COVID-19 has thrusted everyone into a new culture in learning. Online Learning has become the norm and teachers across the nation are scrambling and struggling to get the students and themselves acclimated to this new norm. Online environments come in many forms. Videos created by other teachers, videos created by current teachers, virtual conferences and creative assignments are now what is being used to teach students. Students are required to log on to whatever online learning tool the school district is using and complete assignments after learning virtually. The watching of videos or conferencing with the instructor in a private or small online learning sessions has become essential to the students success. Evaluation of the students' success is determined by the submitting work online and the teacher evaluating and commenting on any mistakes that the student may or may not have made. Exams and quizzes can also be done with online multiple choice, fill in the blank or short answer questions. For subjects like math, the students could submit samples of their work online to the teacher for evaluation.
This type of environment will require that every student would have access to the technology necessary to complete the work, i.e. a laptop computer with access to the internet and/or access to the internet at home. The challenge is getting that access to every student. Students come from every end of the spectrum. Some of them have the necessary devices and some of them don't. Currently, my school district has provided some students with ability to access the curriculum now employed with devices to access it. So that has solved the issue with some students. Others already have devices to access the curriculum. The challenge now is that now that this is the new normal, the students must do their due diligence in accessing the curriculum and the teachers must make the curriculum come alive and be more interesting through different type of assignments and assessments.
This new shift in learning can be accomplished. Teachers everywhere have to completely immerse themselves into the new normal and the students must adjust and access this new normal for success. We are in a new environment and it can only get better through patience and time.
This type of environment will require that every student would have access to the technology necessary to complete the work, i.e. a laptop computer with access to the internet and/or access to the internet at home. The challenge is getting that access to every student. Students come from every end of the spectrum. Some of them have the necessary devices and some of them don't. Currently, my school district has provided some students with ability to access the curriculum now employed with devices to access it. So that has solved the issue with some students. Others already have devices to access the curriculum. The challenge now is that now that this is the new normal, the students must do their due diligence in accessing the curriculum and the teachers must make the curriculum come alive and be more interesting through different type of assignments and assessments.
This new shift in learning can be accomplished. Teachers everywhere have to completely immerse themselves into the new normal and the students must adjust and access this new normal for success. We are in a new environment and it can only get better through patience and time.