Coronavirus pandemic| As schools shift
classes online, a lot to learn and unlearn, for teachers, students &
parents
Schools have tried to ensure that academic
continuity is maintained through virtual classes, but technical glitches,
unstructured lessons, lower engagement and connectivity issues are concerns.
By : M Saraswathy@maamitalks
Thirty-six-year-old Ravi Rajan’s two
children have been attending classes over a virtual platform since March 30.
The children, 11-year-old Sharan and six-year-old Tanvi are able to attend
e-school only on alternate days. Reason? Rajan only has one laptop which is
used for his office work as well. The result is that the children’s attendance
will be impacted.
“These are not small sessions but regular
school lessons from 8am to 2pm. We don’t have the infrastructure to enable both
the children to attend e-school at the same time. Due to this, they will miss
out on the classes and will find it tough to catch up when school reopens,”
Rajan said.
Amidst the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
that has led to a lockdown leading to schools temporarily shutting down, the
new academic year has begun across these institutions on a digital mode. While
some schools have begun full-fledged e-classes, the rest have sent assignments
to be completed on the computer/laptop.
This, however, has seen mixed results,
with connectivity issues in using the internet for daily lessons and
attention-span deficit among students.
What are the schools doing?
Schools have done a digital ramp-up over
the over three weeks to ensure that a child’s learning schedule is not affected
due to the suspension of physical classes.
Amol Arora, Vice Chairman & MD,
Shemford Group of Futuristic Schools told Moneycontrol that the school’s
administrative and IT teams have put together a technology enabled learning
programme to ‘reopen’ school in a new, adapted way using online platforms and
tools.
“We have commenced the new academic year
with Online classes via Google Classrooms and Zoom platform. Families are
slowly adapting to this new medium of learning. Using these platforms, we are
establishing a ‘live’ connect with our children and families, as well as
enabling them to meet and collaborate with each other,” added Arora.
Similarly, at Ryan International Group
that has schools across the country started online lessons since March and is
also noticing a good rate of attendance among the students.
Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan International Group
of Institutions explained that the Ryan Group got off the block in March, to
ensure continuity of the teaching-learning process using online classes.
"Our past experience with learning technologies with Microsoft and Google,
as also our in-house tool PLATO (Personal Learning & Assessment Tool)
helped us in this," he says.
The Ryan Group has online classes for
students from Montessori to Grade 12. Pinto added that attendance is upwards of
85 percent.
Several schools are following this model
to ensure that the exact school experience is replicated.
Neil McWilliam, Head of School, Oberoi
International, OGC (Goregaon) Campus said that Oberoi International School
shifted to online learning from March 23 onwards. According to him, attendance
for e-lessons is ‘almost perfect’ across classes.
"When the students ‘sit in’ classes
using mediums such as Google Hangouts, Zoom, Seesaw and Managebac, you can see
kids who are engaged, active, and happy," he added.
A new learning for teachers
It is not just the students and parents, but
the teachers who are having to unlearn and relearn the way to teach students.
Since a traditional blackboard method may not work for e-classes, teachers are
learning to adapt to technology as well.
For making the transition from school to
home simpler, teachers at Shemford Group of Futuristic Schools are being
provided training in the form of webinars, YouTube videos and masterclasses for
questions related to the time table, managing children attending e-classes
among others.
The level of engagement of students in
online and offline mediums are also different. Ryan Group’s Pinto explained
that since online teaching is quite different from a physical classroom,
teachers need to find new and innovative ways of keeping students engaged for a
longer period.
Some schools have already been using
digital technology as part of the lesson delivery. Hence these schools may not
face too many challenges.
Rajiv Bansal, Director-Operations, Global
Indian International School (GIIS) India said that virtual classes are being
offered across campuses in India and overseas that will benefit over 11,000
students.
“We have been using this technology for
over 5 years and therefore the teachers were able to move on to virtual classes
almost immediately once the lockdown was announced. The lockdown has enabled
teachers to be constantly in touch with their students, solve their doubts and
monitor their performance on a real-time basis,” he added.
At GIIS, the students have the flexibility
to log-in and join the class through their mobile phones or any other personal
device from home. Apart from the student handbooks and video tutorials that
have been shared, the school also has set up a helpdesk to resolve queries.
What are the concerns?
Though the lockdown has forced children
and schools to go online, technical glitches mean that there are constant
interruptions. Further, children are more distracted when looking at a screen,
from their respective homes.
McWilliam also admits that technology on
its own would not ensure success.
“Children learn very little by staring at
a computer screen. Learning is an interactive, collaborative process which
depends heavily on the quality of the relationships between students and
teachers and between students and other students,” he added.
A pan-India school chain decided that they
would take one class a day for 30-40 minutes. But merely few days after it was
introduced the classes had to be suspended due to a technical glitch. Students
are now awaiting clarity on whether this system will be resumed or if they
would directly break for the summer vacations.
The level of internet connectivity also
varies from region to region. This could be a problem when live classes are
held since students in poorly connected areas would miss the lessons.
“Network connectivity & adequate smart
devices have been a challenge. Families no longer fight for the TV remote, but
for the computer, tablet or the internet connected device instead. At times,
there are connectivity issues. Not everyone has the required internet bandwidth
to access lessons,” added Pinto.
Why are parents worried?
Some schools are offering structured
programmes, while several others are merely sending slideshows for students to
follow.
Preeti Menon, a 39-year-old banker told
Moneycontrol that her daughter’s school has merely sent homework assignments
for her daughter who is in the eighth grade.
“They have sent some videos with
instructions related to the lessons in the textbook. But these are not live
videos and merely slideshows. I feel the students are missing out since there
is no teaching happening,” she added.
Menon is now worried that once school
reopens, the teachers will rush through the lessons across subjects to ensure
that the academic year syllabus is completed on time.
Another parent Dipali Roy is worried about
whether her son will be made to study through the summer vacations.
“My son’s school has asked us to not plan
any vacation till further notice from the principal. It is clear that they may
have regular school during the summer vacations between May 5 to June 15,” she
added.
Schools also may not have had adequate
time to prepare for the technology changes that were to be made. Which is the
reason why students are getting impacted.
Delhi resident Areef Ahmed told Moneycontrol
that his son’s ICSE medium school offered a 10 percent refund in wake of the
lockdown if the full year fees were paid. But there were caveats.
“The school said that parents can buy a
tablet for students to attend online lessons. But these are not structured
classes and just merely 30-minute instructional videos. Why should we spend on
this,” he added.
Similarly, electronic books are also being
seen as a bane since there is a likelihood of the child’s eyesight being
affected due to constant staring at a digital screen.
What lies ahead?
With speculations of a further extension
of the lockdown, the biggest worry among parents is how would the periodic
assessments be held. And whether digital assessments would be feasible.
“The quarterly unit tests gauge how well
students have understood the concepts taught in classrooms. With classes not
being properly conducted, how will they conduct these tests,” wonders financial
services professional Mihir Vashisht who has a 12-year-old daughter.
The next four to six weeks will be crucial
to understand how schools are able to withstand the challenge and whether
further deployment of technological tools will be required.
Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/
