A university math teacher discovered the hard way that silence is not always golden.
After giving a talk on Zoom for two hours, Professor Dong Wang of the National University of Singapore soon realized that none of his students heard a word because his microphone was muted, reported the local Independent news agency.
Wang then asked questions of about 20 students who actually stayed connected to the online class throughout the course – and got nothing but crickets.
“No … uhhh … can we finish our class?” he asked.
Finally, some students spoke and said that he was in mute mode all the time.
“We haven’t heard anything from you since 6h08”, said a student to the confused professor.
“From what?” Wang asked the student, who confirmed the schedule. “I mean, how long have you heard?”
One student replied that he only listened a little at the beginning, at 6 pm, and nothing more after 6:08 pm, as his screen would freeze.
Wang, clearly shaken, told the class that he would repeat the entire class on another occasion.
Azusa Chan, one of the students, told the news agency that the teacher inexplicably fell silent.
“The students tried all kinds of things to get their attention by turning on the sound and even calling their phone number. However, he did not respond and continued with the class, ”said the student.
“The count of participants decreased over time, as students were unable to contact the teacher and had no other resource. What you see here are more than 20 students who waited patiently for two hours until the teacher returned, ”added Chan.
The student explained that Wang was doing the entire lesson on an iPad, “so you can expect a lot of things to go wrong in such a configuration.”
“After this incident, he left [sic] his phone next to him whenever he’s giving a talk so we can call him in an emergency, ”said Chan.