When at Home: A Phenomenological Study of Zoom Class Experience
Zhang, Minglei. “When at Home: A Phenomenological Study of Zoom Class Experience.” Technology and the Future of the Home Conference, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, November 6, 2020.
11 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2020 Last revised: 13 Nov 2020
Date Written: May 8, 2020
Abstract
This paper seeks to answer what characterizes people’s online teaching and learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. I conducted a one-month long ethnographic study of five informants using Merleau-Ponty’s key phenomenological concepts to examine how current working and studying conditions challenge students and educators’ temporal and spatial sensations and what strategies they take to cope with these challenges during their Zoom meetings. Additionally, I employed the autoethnographic method in order to fill in the gap where participation with informants’ daily life was unreachable by documenting my personal experience during and beyond the Zoom class. Through a small sample of the target population, this paper captures a snapshot of people’s initial adjustment to remote educational channels, particularly via Zoom meetings, and therefore provides helpful information in terms of creating resources and improving Zoom class experience for students and educators.
Keywords: Autoethnography, digital ethnography, phenomenology, home technology, affordance, digital divide, Zoom class
JEL Classification: A00, A10, A20, A30, I20
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation