COVID-19 has changed education forever. We know that now. Technology is also taking over our way of teaching, but it's not a particularly bad thing.
There has been a widely discussed debate, for a really long time, around the use of modern technology in teaching children and adults. Whether the effects of these teaching methods are beneficial, we do not know. However, there are some claims that by moving teaching online, students increase their learning.
Fantastic. So all learning should be online. Sounds easy, no?
The solution isn't that easy. Sadly, as we all know; this Worldwide pandemic has removed over 1.2 billion children from classrooms. How are we supposed to keep 1.2 billion children motivated and encouraged to learn English!? (Not to mention the adults). Sometimes online learning can be just as boring as sitting in a classroom. Clearly technology is not prepared for this... or is it?
The solution is easy! First of all, we need to take a step back and evaluate what works. A lot of the time we can do this by asking ourselves a simple question ‘what works/ worked for me?’
I remember when I was doing my University degree, and some of my lectures (lessons) were online but some were not. The lectures that were not online were usually taught by tired teachers in old, small classrooms. They drank coffee out of their cup every 5 minutes and they looked more bored to be there than I was.
Fortunately for me, every classroom in my university had a computer and a projector board. However, some teachers couldn't even be bothered to prepare a PowerPoint presentation that didn't bore us to death! How difficult is it to put together something that's at least has some colours, pictures, videos, anything to stimulate a young mind!
After a few months of having graduated, I started personally experiencing bored students falling asleep during my lessons...Having taught in primary schools and secondary schools have not been all easy. I had the outmost privilege to have experienced working with children and young adults of all ages (from 3 to 18 and over).
I soon realised, that what children really liked were interactive and fun lessons with lots of games and activities which grabbed their attention. If there was nothing stimulating in the lesson, I had to work 10x times as hard to maintain their attention. However, I also didn't want to turn into one of those teachers that just puts on a video for the whole lesson and sits down in their chair - that is not helping anyone learn English.
Anway, I realised that my students were interested in the exact same thing that I was, back when I was a student. Interactive games and activates are fun, and these help students want to learn. For a start, their attitude to learning is positive and motivated – unlike when they are sitting at a table with a book, a notepad and a pen. They need to feel involved and interested in what they’re doing, and that is the key to online teaching.
So, in conclusion, you do not learn more by simply doing classes online. It depends on HOW you are doing those classes. The ability to give out fun activates to children to do on their own computer can only be done in an online setting. Links to interactive activities and games can be distributed to thousands of students with a single click.
So, the question is, why isn’t all teaching moved online?
