{"id":2692,"date":"2020-08-05T11:51:20","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T11:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/?p=2692"},"modified":"2020-08-05T11:51:22","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T11:51:22","slug":"gaps-in-virtual-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/2020\/08\/05\/gaps-in-virtual-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaps in Virtual Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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By Tanya Mittal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Corona Virus pandemic has pulled the shutters down probably indefinitely on\neducational institutions across the globe. Closure of schools and colleges have disrupted\nroutine lives of students as well as teachers. The education ministry and Central Board of\nSecondary Education remaining incommunicado have created an unprecedented situation and\nthrown many unexpected challenges before one and all. This has created the so-called new\nnormal in teaching. Indeed a catch 22 situation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning and teaching certainly cannot stop. Today it seems to have transcended beyond the\nfour brick walls of schools. Student-teacher community resorting to online resources is facing\ncertain hiccups adapting to the same. Online learners miss out on the human connect possible\nonly in physical space. This medium does not assess all skills of a child and there is no all-\nround development. So is online teaching genuinely teaching students? What skills are really\nbeing assessed through virtual teaching? There are merits and demerits to be assessed.\nTeachers are always expected to be prepared to deliver the content at all times. A good\nteacher is expected to transact the curriculum according to the mode and ensure that there\nisn\u2019t a big gap between input and intake. But in this process people fail to recognize the stress\na teacher goes through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an invasion of privacy of classrooms which is fast becoming a reality. Online\nassessments need to be streamlined because parents and siblings start answering on behalf of\nyounger students. Teachers may not be able to assess all requisite skills required through the\nonline medium as chances of interference through helicopter parenting are high. This has led\nto the invasion of a sacrosanct space shared by teachers and students which are more likely to\nget damaged than building a teacher\u2019s reputation – as non-experts get to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Classrooms have reached our drawing rooms which has made learning easier for the learners\nbut certainly not the teachers\u2019 task. No one gets to comment on the inside workings of jobs\nlike the doctors, surgeons, authors, military etc. but teachers are under constant scrutiny.\n\nMany female teachers are facing challenges of dual responsibilities of balancing their homes\nalong with the rigours of classroom expectations. Having paucity of experience and lack of\ntraining, the faculty seems to be juggling between learning various controls, operating chat\nwindows, allowing people electronically into the class, watching online videos and switching\nbetween various apps as well as drawing simultaneously on a separate digital pad or on-\nscreen. This can certainly become overwhelming for most faculties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, there is no choice but to accept and learn! This COVID-19 lockdown has opened new\nopportunities for teachers to explore their creativity in terms of creating e-material, youtube\nvideos, PPTs, sharing the links etc. A significant change in the traditional role and style of\nteachers has brought to fore unexplored facets of their personality. Earlier, they were seen as\nthe repositories of knowledge. But now they have donned new hats of syllabus designers,\ncontent creators, and developers. Indian teachers are still warming up to technology,\nespecially online teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youth, on the other hand, is not only conversant with the latest but is also willing to\nembrace change in any form. But this seems to be a tall order for the largely ageing teachers\nin our country. Some of the older teachers face the unfounded fear of technology eventually\nreplacing them as nowadays lecture-based sessions and coaching classes like Coursera,\nUdemy and so on are seeing a rise in enrollments. But let\u2019s not forget teachers are\nindispensable units of the education system and, without them, the teaching-learning system\nwould collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, malpractices are seeping into the crevices of online teaching in the form of\nintruders and hackers diluting the sacredness and authenticity of education. Online teaching\nprocess is not as effective as the face-to-face mode in classrooms. The biggest advantage of\nclassroom teaching is that teachers can think on their feet, make strategies according to the\ncontent and the mood of their students, and constantly monitor students\u2019 intake.\nUnfortunately, these are absent in online teaching-learning. The content, mode and manner of\ndelivery are already programmed for each module and teachers are left with little flexibility.\nBesides, the attention span of students is unpredictable in the online mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A multi-pronged strategy is necessary to manage the crisis and build a resilient Indian\neducation system in the long term. This can be done by integrating new activities into the\nlessons. There should be lesser screen time interspersed with hands-on activities. Schools\nshould also keep this in mind while creating online content for younger classes. Challenges of\ntackling higher classes online are similar to that of teaching outdoor sports online. Not all of\nthe co-scholastic skills can be effectively assessed. A diverse and inclusive classroom is the\nbest litmus test for any theory or insight. So is the online classroom catering to needs of the\nspecially-abled and economically weaker sections of the society? And are online\nexaminations really a good solution? Certainly, not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So are we really prepared? Extraordinary times and situations call for bold and radical\nsolutions. In this new ecosystem created by this pandemic, teachers have to constantly\nreinvent themselves to address the exigencies born of this crisis. Sadly, the biggest handicap\nthat teachers are likely to face in this unprecedented event is the lack of training. Education is\nsupposed to be egalitarian. As chorus for online classes grow, the underprivileged students\nwait for a faint signal from a distant tower. Online teaching only exacerbates the social and\neconomic divide between students. It is true that in rural and semi-urban areas, high speed\nInternet may not be available around the clock. Many students are missing out on lectures\n\ndespite paying increasing fees. Parents are worried that this will affect their learning\noutcomes. Since technology has not been integrated into teaching barring a few new-age,\nmodern schools in metropolitan cities. The challenge comes in delivering these online classes\nand assessing examinations online for the children from remote areas. Teachers working in\nelite schools in cities and big towns proudly state that they conduct classes online and help\nstudents make use of the lockdown period in a fruitful manner. What about the others? In\nsome instances, parents have to shell out their savings to either buy or rent laptops or tablets\nfor their children. Every member in a household has different online requirements, thus\nincreasing the number of devices at home. The numerous negative impacts of health like\ntiredness, short-sightedness, obesity and others stand in the way of technology\u2019s effectiveness\nThose involved in education planning and administration should give a serious thought to\nreducing the digital divide as it may result in further inequality and create an academic divide\nas well in the times to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning and gaining knowledge these days no more remains limited to the four walls of an institution or a classroom. With digitalization, spreading fast these have become a thing of the past, and more so due to ongoing pandemic. Moving ahead head first into the future is one thing, but should we not pause and consider if everyone is reaping the benefits of it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":2695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8],"tags":[1958,344,1968,1956,1955,1965,985,1978,1977,1220,1989,796,442,1555,1991,1980,160,564,1971,1972,1969,1985,1987,1462,1984,352,628,402,1961,1981,1990,611,1975,1964,1962,1963,797,1976,1973,1960,1974,1986,1979,1970,1959,1982,1957,979,771,1988,1966,1983,1967],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity","category-society","tag-academics","tag-administration","tag-assessments","tag-catch-22","tag-cbse","tag-challenge","tag-classroom","tag-content-creators","tag-content-developers","tag-corona-virus","tag-coursera","tag-covid-19","tag-development","tag-digitalization","tag-disability","tag-e-material","tag-education","tag-exams","tag-experience","tag-futuristic","tag-helicopter-parenting","tag-incommunicado","tag-indispensable","tag-institutions","tag-interference","tag-internet","tag-invasion","tag-knowledge","tag-learning","tag-link","tag-malpractise","tag-medium","tag-ministry","tag-online-classes","tag-online-school","tag-online-teaching","tag-pandemic","tag-personality","tag-planning","tag-primary","tag-privilege","tag-repository","tag-reputation","tag-responsibility","tag-secondary","tag-skills","tag-teachers","tag-teaching","tag-traditional","tag-udemy","tag-ugc","tag-virtual","tag-virtual-teaching","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2711,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions\/2711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}