enough without feeling like your talking to a screen, which you are, but it feels better seeing human faces in that instance.