As COVID-19 alters the world’s activities, the Piedmont global telecommunications and globalization class is exploring how the pandemic has impacted telecommunications.

“I believe that we are having to adopt technology that we’ve never used before,” said Professor Jackson, professor of the class

The class’ results were presented on April 15, the second year of the Piedmont Symposium where there were a few changes due to the Coronavirus. Instead of it being held in the Swanson Center on the Piedmont College campus, it was held online either with live sessions or prerecorded sessions through Zoom, a fact that shows how telecommunications is becoming increasingly important.

“I would definitely say we have become more reliant on it; I mean the only way online classes and online interviews is because of technology.” said Alyssa Emmett, a student in the class

Emmett noted that when is comes to technology, we have become more reliant from our alarms we set on our phones to get up in the morning to using technology for directions by using our GPS. Then when it comes to restaurants, they can do online ordering and carryout because of technology.

With the history of telecommunications from paper printing to telegraphs until now, with some virtual reality, technology has been used in primarily in positive ways. However, students noted that along the way there have been some people who used these means of telecommunications for greed and ego. But it is primarily a positive future if used in right judgment and used in the proper way.

Another aspect of telecommunications that has become increasingly important is 5G technology. Joey Brovont, another student in the class, said that there is a strong need for 5G is to make everyone’s internet faster, especially since everyone is at home and using the internet more than what we are used to doing.

“5G is supposed to be a lot faster than what we have now,” he said.

From communicating with friends to shopping for groceries, the pandemic has emphasized the importance of telecommunications.

“As with anything with technology I think it’s how you use it,” Jackson said. I think that technology has always in the past and in the future will be an amazing miracle that mankind pushes forward the frontier.”