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School from Home
From being excited about going to school, to now attending classes online, Covid has changed the face of education
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From getting answers to simple questions online, socializing online to currently schooling By Saachi Pai Kane 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 and graduating online, the internet are more than just general points has done it all. Despite all these of view to online education that we big achievements, we always find should look at. ourselves nitpicking about online Being a teacher has never been an schooling. easy job. How is one person supposed
Online schooling isn’t the ideal way to address and explain concepts to a but we got creative when we needed group of children who would much it the most. Behind the thousand rather go out and play? Hats off to reasons why online schooling isn’t as all the teachers out there for being effective, there are one or two reasons patient and understanding towards why it helps our students. From a their students, but if being a teacher general point of view, online education offline was so hard they would’ve had is quite flexible and accessible, books 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
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
without feeling criticized which helps build up their confidence in the long run. With the amount of excuses that can be made for online education, it is quite difficult for a teacher to keep the students involved in activities. “Education must always be personalised, it cannot always be distant. It’s not just about the textbook but also about life,” Sandeep stresses about the fact that once offline school begins, teachers must try harder to connect to their students and get to know them better. With the current generation being exposed to so many more issues, they have much more to deal with at a young age.
While in conversation with Nisha Das, Teacher at Sharada Mandir School, she brings to light how teachers teach multiple classes to different batches of students, each being quite different in their own way. “Preparing a lesson to make it crisp, engaging and interactive is quite challenging. For every lesson to have such a plan is so taxing”, but nevertheless, she tries her hardest to keep her students focused and engaged with different class activities and videos. Her biggest takeaway from online teaching is the fact that although online teaching is inconvenient in many ways, education continued and teachers were able to communicate with their students and help them during these trying times, “Amidst all this gloom and sadness, I am able to come into a class and cheer these children up. I have the advantage to reach out to these children who might be isolated or having their own mental issues and can talk to them.” Due to online teaching teachers like Nisha can reach out to these children and help reassure them about the light at the end of the tunnel. “We didn’t let the virus stop children from gaining their education. We fought through it”, she says.
As a fellow student I can relate to other students when they talk about the stress of online learning. Life is definitely easier with everything available at the palm of our hands but there’s so many factors that people don’t consider. The average screen time of a student has spiked up, focusing on a screen for hours takes a toll and does affect the ability to concentrate, and social isolation along with other mental issues do affect students.
A big challenge while shifting to online education was the fact that it’s an extremely new concept, “Not the student nor the faculty had the time to prepare for such a drastic change”, says Aryan, a high school student at Sharada Mandir School. The lack of effective communication online was a major concern. Despite the rules, students rarely have their cameras on during classes making it seem like a boring seminar rather than an engaging class. “Rather than online classes being the way that they are, we should have digital learning, which is learning through assignments, presentations, and other mediums that can be done online”, Aryan explained. To conclude, he believes that change can never be done instantly but this was the best we could do at the time being. “Online education is not as engaging but gets the job done. It’s not suited for everyone but it’s unrivaled in terms of contactless education”, says Darren from Sharada Mandir Highschool. The biggest challenge is to participate, students can always login to classes and go do some other work. “A big takeaway is the fact that online education is more feasible than we thought. There are students who need real classroom engagement. But substituting going to school for some time makes sense.” According to Darren, online education is quite subjective but group activities are a go-to and should be used to keep students involved.
When in conversation with Umran, a BPT (Bachelors in Physiotherapy) student, he emphasized on how online learning is easy but not practical in the long run. It has its pros, “I can study at my own pace, concentrate at my own pace, if I need breaks, I can take breaks”, but there’s also challenges where students cannot understand what the teacher is trying to explain. Teacher’s have to tweak their teaching methods while shifting from offline to online teaching. If not done correctly, this can affect the learning process of students. After conversing with quite a few students and teachers during the pandemic, there has been a mix of reactions when it comes to online education. Most students and teachers are waiting to go back to offline schooling. Inspite of all the challenges faced through the screen, we’ve been able to keep education afloat. It’s been more than a year into online schooling, and although things seem to be getting better slowly, I believe that online education will continue to be an integral part of our lives for a few more years to come. Teachers will always continue to do their best and help us out, but as students, we must learn to accept it, embrace it and grow along with it
CHARLENE FARRELL / Gera School
