How important is it to see each other?

Today my first lessons with the Zoom platform. Videoconferencing, which means that I could see the students (they could see each other as well). Apart from praising Zoom (or its CEO) for reacting so quickly to the needs of the time by lifting the 40 minutes limit in the free version, providing school is the user  - so that we can hold longer lessons - apart from the technical ease with which the platform is handled - it is a bonus, to see. To hear. To react to the nuances of the face and the body. I was so thrilled, my eyes watered slightly - and I did not even try to hide it. 

Some of the students confirmed this feeling, saying in the after-lesson note that it was wonderful to be able to see. It made the school experience even more closer to "normality" for which we fight.

Do I regret that this pandemia made me learn new things? Not at all. I would probably never wanted to experiment with online work. I remember being loath to edit in google documents, when Obywatele dla Edukacji worked on some petition. Now I can do it easily, not because I learned, but because the inner unwillingness has been conquered.

That we will come oout of this purge changed, was clear from the beginning. Some aspects of the changes are beginning to get clearer...