Hey there,

When I think of "online education," a bunch of images pop into my head. I grew up in 2000s Latin America, and my first encounters with a computer involved heading to a cyber (cyber cafe) in elementary school, notebook in hand, with a few coins my mom gave me to go online and research homework. Back then, nobody I knew had a computer at home. Hitting up the cyber to "study" was less about academics and more a social event, kids from the whole neighborhood would turn it into hangout time.

The internet was part of most of my education, but I didn’t actually experience online classes until I’d already graduated. When the pandemic hit, friends still in college were forced to swap lecture halls for Zoom screens, battling uncertainty, Zoom fatigue, and the irresistible urge to keep cameras off while scrolling on their phones.

For me, the internet as an educational tool had once meant community, but now it felt like the opposite, less a tool than a Band-Aid for an increasingly isolated society. I read endless articles about how online-only learning harmed elementary school kids: how it stunted socialization, shortened attention spans, and so on (see Kuhfeld et al., 2020 on "COVID-19 learning slowdowns"). No wonder many still see online classes as "second-rate" -less "serious" than in-person ones.

It wasn't until early 2025 that I got to experience online learning firsthand, this time as an adult juggling work and hobbies. I can't deny that at first it felt like I was settling for online classes just to make my schedule work. 

Sitting at my computer in my pajamas after a long day felt nothing like the nerves and excitement of the first day of school. But my (admittedly cynical) attitude changed quickly. Yes, I was still in my room, but suddenly I was also in Guangdong with my teacher, in Colombia with a classmate, in Spain with another. We were a tiny, multicultural Zoom room of Spanish speakers laughing as we butchered our first Mandarin phrases.

And then it hit me: the same warmth and community I'd felt when I was 10 years old, crowding into a cyber with friends to "do homework.” 

Technology is moving faster than we can keep up with, even for those of us who grew up with it. The Internet is undeniably our "third space" now, and while that comes with challenges, I choose to see it as an opportunity: not just to learn, but to build community. Not as a replacement for personal connection, but as its own unique alternative. (See Cairns et al., 2023 on how virtual classrooms can foster inclusion.)