“The water is your friend. You don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move“
So said, Alexander Popov, a Russian swimmer, is widely considered the greatest sprint swimmer in history **. A perfect analogy for the situation that teachers find themselves in, today amidst the unstoppable pandemic and the ever-growing necessity to befriend online teaching.
Educational institutions have already been grappling with the pandemic-induced lockdown for nearly 2 years now. Just when we thought that a semblance of normalcy is returning and educational institutions were feeling encouraged to reopen with safety precautions, yet again there is a surge of the third wave of coronavirus shattering the dreams of millions of students, teachers, and parents. The situation has once again triggered deep concerns amongst students and teachers alike.
While students will be one of the worst affected owing to the lack of continuity which can impact the quality of learning outcomes, teachers are equally impacted because we are reaching a point when the livelihoods of one of the most respected professions are now at high stakes. Several states have decided to shut down schools in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. As if eighteen months of lockdown had not already caused enough financial distress, the third wave could be the final nail on the coffin, forcing schools to shut shop forever, due to low student turnout resulting in cash flow problems.
Under these circumstances, online learning which has already evolved over the last decade worldwide in the form of blended learning is now becoming a mainstream learning model. And for teachers, the only way to combat this VUCA situation that educational institutions have been thrown into by the pandemic is to embrace the reality as swimmers would have to, with water.
In fact, teachers can use this opportunity to their advantage –
- Online platforms give teachers an immense opportunity to keep up continuity in nurturing student-teacher bonhomie.
- It is a perfect platform to reach out to students across the globe where ever they are especially during such lockdown breaks when students may be forced to migrate to hometowns.
- Tutors can ensure a student-centric approach is used for evaluations and assessments based on objectives set for each student.
- They can build a seamless feedback loop for students to know how they are progressing into milestones.
- Last but not the least, they can future-proof their own livelihoods by securing their pedestal as teachers for a lifetime.
The only challenge, however, is to find a user-friendly tool that can enable teachers to do all of these without having to stress themselves out trying to become technologists. Rather, focus on their experience and expertise in enhancing learning outcomes for their students.
You may want to try out Dynamind’s unique online learning pedagogy designed to provide teachers with every feature they need to create a virtual classroom experience for their students.