Ramdas Roy
Do students learn to respect the time of the teacher? Are they obedient and disciplined when it comes to actions such as spending their allotted time on the laptop as is now the case? Do we, as parents, help the teachers with our child’s learning experiences and perceptions? These are all frequently asked questions related to online classes in pandemic times.
Academicians say the digital divide may turn on-line classes into an operational nightmare. Due to Covid-19, a tendency is spreading across the country towards digital teaching-learning though its feasibility is weak, and more so in rural areas. There is a growing tendency to use the teaching Apps, E- learning tools, video conferencing facility etc, but all these accessories have ultimately proven to be less acceptable, set against the traditionaland live classroom teaching, which involves a good amount of student-teacher interaction, and a charm of its own.
It’s a fact that teachers are being locked out of their virtual classes by tech – expert students and it’s also true for the teachers that they don’t have any tool to check whether the students are attentive to the teaching or not. How is a student progressing with his or her learning process? There are some indicators to judge this by way of sense of comprehension, use of communication skills, vocabulary, co–relation with other objects or subjects, critical thinking etc. All these aspects have no role to play in online teaching, which is mostly a mechanical process. A robot can do the teaching as well.
A large majority of parents are out of sync with the online teaching system. They are basically handicapped in information technology (IT), computers, internet etc, and these are the ones whose first priority and day’s sole obsession is to work and ensure there is fire in the family hearth.
Online learning is just like building castles in the air, many still feel. It is proven in a research studies that students enrolled in distance learning are managing themselves to be average performers, and are a step or two below the students in regular classrooms. Apparently, online teaching in the context of Covid-19 can’t give any benefit to good and proficient students.
Online resources can’t supplement the resources available in the four walls of a live classroom at any educational institution. Computer-based instruction is generally limited to powerpoint, video lecture etc, but it can’t be an alternative to discussion or the participatory method of a classroom. Can we think in terms of group activities, or co–operative learning, in an online class?
It is true that there is a limit to what a student learns from prescribed textbooks. No instructional technology or material has been developed to replace group activities or student’s learning from the Labs. The topics discussed in the classroom makes the class vibrant.Teachers as well as students miss-a lot if there is no face-to-face interaction as in a traditional classroom. A teacher in a classroom can do miracles, and able to motivate all learners as per their capacity; instantly so. This is impossible in digital teaching. It inflicts a process of participation in learning, physical proximity; and face-to-face interaction can attribute the best in the students.
A teacher in physics or chemistry might not be feeling as comfortable in an online class just as he or she feels finewiththe chalk and black board in the classroom, or while handling test tubes in the lab in a chemistry practical class.
In this pandemic-induced crisis period, when educational institutions remain closed for a quarter of a year already, this situation could be used effectively by IT experts. But, whatever it may be, our time-tested and trusted live classroom teaching can’t be replaced by any new mode of teaching. Classroom is live and the atmosphere therein also helps develop a student’s personality in immense ways. It also instills discipline in group behaviour.
At the same time, there is merit in the argument that online classes will in future be the norm rather than an exception. That’s part of humanity’s constant catch-up and adaptations with new technology. What is important is to attune children’s mind to new ways of learning. This takes time and cannot be done in a huff, as the pandemic has forced the society to do in these critical times.
The author is a former faculty at the Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Bhubaneswar.