Pic: Saachi Pai Kane
Focus / Online Schooling
School from Home
From being excited about going to school, to now attending classes online, Covid has changed the face of education
By Saachi Pai Kane rom getting answers to simple questions online, socializing online to currently schooling and graduating online, the internet has done it all. Despite all these big achievements, we always find ourselves nitpicking about online schooling. Online schooling isn’t the ideal way but we got creative when we needed it the most. Behind the thousand reasons why online schooling isn’t as effective, there are one or two reasons why it helps our students. From a general point of view, online education is quite flexible and accessible, books
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and notes are available online, it helps children as well as adults understand technology a little better, and it keeps us safe during the pandemic. But there are more than just general points of view to online education that we should look at. Being a teacher has never been an easy job. How is one person supposed to address and explain concepts to a group of children who would much rather go out and play? Hats off to all the teachers out there for being patient and understanding towards their students, but if being a teacher offline was so hard they would’ve had an even harder task teaching through the eye of a webcam. Online education, currently being our only option in India is quite daunting, “It has opened up many uncharted territories in education. Like the amount one can do with
“Preparing a lesson to make it crisp, engaging and interactive is quite challenging” NISHA DAS / Sharada Mandir School 28 | My Goa | July 2021
technology,” says Charlene Farrell, Counsellor at The Gera School. According to Charlene, the lack of social interaction is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to online education. When asked about a few effective teaching methods, “Using a lot of interactive apps like nearpod, mentimeter and padlet keeps them engaged.” Online teaching is definitely not as easy as it sounds, “With so much happening in our students’ lives, it’s difficult to connect with them on the same level as we did. Emotionally and physically they seem so much further away. We try our best to make it work but at the end of the day, the heart of education lies in the human touch and human interaction”, says Charlene. “I prefer a physical setup but I wouldn’t disregard online schooling. I’ve had students that have never spoken in the offline setup speak during classes”, mentioned Sandeep Doifode, English Teacher at Sunshine Worldwide School. Students tend to feel shy or judged when expressing themselves in classes. Online schooling has provided them a safe platform to express themselves
