If you are an educator and are reading this, did you
ever imagine that you would someday take your classes wrapping your legs with a
warm blanket and sipping the morning ‘ghar
ko chiya’? While on the other side, your students would also be doing the
same and you aren’t bothered?
Amid this chaos and crisis, when educators from all
over the globe have pulled up their sleeves to tackle something so humongous
and uncertain and giving the world a serious challenge, I am a little bothered.
No, I am not bothered about how I have to now separate
some extra hours to learn a new interactive online tool to deliver to match the
same level of interaction that used to happen in my onsite classes. Rather, my
concern is about how the world is taking a huge jump towards online education
and is less bothered about considering the emotional and mental wellbeing of
the students that might arise from suddenly shifting into online education from
an onsite education.
Here, I am not in anyways trying to call myself a
sorted out teacher. I am also learning; learning to use new tools, learning to
deliver at a much slower pace, learning to make the students speak but at the
same time watch who is raising her hand and who is already sharing in the
chatbox. I am learning to learn each day.
But here, I am trying to place myself in the shoes of
the students and trying to figure out what might they be thinking? How might
they be taking all these changes? Most importantly, how might they be feeling?
With innovative delivery technologies, teachers can
now switch to online teaching without compromising any of their interactive
techniques of their onsite teaching. But how open have we been with students by
asking them if our ways have been as effective as we deem them to be when
teaching on-site? How have students taken this sudden transition? How are they
adapting and what kind of support do they want from their teachers? How worried
are they?
Furthermore, researches have shown that the difference
in students’ technological expertise, unmet needs for human contact, lack of
self-motivation, or feelings of isolation can deter success in online courses.
This might not just affect our slow learners but also the ones whom we put in
the 'green' zones. Especially in the context like Nepal, where the internet
bandwidth is still a problem and students have to choose whether to turn the camera on and give their teacher a warm smile or to turn that off for the
uninterrupted voice of the teacher, it is hard to read if they are emotionally
in the 'green space' for learning. Learning is as much as a function of a
person’s emotional response to a learning environment as it is to the
instructional method or classroom.
While some students might be facing technological issues,
some might be facing disturbance in their surroundings when the context that we
are in at the present moment isn't that favorable in most of the families who
might be practicing quarantine and are living in isolation. Therefore, online
learning might elicit frustration, anxiety, apprehension, and incompetence for
some while at the same time it might bring excitement and pride in what one has
accomplished even in the middle of this crisis. So finding the right emotional
state for learning is challenging.
In this context, attending emotions in the classroom
enables both student and instructor to manage feelings and provides useful
methods to address difficulties that could deter success. Yes, it is
undoubtedly helpful if you can separate some time to talk to each of your
students even after the class to learn about their psychosocial status, but if
you feel that you are in a crunch of time or you feel doing this is intervening
your or your students' personal space, then just spending a few minutes to
checking in how they are feeling and listening wholeheartedly is very
significant.
It is not about how quickly you shifted into online
teaching but it is about how slowly and steadily you planned to take the
account of your students' emotions and making them adapt this transition. It is
not about how you are proud of your and your students' technological
advancement but about how comfortable you are sharing each other’s
vulnerabilities. Success in online courses is probably a combination of
technical, personal, cognitive, motivational and psychological factors.
To all the educators who have taken up this challenge
of transition, I share your pain and pleasure. Let's work together to make this
world a better place.
No comments:
Post a Comment