After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that a Restructuring of online classes will greatly mitigate the detrimental effects pointed out in my first write-up.
I have divided this write-up into two parts. The first part will be on the actual restructuring, while in the second part, I will be writing on the enforcement of this restructuring.
Now for the restructuring, the first thing I will be discussing is assigning of extra curricular activities to students. I am talking of activities that will involve students paying attention and interacting with their environments and people around them. These could be assignments like, instructing children to get a flower, draw and colour it on a sheet of paper, telling students to ask their parents or siblings how they are feeling about the lockdown, taking notes on the responses they get and submitting to the teacher.
The assignments could also be in form of simple practicals that can be done with objects at home. For older students, we could have projects like, “In a video, express how you feel about the lockdown, this should be done either through dance, singing, drawing and/or painting, playing of a musical instrument, writing or by simply talking”. Activities like these will help avoid detachment from physical environment and people around thereby reducing risk of depression.
Asides this, time that might have been spent in front of various digital screens will now be diverted to activities that involve physical interaction with the environment and people around thereby reducing screen time and strain on the eyes.
Also through assignments or projects like the last example presented above, teachers are able to get feedback on their students well-being at home since students are not at school where teachers can easily notice something wrong with a student and take appropriate action.
Asides these extra curricular activities, I personally believe that students should be required to send a video daily of about 10 minutes long, showing them engaging in a form of physical exercise. This will be a way to ensure students remain physically active even during the lock down. While this video is sent directly, the teacher can then share his/her own video with the class. This will serve as a form of encouragement to the students and serve as a way of ensuring the well-being of the teachers.
Still on restructuring, on the first and perhaps second day of the online classes, students should be taught online classroom etiquettes. These online classroom etiquettes should also include teaching the students proper posture during online classes to avoid posture defects. Students should also be taught the reason for the incorporation of the activities mentioned above so that they understand the importance of adhering to them.
We now come to the second part of this write-up which is enforcement. Enforcement will be through the overall assessment. The assessment should be based on;
1. Academic work (course work, tests and examinations) consisting about 50% of the overall assessment,
2. Extra curricular activities mentioned above, consisting about 30% of the overall assessment. And lastly,
3. Obedience to rules and regulations guiding the online classes (including online classroom etiquettes and attendance) consisting about 20% of overall assessment.
In conclusion, I believe that with proper restructuring, there will be a mitigation of the detrimental effects of online learning. Lastly, since I am concentrating on primary and secondary education, I advice that online classes should only be regarded as a temporary measure. It should not become “The New Normal”.
Thank you.
1945-11