School's Cancelled, but P.E Class Continues!
- Mar 29, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 31, 2020
This week, millions of children have spent their mornings joining Joe Wicks, a British fitness coach and TV presenter for a free live Physical Education lesson following the closures of schools.
Joe has been streaming his online classes live on YouTube.com for free to ensure children are still keeping fit from the comfort of their own living rooms.
Amid the global lockdown (to ease the spread of COVID-19), certain companies have proved to be in the right place at the right time. In this new age, the US video platform, "Zoom" has become the year’s most useful social tool. Zoom has allowed sports classes and gatherings of all kinds to continue virtually during this dark time.
Zoom was founded nine years ago by Asian-American businessman Eric Yuan, a former employee of Cisco Systems. In the first 3 months of 2020 Zoom's daily active user base grew by 67 per cent. The company has a market value of over $42bn, significantly increasing from its IPO in 2019 where it was valued at $16bn.
Initially, the platform was focused on connecting businesses and hosting online meetings but Zoom has now expanded far beyond this user base. The Zoom app has allowed isolated over-70s to see their grandchildren, office workers to replicate their Friday night pub sessions, and teenagers to throw parties.
Yoga and Dance instructors have taken to Zoom to provide large classes to more than 100 people at a time. The distinguishing feature that seems to have set Zoom apart from its competitors in these times is the ability to host as many as 100 users in a video call at once in the free version of the software, far beyond what other platforms can handle.
It is hard to fathom how difficult the current situation of isolation and separation would be if we were living in a pre-internet world. As dark as the current situation may seem, it is comforting that technology is the shining light that will help us through.
James Nangle
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