A true
blended approach. Part of the teaching going
online and part offline(in-person), Covid has prepared us for the new
normal. A year passed away without much
individual significance. Locked doors
and stay home showed us the importance of greeting and meeting children every day.
Today, we are approaching a post-Covid time where we need to think on how to
proceed further into education with the uncertainty always looming around us. Flipped
and blended classrooms provided the idea of using technology in classrooms but
the change was drastic for many Practioner’ s. Hybrid
classrooms plan on having classes online few days and offline the other days. Hybrid
is meant to bring more thought process into classrooms and promote independent
working among students. Research
suggests that such classrooms are beneficial for students.
Covid not
completely out of our lives parents are still hesitant to send kids to
school. The situation looms over the
educational institutions to start both offline and online together. It seems simple as we have handled online,
the new norm with ease, but is it truly simple?
Well! Those who have had the classes can tell the difference. Keeping the teacher live and online and
concentrate on the student has become a tremendous task for the teaching
community. Until the fear of Covid is
eradicated and parents start sending their kids, the offline and online
teaching process will continue.
The new challenges the teaching scenario faces are
- Versatility of students in class
- Parental monitoring online for teachers as the student are present in class
- Mask and other Covid mandatory essentials monitoring by online parental community
- Differentiating activities for both online and offline students based on their interest
- Collaborating groups scattered both online and offline
- Continuing parental apprehensions on Online classes
The concept
of BYOD, brings results, but again the teacher in class, monitoring every child
with their device is another challenge we need to think about. New age classrooms ought to build responsibility
and accountability among students. As
the era changes, new versions and new outlook brings not only new challenges
but also scope to overcome situational crisis through new technologies.
Teachers
who are now more facilitators are to think and bring diversity into the
classroom space. Hybrid classrooms will
be a success only when facilitators and stakeholders recognise diversity and plan
their lessons accordingly. With technology,
as backbone and theories of flipped and blended classrooms, it is true we may
not involve 100% of our student community.
However, when we design classroom functionalities based on the behaviour
patterns of our students, we can overcome these challenges.
Parental
apprehensions have led to the consideration for ‘Home-schooling’ in many cases.
In the long run, such parents have to realise that this new normal is here to
stay and focus on the minimalistic effort in bringing education to their
children. Avoiding technology, in
learning may not fetch results for the students as today schooling is not about
unidimensional subject preferences, it is more about multidimensional subject
analysis. Technology is the framework through which the thought process can be
revoked and kindled. Though challenging
this brings new beginning for the 21st century educational
framework. With more ahead, let us hope
technology only offers solution rather than pollution. Moving forward to the 22nd
century should not be to ‘going back to ages’, sustainability and self-regulation
should go ahead and make the new paradigm shift.
My thanks to…
- https://www.codlearningtech.org/PDF/hybridteachingworkbook.pdf
- https://sites.psu.edu/hybridlearning/what-is-hybrid/
- https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/updated-e-learning-definitions-2/
- https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/how-to-plan-for-hybrid-teaching-and-learning
