Hello everyone, and welcome to the summer vacation from HELL.
Where usually we would be trying to relax and catch up on thrilling turkish teleplays, waiting for our lives to restart come August, we are now catching up on those teleplays, while being quite annoyed about the whole global pandemic thing.
Seriously though, stay at home.
One of the things that was drastically affected by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown was school.
Being termed as snotty germ factories more so than usual, governments all over the world cancelled school, sending everyone scrambling to the comforting arms of the internet.
I have felt that online schooling, or using the internet as a primary means of education, was an inevitability. The internet is supposed to be the “great equaliser” removing the cost of the physical infrastructure required to run a school, like buildings, desks, chairs etc. and providing easy access to literally all of the information and knowledge you could ever need. You know, like an actual school.
We saw this rising trend with initiatives like Khan Academy, UDemy, EdX, Coursera, Masterclass along with pretty much all major universities offering online versions of their courses as well.
Seeing this trickle down to the Highschool level was something i felt would have been commonplace in say 5 to 10 years. However, COVID accelerated that timeframe to a matter of days, as schools all over the world jumped online trying to transition as seamlessly as possible.
Now in Pakistan, as is usually the case between those who are privileged and those who are not, this move split students across the country into two major categories: those who did transition to online schooling and those who could not.
According to different sources, Internet penetration in Pakistan is around 35% of the total population. Meaning that only 1 in 3 people has ready access to the internet. So we can’t really consider online schooling as a one-size-fits-all solution when the infrastructure needed to access that learning is in such limited number of hands
As such, the government did launch a commendable initiative in the form of Television based learning, which has a significantly higher penetration rate. But again due to the passive nature of the medium, it is a temporary stop-gap solution at best.
Since I teach at an extremely privileged school, let's talk more about the online schooling aspect.
I feel as teachers we had to adapt really quickly and as is usually the case with new technology, there are growing pains. It takes some getting used to the new format and medium of instruction, with all the parental pressure for perfection not making things any easier.
In the last couple of months I saw that there was either a tendency to go for very lecturey-late night-talkshow-host-monologuey lessons (like meself, I do like to babble), or to go for a much more assignment-heavy strategy. Honestly speaking i don't think either of the two strategies are ideal; we just ended up translating our strongest teaching styles into these online classrooms.
I think most of us teachers would agree that the most important thing that has been missing so far is that level of social connection we would have with students when we would occupy the same physical space.
By its very nature, that is something really hard to effectively translate online. When someone is speaking to you over the phone or even through video, as compared to in person, our attention tends to slip. And I think going forward focusing on this element would be crucial. Trying to make our lectures and assignments as interactive as possible, so that there is a conversation going on and it's not just passive learning.
Which brings me to the other side of the equation: the students.
To say that it has been challenging for y’all would be a disservice and a gross understatement. Suddenly adapting to a new mode of learning amidst a global crisis and the mental and emotional strain that comes with that, is incredibly hard. Having that shared physical space was important and had a tremendous impact on how we absorbed and analysed information and it really feels like online schooling is but a shadow of its former corporeal self.
That being said, I think there is a key realisation that we all need to come and it's that, this isn't going away any time soon.
There is no deadline on the virus as of yet and most experts agree that this will take at least months to solve. Even if schools are opened when things seem better, there is quite the possibility that they just might be closed again if the virus behaves differently.
For better or for worse, online schooling is here to stay, What we have to do is come to terms with that fact and realise that we will not be getting this time back. It falls on us to adapt to these changes and make the most of them.
As students who have spent their lives in a strictly regimented academic program, this might feel like uncharted territory. Suddenly, there is no authority figure monitoring your every move, keeping you on track. You are not surrounded by like-minded peers who are also striving for the same goals as you. Learning has suddenly become quite a lonely experience.
And it is in this state that it becomes imperative to take responsibility for whatever it is we are doing. It is in fact in these times of crises that we find ourselves maturing a lot faster. We have to learn skills that will help us overcome these challenges, chief among these being self discipline.
Without the proverbial danda guiding our actions, it will fall on all of us to give ourselves that motivation to keep going and accomplishing. For that we’ll need a lot of awareness and reflection as to why we are doing the things we are doing and finding those ambitions and reasons.
So engage as openly and extensively as you can with online learning and think of the fortunate circumstances that have allowed you this unique experience. And what you can do for those who were not so fortunate.
If this crisis has taught us anything it's that humans have the fundamental capacity to adapt and overcome. We are definitely all in this together and InshAllah we will get through this together as well.
Where usually we would be trying to relax and catch up on thrilling turkish teleplays, waiting for our lives to restart come August, we are now catching up on those teleplays, while being quite annoyed about the whole global pandemic thing.
Seriously though, stay at home.
One of the things that was drastically affected by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown was school.
Being termed as snotty germ factories more so than usual, governments all over the world cancelled school, sending everyone scrambling to the comforting arms of the internet.
I have felt that online schooling, or using the internet as a primary means of education, was an inevitability. The internet is supposed to be the “great equaliser” removing the cost of the physical infrastructure required to run a school, like buildings, desks, chairs etc. and providing easy access to literally all of the information and knowledge you could ever need. You know, like an actual school.
We saw this rising trend with initiatives like Khan Academy, UDemy, EdX, Coursera, Masterclass along with pretty much all major universities offering online versions of their courses as well.
Seeing this trickle down to the Highschool level was something i felt would have been commonplace in say 5 to 10 years. However, COVID accelerated that timeframe to a matter of days, as schools all over the world jumped online trying to transition as seamlessly as possible.
Now in Pakistan, as is usually the case between those who are privileged and those who are not, this move split students across the country into two major categories: those who did transition to online schooling and those who could not.
According to different sources, Internet penetration in Pakistan is around 35% of the total population. Meaning that only 1 in 3 people has ready access to the internet. So we can’t really consider online schooling as a one-size-fits-all solution when the infrastructure needed to access that learning is in such limited number of hands
As such, the government did launch a commendable initiative in the form of Television based learning, which has a significantly higher penetration rate. But again due to the passive nature of the medium, it is a temporary stop-gap solution at best.
Since I teach at an extremely privileged school, let's talk more about the online schooling aspect.
I feel as teachers we had to adapt really quickly and as is usually the case with new technology, there are growing pains. It takes some getting used to the new format and medium of instruction, with all the parental pressure for perfection not making things any easier.
In the last couple of months I saw that there was either a tendency to go for very lecturey-late night-talkshow-host-monologuey lessons (like meself, I do like to babble), or to go for a much more assignment-heavy strategy. Honestly speaking i don't think either of the two strategies are ideal; we just ended up translating our strongest teaching styles into these online classrooms.
I think most of us teachers would agree that the most important thing that has been missing so far is that level of social connection we would have with students when we would occupy the same physical space.
By its very nature, that is something really hard to effectively translate online. When someone is speaking to you over the phone or even through video, as compared to in person, our attention tends to slip. And I think going forward focusing on this element would be crucial. Trying to make our lectures and assignments as interactive as possible, so that there is a conversation going on and it's not just passive learning.
Which brings me to the other side of the equation: the students.
To say that it has been challenging for y’all would be a disservice and a gross understatement. Suddenly adapting to a new mode of learning amidst a global crisis and the mental and emotional strain that comes with that, is incredibly hard. Having that shared physical space was important and had a tremendous impact on how we absorbed and analysed information and it really feels like online schooling is but a shadow of its former corporeal self.
That being said, I think there is a key realisation that we all need to come and it's that, this isn't going away any time soon.
There is no deadline on the virus as of yet and most experts agree that this will take at least months to solve. Even if schools are opened when things seem better, there is quite the possibility that they just might be closed again if the virus behaves differently.
For better or for worse, online schooling is here to stay, What we have to do is come to terms with that fact and realise that we will not be getting this time back. It falls on us to adapt to these changes and make the most of them.
As students who have spent their lives in a strictly regimented academic program, this might feel like uncharted territory. Suddenly, there is no authority figure monitoring your every move, keeping you on track. You are not surrounded by like-minded peers who are also striving for the same goals as you. Learning has suddenly become quite a lonely experience.
And it is in this state that it becomes imperative to take responsibility for whatever it is we are doing. It is in fact in these times of crises that we find ourselves maturing a lot faster. We have to learn skills that will help us overcome these challenges, chief among these being self discipline.
Without the proverbial danda guiding our actions, it will fall on all of us to give ourselves that motivation to keep going and accomplishing. For that we’ll need a lot of awareness and reflection as to why we are doing the things we are doing and finding those ambitions and reasons.
So engage as openly and extensively as you can with online learning and think of the fortunate circumstances that have allowed you this unique experience. And what you can do for those who were not so fortunate.
If this crisis has taught us anything it's that humans have the fundamental capacity to adapt and overcome. We are definitely all in this together and InshAllah we will get through this together as well.
