Salalah: The announcement of online classes may look like some solution for the parents and children, but it is not as easy as it looks. Everyone is coping up with the situation and no one is to be blamed, because everyone is sailing in the same boat.
“It is case of learning for all ‑‑ teachers, students and parents – because no one is fully equipped in terms of technology and content. It is a complete shift from pen and paper to internet platforms where the glitches lay in understanding and even note taking,” said Shelly Mohanty, parent of grade XI student in an international school.
She, however, admitted that gradually some comfort level is coming and a general understanding is developing among the students. “When it suddenly came on us, we were not at all prepared in terms of internet speed and there were confusion over safe platforms. Now that the school has a uniform platform, it is easy for us accept this new challenge.”
Her son also responded in the same vein telling that it was very difficult to cope with the new module, as from childhood to grade XI I never had this kind of experience. “I was totally lost initially, as I was not able to focus due to too many interruptions and we are used to classroom setting in which we focus on our teacher and blackboard. It was entirely a different ball game, but thanks to our school which came out with some upgraded platform and now it is easy for to understand.”
He, however, candidly admitted that still the virtual classroom is not as comfortable as conventional classroom in terms of understanding and post-class interaction with friends and teachers.
School teachers also have their own challenges. Apart from being an entirely new platform, they have to work hard on content and design course in a way that it is student-friendly, computer-friendly and to the point.
“In classroom we know the weakness and strength of most of our students. Accordingly we focus and level of interaction is far better or maybe we are used to that mode of instruction. The virtual classroom is a challenge for us and the preparation time is very long,” said a teacher.
He admitted that the Covid-19 crisis created an entirely new situation for the teachers, students and their parents. The good thing is that everyone has taken up this as a challenge and looking for ways to improve virtual learning.
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