Imagine you’re having dinner with a small group of friends and the topic of conversation revolves around education. The main question is, if you could completely redefine teaching from scratch to make it better for every student, what would you do?
Well, here we are experiencing this situation in real life. In the midst of a global pandemic, education from kindergarten to baccalaureate has been forced to move exclusively online, with no real preparation or training for teachers, parents or students. Efforts to maintain momentum despite a complete shutdown are forcing us all to reassess what “school” is — and what it could be.
Rethink education
Teachers, students, and parents realize that simply transferring the curriculum to a screen doesn’t always work. Hybrid learning models must allow for new forms of interaction and engagement. Learning goes far beyond the lesson – the future belongs to ‘homeschooling’.
Education consists of imparting knowledge accompanied by emotional experiences. . Learning is not limited to facts. It is also about how students feel as they learn and grow, how they become familiar with the subject matter, and how they deal with pressure, deadlines, interactions, and school or community life. class. Until recently, the only way to do this effectively was in a classroom. Granted, distance education has been around for decades, but the focus has always been on traditional education, with online materials playing a supporting role.
A global lab experiment
the child sitting in front of a computer doing distance educationWe are now faced with a global laboratory experiment centered on providing quality teaching in a non-standardized environment – at least until students are allowed to return to their schools all together (and that even if student schedules are staggered).
The current priority is to support teachers, parents and students to include quality learning opportunities in the home setting. This means moving away from the fixed structures of school (the bell, the clock, and the physical classroom) while leveraging what these mechanisms provide: structure, community, and social interaction. . Teachers directly read each student’s facial expressions and body language; they use the classroom to broadcast a lesson to a group of students simultaneously while being able to observe them individually.
All of these can be done online: video, sound, the ability to come together, the possibility of individual contact and self-paced learning. It will now be essential to integrate these technologies into the family setting. It requires flexibility with the program and patience with the process – that quality that teachers are full of.
The positive aspect
There is a lot of good news. The quality and value of online collaboration technology has already proven itself in the workplace. We have a generation of young people who are tech-savvy, and we have the artificial intelligence to fine-tune curricula on an individual basis. Given the different types of learning that come into the classroom, this can help speed up the learning process, giving each student the opportunity to learn in the way that best suits their abilities and potential. This might be the best option.