Online classes or online education?
Lavanya is a 12* year old studying in class VIIth at Carmel Garden school in Koramangala, Bengaluru. This is a private school where the medium of instruction is English. Lavanya considers education essential for a fulfilling future, enjoys creative pursuits and appreciates all of her teachers.
This post also contains some educator resources.
I got to know Lavanya when her mother showed me a video of her sculpting a Ganpati idol with clay. Not only did her creation look beautiful, but I was also amazed by the digital skills used in creating that video. When I got to interview her, Lavanya informed me that her interest in arts and crafts has been facilitated by SUPW classes offered at her school. With pride in her voice, she then describes her school, a place she relates with the library, science lab and playground. Her repeated mentions of her teachers and friends exemplify the importance of these human elements of schooling and education.
Q. Do you miss school in anyway?
A. Oh ya, am missing the school. School is nice as teachers are explaining, not like online class and we can play with friends, so that I am missing.
So what does school and education look like for Lavanya now?
Since schools closed in March, Lavanya’s 7 hours of educational experience has been compressed into a set of audio lesson plans, pdf lessons and doubt solving chats with her teachers. There is of course no meeting her friends, no running around, no playing volleyball, throwball, kho-kho and other sports that she used to.
Lavanya informs me that the school uses microsoft teams for sharing this online content, and tests are conducted through a live class on teams or zoom. Clearly, the shift to online classes has increased her digital know-how and I wonder about the opportunities created by this shift in a) increasing the ability to use internet mindfully and purposefully, b) fostering self-motivated learners, and c) encouraging self-paced learning.
These three are interconnected. Asynchronous content ensures that learners can study at their own pace, for example, Lavanya mentions that she listens to the audio lessons twice to understand the concepts, and Manavi had expressed similar opinions. Additional communication and support on self-paced learning by teachers and other content creators can enable students to recognize their own patterns and strengths as well as growth areas, in essence become more effective and responsible towards their own learning.
This has potential to increase internal motivation amongst learners and requires them to be smart content consumers, and be able to follow their curiosities. For instance, Lavanya is fond of math as she finds the problems given by her teachers easy to solve, an opportunity to deepen her passion and broaden her skills by guiding her to find tougher challenges.
How do the online classes fare?
From the conversation, it is evident that Lavanya is forthcoming and confident. Although she largely maintains that online classes are easy for her and her teachers are approachable, she shares she feels afraid around tests. She adds that she is apprehensive of her conceptual understanding based on the audio messages and if she will always be able to clear her doubts. She makes me wonder about how confident other students in her class feel about approaching teachers for doubt clarification. Instructors around the world agree with the need for dialogue in online education. Absence** of teacher attempts to reach out to students, will hence leave behind many of the quieter, non-motivated and struggling students.
Additionally, Lavanya is afraid to go out or even to play with friends. She adds that the primary change in her life because of Covid-19 is her inability to meet her friends including walk with them to school, talking to them between classes, share food with friends and play with them after the classes, observations similar to Sarthak from Gurugram. Fortunately, unlike her rural counterparts, Komal and Nisha, she can stay connected with her friends through calls, though after her online classes. The school does not create any avenues for students to interact for academic, extra-curricular or social conversations, thereby missing on opportunities of formalized peer learning in an online and stressful environment.
What about Covid-19?
When it comes to Covid-19, Lavanya is plugged into the latest happenings and displays a nuanced understanding of the current reality. She gets her information from her parents and by watching TV, and even mentions the economic challenges created by Covid-19. Similar to all other interviewees, Covid-19 remains an untouchable elephant in the room for schools and teachers. Such silence does little to assuage the feelings bound to surface during a global pandemic, loss, fear and frustration, emotions that lead to reduced cognitive abilities and memory.
Q. How do you feel about the current situation, Covid-19?
A. Feel, means, I feel sad of this covid-19. When it came then every Indian was facing difficulty, and even the, means, jobs were not there, so families were getting difficulty without any jobs.
Lavanya also understands the dangers of opening public places including schools before the Covid curve flattens, and suggests that the government should be strategic and gradual about opening schools. She also wants her teachers to upload video lectures in addition to audio notes, so that students can see their faces, or explanations on the blackboard.
Q. Do you have any suggestions for teachers to improve online learning?
A. I can tell like to open schools, but we cannot, so we cannot understand this audio, but many students who cannot understand this audio message, so we can tell like to open the school, and the teachers are in front of us, and teach us.
She also hopes that the government can come up with a medicine that can cure the disease and asks me several questions about medical research in Europe, making my question my own knowledge on the issue! She also asked me if I knew when the schools would be reopening, a question that seems to be present for many of us.
Q. How are you feeling right now?
A. Like happy only, like sad only. Like one side is sad, one side is happy only.
What am I thinking?
With the diversity of participants I have the opportunity to meet, the need for context specific solutions and approaches created by teachers is present for me. We can co-create more effective innovations by accepting these diverse realities and by addressing real student needs. In order to move from doing online classes to online education, we need to move beyond our adult notions of the needs and purpose of education for a generation that is going to live in a world that we cannot imagine. As of now, for most part, Indian schools seem stuck in replicating the structures of traditional classroom into an online environment, thereby missing the opportunities offered by this pandemic. Here are some resources to make online teaching-learning more engaging and hence, effective:
- Supporting the continuation of teaching and learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic (OCED, Harvard GSE)
- 10 Keys to Building a Supportive Digital Community of Learners (Harvard Business Publishing, Education)
- How to keep students engaged in online learning (Poverty Action Lab)
- Five tips for moving teaching online as COVID-19 takes hold (Nature.com)
- 7 Ways to Provide Student Support for E-Learning (LearnDash)
—
*Her mother reported her to be 13 years old.
**This is an inference and has not been mentioned by the interview participant.
Please note that appropriate consent was documented and the interview was conducted on phone (26th Aug 2020) in English.
To receive updates about these interview blogs and analyses, please subscribe to CovEd Conversations.
