For students, parents and teachers, the period of remote learning was a special time that required a change in previous habits and ways of both work and education. Teachers and students alike had to cope with the new situation, adapt to it and acquire new skills. During the remote classes, teachers made efforts to transfer knowledge to students effectively, as well as in an interesting way that aroused the curiosity of alumni.
Surveys conducted among students of Warsaw schools allowed to diagnose the difficulties that students encountered most often, and consequently allowed to draw conclusions from remote education and develop recommendations for the future.
It should be emphasized that both students and teachers evaluate in-school lessons as more effective and beneficial than remote learning. However, this does not mean that remote learning should be fully rejected in the future. It should be noted that there is great potential for introducing remote education on a permanent basis for short periods of time, such as between Christmas and New Year’s, in the last week of June after grades have been issued, and in the event of prolonged illness of a teacher or student. This could also provide a safety solution for possible future unpredictable events, due to which it is not possible to conduct classes stationary – at school.
For the effective use of remote learning even in these short periods of time, it would be necessary to develop rules for the use of equal ways of communication and tools by teachers to conduct classes. An analysis of previous ways of conducting classes remotely shows that many platforms and applications were used, including an electronic journal, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom or Zoom, which meant that both students and teachers had to learn to navigate efficiently not one, but many platforms or applications. At the same time, the system for posting homework should be standardized. Past experience has shown that many times homework was assigned by teachers in different ways, such as through an electronic journal, email correspondence or through an e-calendar. This caused the child to systematically overlook the assigned homework.
It should be noted that as negative consequences of remote learning, the most frequently indicated by teachers and students is a lack of knowledge, motivation to learn, understanding of the material, lack of exercise, contact with peers, addiction to multimedia, negative impact on emotional development, poorly established knowledge and a sense of loneliness. To prevent this in the future, it would be recommended that classes conducted remotely should be based on consolidating existing knowledge rather than introducing new topics. In addition, an idea for more effective remote classes is also to divide the class into smaller groups. This would result in greater student involvement in the classes and active participation in the lesson.
Given the negative consequences of remote classes in order to maximize the process of possibly conducting remote learning, it would be suggested to improve the teacher’s contact with students by incorporating video and not just audio, as well as introducing more work on creative and not reproductive thinking and encouraging children to speak up.
It is important to keep in mind what caused the lessons conducted in the remote formula to be positively received by students – projected and uploaded videos, multimedia presentations, sharing the teacher’s screen with students, educational videos and games. Therefore, teachers should make more frequent use of students’ favorite forms of work during remote lessons, such as interactive quizzes, talks, online teaching games, educational videos, thematic presentations.
On the other hand, what caused, in the opinion of young people, that online classes were heavy and demanding was the large scope of material to be worked out on their own at home, the introduction of new topics by teachers and insufficient explanation of them, which was mostly related to the lack of direct contact with the teacher and conversation with him. In view of this, it would be desirable for the purposes of remote education to introduce other rules for assessing and testing students’ knowledge and skills, as well as to reduce the number of homework assignments. Students very often signaled that when studying remotely, they devoted entire afternoons, 7 days a week, to doing homework. A lot of independent work fell on the students, not everyone was able to cope with the tasks, and a parent is not able to help a child with every area. In addition, less homework would reduce the time youngsters spend in front of the computer, which would undeniably have a positive impact on their health and mental condition. It would be advisable to reduce the lesson time as much as possible. A child who uses the computer for a long time is at risk of many dysfunctions. Most at risk is his physique. Children experience back pain, back pain, and in addition, they may suffer from vision-related ailments, such as irritation of the mucous membrane of the eyes, impaired vision, fatigue, redness and burning of the eyes, as well as dizziness and headaches. To prevent this, it would be recommended to reduce the lesson time to 30 minutes in the remote formula.
Remote education also leaves echoes in the psychological sphere of the young. It has caused the occurrence of depressive states, loneliness, anxiety in the young, and intensifies stress. In view of this, it would be recommended that educators and school psychologists guarantee support for students in dealing with psychological problems. It would be important to consider organizing individual consultations for students, including additional workshops on self-learning and coping with loneliness. In addition, training tailored to remote learning could be organized for parents who demonstrate a need for it. This would allow parents to provide assistance to their child in technical and psychological problems associated with remote classes. It would be desirable to introduce solutions that would allow better contact between the student and the teacher, which would undoubtedly offset the sense of stress and loneliness among the young. It is worth considering the creation of social campaigns to rebuild relationships between students, increase their physical activity and improve intra-family relations, which are being shaken as a result of remote education and limited contact with peers.
As a marginal note, it should be pointed out that it would be recommended that teachers be guaranteed company computers, compensation for electricity and Internet fees. In addition, a single program should be purchased by the municipality to standardize learning across the municipality, and teachers should be trained accordingly.
In conclusion, it should be borne in mind that the introduction of remote learning was a consequence of an unpredictable event, and an immediate response to the crisis that occurred. Many solutions during this period were used and tested for the first time. These activities and experiences of remote education currently allow us to develop a number of conclusions and key recommendations, so that possible remote learning in the future can be effective and fully used, serving the development of young people. The survey and interviews with teachers and students clearly indicate that with refinement of methods and ways of learning and teaching, remote education could bring many benefits in short periods of time.
Sources:
- Remote learning benefits and risks. Internal evaluation. Jan Brzechwa Elementary School No. 92 in Warsaw, school year 2020/2021
- Study of the impact of remote teaching on teachers, students and their parents. Questionnaire survey report, PWC July 2020.
- Report: research on attitudes towards remote learning commissioned by the Ombudsman for Children, prepared by Marek Grabowski, Warsaw January 5, 2021.
- Good and weak points of remote learning. Report on a survey on remote education conducted by the School of Our Dreams team, June 2020.