Did corona have a negative impact on technophobic teachers?
My parents were always an inspiration. Not just to me, their son, but as teachers, they inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of other children who passed through their classrooms and went into the world.
A completely different world from the one we see today.
I sometimes wonder how easily my mother and father would have adapted in today’s ever-evolving, digital-teaching landscape. Especially during these past 18 months, when teachers who have previously shown preference for more traditional methods of teaching, have been forced to quickly adjust to more tech-heavy options.
Virtual classrooms during corona
According to a UNICEF report, over 1.5 billion children around the world were affected by school closures, with two thirds of them learning remotely through Zoom, Google Teams and other virtual platforms. Never before could it have been imagined that distance education would be rolled out across the entire planet and on such a major scale, as it has since the “corona-crisis” began in early 2020.
A huge need to acclimatise — certainly for the students, arguably more so for many faculty members. I’m pleased to say that when my children started attending lessons via virtual classrooms, they took to it like proverbial “ducks to water” — perhaps because they were able to play on some video games between lessons — but did all young people slip into this new way of learning so easily? Importantly, did the teachers embraced technology fully?
It’s a well-known fact that teaching is a difficult profession — one could even refer to it as more of a calling. These days, however, it has the potential of being even more difficult than in previous years, with long hours, difficult targets and many external influences making the job ever more arduous with still the proverbial low pay despite education being a critical pillar of our society.
Teachers plan to leave schools
Many teachers are leaving. According to the National Educational Union (NEU) in the UK, 35 percent of teachers have admitted that they will definitely not still be in ‘the job’ by 2026. Reasons cited for these pending departures include being overworked, feeling a lack of respect and complications attributed to COVID19.
The pandemic has caused a lot of issues in terms of education. It is undeniable that our digital lives have been a blessing when it comes to meeting the learning needs of children while they are stuck in their homes — and yet teaching across cyberspace certainly has its restrictions.
According to another report by RAND Corporation, 31 percent of teachers had a problem with remote instructions, teaching new content, providing feedback and working with students one-on-one. Meanwhile, 20 percent had an issue with tech, including lack of access to internet and devices.
The problem with distance teaching
For educators, it is much more difficult to keep control of their classroom. They have no way to ensure the attendance of pupils and cannot manage when they have their cameras switched on. A lack of physical presence in a classroom does not only restrict possible conversations but also makes observing, monitoring, and assessing much trickier. Typically, teachers do this by wandering around the classroom while students are doing exercises.
There was also disparity noticed between varying socio-economic backgrounds. Households with lower incomes were less likely to have stable connections, thus contributing directly to a drop in the effectiveness of the lesson. The NEU report suggested that these aforementioned issues, along with additional necessary administration and evaluation, attributed to 70 percent of teachers experiencing a significant increase in workload during the pandemic.
There have always been advancements in pedagogical theory and methodology, and technology has contributed significantly to changing the way educators were able to engage their learner with the lesson. From chalk boards to smart boards, slate to tablets, technological advancements have been able to echo out-of-school life. Skills the kids gain at home can be brought into the classroom and what they enjoy in their leisure-time can help them to learn.
Teaching tech moving quickly
During the last few decades, however, technology has moved so quickly that it can be challenging for a seasoned teacher of 20 or 30 years to keep pace. Registers moved onto school servers and monitoring and reporting systems now send termly or annual reports to parents through the airwaves — favoured over written, small pieces of card with your grades. Homework and learning use websites, making it easier to read, mark and monitor.
In general, schools have become more and more paperless. It is easy to see why. Less handwritten paper sent home through the children or sent via post means nothing is lost in transit. Additionally, time isn’t wasted, and money is saved on paper, ink and postage. Not only is it easier to store information on a computer, but it has also made the educational institutions more environmentally sustainable.
From early years to higher education, experienced, less tech-savvy teachers have been able to stay in their comfortable zone with more traditional, tried-and-tested books, paper and pencil processes — successfully avoiding more modern methods.
Then came corona — and there was no escape.
Backed into a digital corner
These pillars of education who really knew their stuff, were suddenly thrown into the digital depths of Zoom-classes, online homework and PowerPoint lessons. Training was given but was it enough to make everyone in the faculty truly comfortable?
It’s always been the same with technology. As it moves on, older methods become obsolete. We no longer have steno pools, with hundreds of typists click-clacking dictation with their typewriters. How long has it been since we spoke to a telephonist who would manually connect our phone call? Most people under the age of 70 don’t even use housephones anymore.
Research shows that 98 percent of people ages 16 to 34 have smartphones as do 95 percent of 35 to 54-year-olds. However, when we move to the 55 to 64 category that figure drops to 80 percent with the number of smartphone-owners aged 65+ being lower still. A prime example of how people generally have an option in their tech-use frequency — not the case with teaching remotely during the pandemic.
A positive or a negative?
The question is, is this forced adjustment to the digital age a bad thing? Yes, we will undoubtedly lose some great teachers, who can’t handle the advances and decide to leave teaching or retire early. How much longer would they have been in the educational system anyway?
On a more positive side, the necessity for teachers to use more advanced technology can improve their skillset and maybe open their eyes to how devices can be a useful addition when incorporated into their own methods. They could realise that it is not as difficult as they once thought. This is the future. This is progress.
And yet, however much technology advances, we shouldn’t forget the traditional ways as the backbone of our pedagogical theory. There is a reason that my parents, along with millions of other educators around the planet, were successful in the molding of young minds for centuries.
Technology can certainly enhance the way our children learn, and the youth of today are certainly more digitally minded, but let’s not forget the important things. The qualities, which through the ages, from Aristotle to our present day, have always made a good teacher a great teacher: patience, knowledge and a passion for imparting that knowledge onto the next generation.
