Zoom in to Quaranteaching

Image by Mudassar Iqbal from Pixabay 

[The term Quaranteaching is unapologetically stolen from Rianne Selwyn, an extraordinary teacher in Dubai, whose travails with the local internet provider were vented on social media recently. I avoided writing on this topic for a long time as there are just too many viewpoints and too many egos involved.  But I gave in.  So, here's my take on online classes in the days of lock down, two four-letter words that are gaining in notoriety as the corona virus gains in spread.  Please do leave your comments and share.]

A few weeks ago, when we were suddenly informed of a lock down spanning 21 days, now stretched to 40 days, the kids cheered with exultation!  "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks" as Alice Cooper sang in School's Out.  Or more recently, Pink Floyd's view that "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, No dark sarcasm in the classroom ..."

Short lived.  Very. Overnight schools were scrambling to introduce "online education", though some did use more accurate terms like "online teaching" and "online lectures" and one, very modest school, settled for "online worksheets".  Thus started the fun and games - for the teachers and perhaps some students.  For the parents questions ranged from "How to download?  What to get?  Does it need a laptop? Can my mobile phone work?" to "Can we use WhatsApp?  Do you have to get a printer? Is the internet necessary?"

The Internet of Things

As my friend Rianne will assure you, the internet is necessary -- working at a decent speed as well. And that could really be a hurdle for this country and more so for less-privileged young learners who have to share bandwidth with a struggling Mom or Dad who are oscillating between Work From Home and Work At Home, while keeping the social network going with forwards from WhatsApp University, not to mention those sultry I-took-this-pic-without-combing-my-hair photos that are now doing the rounds.  I am not going to mention the kids without access ... they will remain peripheral to this conversation, unfortunately.  Under-educated? Maybe not.

Schools were quick to point out that "we were the first to introduce XYZ" or "No one else uses ABC like we do in our school".  While not understanding the driving force behind the one-upmanship, I did realize that schools need to assure their clientele that they are on the cutting edge.  Of what?  I have yet to see such a profusion of online education tools and such confusion about their use.  I'm sticking my neck out here, but I am sure many of us, educators and parents, would like to know the thinking behind the instant application of online tools to a fairly robust, time-tested, offline system of education.  I had just one question to several of the "early adopters" -- How will you evaluate the success of the system that you are introducing?

Let's Ban Zoom

And equally suddenly there was a huge push back which started with Zoom (hence the title) being "banned in Singapore" because a Zoom Bomber hacked into an unprotected system and displayed lewd pictures to teenage girls.  Bans were being reported from European countries and eventually and advisory went out from the Government of India which -- no, did not ban -- advised on safety measures when using Zoom.  Conspiracy theories raged.  The sudden rise in use of Zoom was attributed to a Chinese secret plan to take over the world.  The security holes that were found (and plugged immediately) were going to sell our precious account details to the "dark web".  One Coordinator told me confidentially that the Dark Web is from the same place the Corona Virus comes, and must be avoided -- so Zoom was banned.   To the frustration of a young, enthusiastic teacher who had used it successfully for a few classes -- she and her students were so happy to be able to see each other and the classes were going really well, till Zoom was banned without a similar replacement.

Classroom, Hangouts, Teams, Duo

Within the same week children, parents and teachers were driven to use Google Classrooms, Google Hangouts (conveniently renamed Meet, to take care of any educational misgivings), Google Duo and in some rare cases, Microsoft Teams.  My article is not about the efficacy or effectiveness of any of these online learning alternatives, but some of the hilarious offshoots of this ongoing experiment had me intrigued.

I recall sitting by an online class where the conversation went something like this:
"Can you see me?"
"Can everyone hear me?"
"I can't hear you. If you can hear me raise your hands."
"Tell your mummy to fix your audio, we can't hear you."
Eventually when the class started, it went pretty smoothly except that the teacher was using Google Duo which apparently allowed only six participants in a group.  So by the sixth repeat of the identical "class" the teacher wasn't in too fit a state for anything else.  And we're going to repeat this tomorrow, children!

It's not the technology, it's the use!

In another case, the kids were all from a pretty economically challenged background, but the school had invested in the technology - teachers were forced to train themselves, the school sent them YouTube video links and parents had to get the requisite hardware and software or fall by the wayside.  I'm not sure how the classes are going now, but last time I checked the teacher was using Zoom (shh! don't tell anyone) to talk to the parents to explain how to download worksheets from Google Classrooms on their phones.  Of course, not being equipped with colour printers (or any printers for that matter) in their homes, these parents were actually copying the worksheets onto paper and giving it to these 5-year-olds to "solve".

Success Stories

Some schools have been fairly clear about their approach -- the late adopters, the smart ones, in my view.  They mapped out what needs to be done to keep the kids busy at home with minimal parental pressure.  Younger children were given drawing and painting, story telling, worksheets which could be viewed online and only the answers written in a book.  Older children were introduced to some important content through Zoom classes during a strict daily time frame and following all the safety directions that are available.  Self-study material, in the form of chapters of books, were made available on their websites, with instructions of how they are to be used.  Parents were clearly told that "we are going to conduct classes as we see fit, please comply with the rules" when they brought out "evidence" against Zoom. And of course, the teachers are carefully monitored.  One Principal insists that "we will manage the syllabus once the children are back" - the physical presence of a teacher means a lot to the students and cannot be replaced by mere technology. Meanwhile there is enough practice work that teachers have put online without any compulsion to complete.

Let's face it

In my opinion, the use of face-to-face software, or video conferencing, is extremely important for younger children.  The vicarious care that the teacher provides online can best be done when you can see each other.  There is a mad scramble to replace the offending Zoom with Johnny-come-lately software which is still in 'beta testing' mode, but the need is clear.  When children see the teacher they learn several rules of behaviour.  I have been using daily Zoom calls for fun and games with children aged 6 to 16 and for personality development with children aged 13+.  I have found that they have learnt how to speak in turn, how to express themselves very clearly, how to manage the technology, how to use actions on video calls, how to show-and-tell when they are at a distance, including holding up work they have done for all to see.  And even how to keep score of competitions without cheating!

In other technical developments, the kids have learnt how to share screens, how to use hand signals and responses, how to behave properly in screen chats, how to enter and leave a meeting with grace and how to mute/unmute their microphones.

Teachers and Cheaters

What is yet to be learnt, judging from some of the classes I have witnessed, is that kids have to learn that cameras watch them all the time, unlike their teachers.  Excavating a nostril onscreen, scratching an uncombed head, fiddling with ill-fitting night suits, lolling around in uncomfortable seating and developing concentration all needs a bit of adult help at home.  What does not need adult help is the interaction between the teacher and the child.  It's really upsetting to hear the father prompting the child with an answer, or the child looking away from the camera where an indulgent mother has scribbled the answer to a question, or fiddling with the camera while a class is in progress. Teachers can control kids in the classroom, but not cheating at home!

And finally, I am wondering whether all this online teaching will interfere with their education, as Mark Twain was famously quoted to have said.  Pink Floyd to the rescue, "Hey Teacher, leave us kids alone!" they sang, in another context.  Educationists are probably wondering if the kids, left alone at this time, might actually gain another kind of education -- learning how things work at home, helping around the house, painting, drawing, music, singing, playing family games.  Of course, that would mean more organized parenting, so maybe not, huh?

I would love to hear your views as things unfold on this very important subject of distance teaching, especially how to measure the efficacy of the process now that it is running.  Without institutional egos being bruised.  Possible?