HYDERABAD: A digital revolution has been underway in schools for many years now. Blackboards gave way to whiteboards and projectors, notebooks to tablets. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a paradigm shift in learning by shifting entire classrooms online. After a chaotic few months, teachers, children and parents seem to be getting used to the new way of doing things. For teachers, the shift has included learning new online tools, interacting with children on the screen and making peace with frequent internet connections. This Teachers’ Day, we talk to a few educators in the city about their experiences in a virtual classroom.
“When it started three months ago, online teaching was difficult. Zoom app was banned in our school, and we used MS teams to teach the children. The IT department in the school trained us. However, understanding the tools in theory and using them every day were different. Parents, too, found it tough to understand how it works. At that time, I used to go to school and teach online because I was not confident that I could handle it if something went wrong. But now, I am teaching from my home. Things have settled down slowly, and we have got the hang of how the system works. We have started taking tests, and even started crafts classes now,” says Zaheda Anwar, a teacher at a school in the city.
Sudeep Ghosh, TOK coordinator and English teacher at The Aga Khan Academy, says: “Online learning has made students more self-regulated, and more individualistic in terms of learning. However, there are a few disadvantages too. We miss physical interaction with the class. Also, online classes involve more documentation, which leaves teachers less time to pursue their own interests.”
Touching upon why physical interaction is necessary, Rajani Priya, a teacher who runs her own institute now, says: “Online classes are boring due to lack of engagement. This may make the quality of learning and teaching mediocre. Teachers may feel discouraged due to lack of participation. Computer literacy is not high in India, and both teachers and students struggle to adapt. Older and inexperienced teachers have trouble accessing applications, leading to some students taking advantage of it.”
Ram Prasad, who has taught underprivileged kids, says: “Not all teachers are up to speed with emerging technologies. Teachers need to be up skilled to gear up to the challenge. As teachers need digital tools to cover the whole landscape including digitising exams. Although the current situation is far from ideal it presents us with an opportunity to change the way we deliver teaching and develop young people’s capabilities.”
Speaking in the same vein, Zaheda says: “It becomes difficult to interact with every student during online classes. Some of them switch off their cameras and microphones, and we have to ensure that they have not just wandered away after joining the class. A few younger children don’t know how to keep the phone steady because they roam in the house with the phone in hand. Children with working parents find it tough as the parents are not around to guide them.
In case there are two siblings in the family studying in different classes with overlapping schedules, there is a shortage of gadgets. With minimum interaction and back-to-back classes, students become bored, too. Apart from these, bad internet connections disrupt learning often. In order to make sure that the children do not miss out on any course matter, we send them PowerPoint presentations with voice-overs a day prior to the classes. In case they miss anything during the class, they can refer to those presentations.”
Ram thinks that India prefers to go the traditional way. “Online learning or teaching is a panacea during this pandemic but in India, we rely on the traditional face-to-face method in a classroom. Several arguments are associated with online teaching and learning. Accessibility, affordability, flexibility and policy are some of the factors that should be considered,” he adds.
(With inputs from Tejasvi Bharathula)
— Kakoli Mukherjee
kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com
@KakoliMukherje2