The Coronavirus pandemic significantly disrupted educational sector across the whole globe. Closure of schools, colleges and universities, shutdown of routine life of students and teachers with staff and administration remaining incommunicado created an unprecedented situation. But the lockdown swiftly turned into a large-scale, real-time trial. The routine online conveniences became as an opportunity to introduce online courses-a method that was unfamiliar and untested. It ushered in a new phase of online learning in which laks of students remain glued to computers and phone screens as teachers take to online apps for lectures, tutorials and assessments. The speed and scale at which the online learning spread left millions of teachers and students astonished. For we people in Kashmir, the virus has come at a delicate moment. We were already emerging from a seven-month long shutdown which started last year. Indeed, it has been a very tough time for us. Despite this situation, we as a society have shown a lot of resilience. Making a virtue of necessity, our teachers responded very quickly and most of our educational institutes swiftly shifted to online mode of instructions.
In a bid toensure that learning is not compromised in the lockdown, the teachersexperimented with various online classes/e-learning platforms. It started withWhattapp groups of students, Google classrooms, Zoom lectures, U-tube videosand many more like Hangout, Edmodo, Webinar, blogger etc. There has been a lotof hype about Google Classrooms. No doubt it has so many features wherestudents can interact, be assessed that keeps them busy with assignmentsthrough links, videos, texts in which students leave their comments forclarifications by teachers. But it is more a learning management system whichis beneficial to school going children with a drawback that teachers cannotinteract live in video with the students. I have been using Whattapp groups ofstudents for many years and when the lockdown started, seeing the excitementaround, I also started my Google classroom. I experienced that Interacting onWhattapp groups was quite handy under the present circumstances. The studentscan access instantly on their mobile phones, see texts, wait a little so thatimage/pdf/videos are downloaded automatically even in 2G speed. Sending videosof classroom lessons through WhatsApp realizing that not all students haveaccess to laptops or computers is a workable idea till the high speed Internet services are restored.
Learningdigitally has a unique experience. A class of one hour for BSc, forexample, may take one day for recordingand planning in the digital world but it is once for all a teacher has to do onthe topic. You can save and share it to the students for time to come. One best thing that I learnt about onlineclasses is to create a video lecture either recording it on a Zoom using powerpoint presentation or Zooms white board or using a normal camera/mobile phone,record a lecture on a white board to share it in u-tube or a Whattapp group.Zoom is a wonderful web-conferencing software that allows live class sessionsthat can also be recorded, in which students can log-in at a pre-scheduledtime. The platform allows up to 100 people to meet online within 40 minutesfree excess. Google Hangouts also supports video conferencing up to 250 peoplebut one has to make a payment. Creating a video lecture on Zoom has a very lesssize. For example 15 minutes video lecture in MP4 becomes hardly 20 MB whichcan further be reduced using online software. There has been a lot of debate onits security concerns when uninvited participants are joining the Zoom meetingwhich we call “Zoombombed”, however many researchers believe that securityconcerns are for big companies, Govt data etc and if one is using it for teaching the hackers would hardly be interested. When Zoom is used correctly with itslatest updated version, one can have basic privacy features enabled. The onlything we have to take care is not to share our bank details with anybody.
When theteachers and students are entering the virtual world of learning, the netizenson social media are asking number of valid questions. What about those studentswho can’t afford Android phones or do not have access to internet to attendonline classes? An overwhelming number of students from poor families withmodest financial means finding it hard to feed their belly, how can they effortto have android phones for their children? Not all students might have laptops,tablets or computers. In the lockdown whole family is at home, the only laptopor a computer in the house might be used by the parents who are working fromhome as well. Many parents especially the poor do not care about their wardsclasses and are annoyed that their children use their phones to join onlineclasses. Many parents don’t want their sons to get hooked on videogames. If elite schools in the city and districts can do online classeswith latest gadgets what about the poor Govt schools? Then, there are technicalsnags. Due to connectivity issue sometimes picture blurs becomes a fog ofpixels with electronic buzzing and sometimes voice is blocked. In the middle ofthe lecture a phone call comes which disrupts the entire lecture. Sometimes astudent disappears from the screen because his phone had crashed. In some casesthe teachers are annoyed at the background noise while the class is on, thatincludes domestic quarrel that could be heard from a child’s home.
The answerto the entire spectrum of question is that if something good is taking place weshould optimize its use, develop it further and pass it on to others. In nocase it means that we should stop experiments in online teaching. It will takesome time to solve all the problems but the work has to continue. It may not bejust for a few months we have to move online. Nobody knows how long thelockdown and its effects continue. Are we ready to waste our whole academicyear at a time when we can use technology? If we do not use technology now,when will we use it? The community as well as the Govt has a moralresponsibility to help poor students to have electronic gadgets. It is ablessing that our students study online at a place where even proper classes donot go smoothly. The lockdown can be seen as training and a crash course forour teachers to learn and use technology. The sudden transition to an onlinemode has become de facto a massive experiment in education. This experimentwill reshape the idea of education, bring in quality and fix the age-oldproblems of rote learning. It is a fact that most teachers are not tech savvyand lack familiarity with technology. The new reality caught them off guard andforced them to come out of their comfort zones. While most teachers find itdifficult to cope with the online teaching but slowly and steadily most of themare improvising and learning from one another and even seeking help from theirchildren to set up apps or deal with technical glitches. The negative attitudetowards using online platforms has almost taken a back seat.
The decisionof authorities both at higher and lower education, asking educationalinstitutions to hold online classes is laudable as this will save studentsacademic year and the learning process will continue unhindered. It was indeeda good step to rope in Doordarshan Srinagar to impart classes on the local TV.But there is a room for improvement. We need to have a TV channel wholly in serviceof students to telecast lectures all-day for classes 9th onwards. What else ismore important for us than education of our children? As technology is gettingmore important amidst the current situation, the authorities need to resolveall the issues facing the students, faculty and administrative staff. Thegrowth of online classes in Kashmir is a giant leap forward that can change ourfuture. It can bring more innovation, digitization and fix the conundrum ofquality education with greater accessibility to students from differentsocio-economic backgrounds. It is important to just embrace this new realityand work within its limitations.
Dr Mohmad Amin Malik is Principal Govt Degree College, Higher Education Deptt, J&K