The modern educator,
in its true sense defines a skill that has come off age. Imparting education
has become more an act of teaching the way learners want to learn rather than
following a mechanical and archaic process. The approach to teaching or
pedagogy has evolved into a more child centric, result oriented and skill
driven. Educators in schools and other educational institutions are united on
the idea of revamping the traditional approach to teaching and discovering
modern and efficient ways of connecting with the students.
Teaching in today’s
schools requires educators to be more welcoming of the use of technology beyond
the basics. As educational institutions today, have gradually started to offer job-oriented
learning, there is absolutely no doubt technology would be an essential enabler
in the process. With the increasing demand for students in the country, there
is a natural push towards shifting teaching and learning online in a manner
that is both effective and innovative. It is a well-known fact that learners
today can associate better with video lessons rather than text books. In fact,
technologies can enable standard text book material to come to life thereby
establishing an engaging contact with the learner.
What
does teaching online entail?
Educators that can
leverage technology today, can ensure that student learning continues with
minimal hindrances. Contrary to popular belief, teaching online is simple,
efficient and easy to learn. It takes a small amount of willingness to adapt to
the teaching environment and get acquainted with the tools and platforms. Most
of online teaching is extremely similar to classroom teaching. Teachers can do
everything over learning platforms such as design curriculum, conduct
assessments, allocate assignments and design progress reports for their
students. Infrastructural requirements are fairly limited as all that is needed
is a computer with a stable internet connection.
Why
should educational institutions push for online teaching?
When employed
efficiently, online teaching offers a load of benefits that enable education in
a way that has never been possible before. The most noteworthy of these
benefits being:
- Online teaching renders geographies pointless. Since teaching online is managed by a system over the web, students can log in from their respective residences and do not need to travel to school to attend sessions. This opens the playing field to students beyond the immediate vicinity of the school’s location.
- Online teaching makes asynchronous teaching possible. Present day teachers find it difficult to ensure that every student has understood a course or lesson. The commitment to provide individual attention to each student therefore remains unfulfilled. However, online teaching enables students to schedule one to one session with their teachers and allows teachers to do exactly the same, thereby ensuring that student queries are timely addressed and their learning continues.
- Online teaching makes it easier to monitor student progress. Since learning platforms today offer the possibilities of associating learning outcomes with lesson plans, teachers are able to monitor in real time, which students are lagging behind and require personal attention. Analytical summaries are a great way for teachers to ensure that all their students excel academically.
- Online teaching helps make monotonous lessons more engaging. Traditional teachers often struggle with certain topics that do not inspire student attention and focus as the rest. Subjects such as history, sociology etc. can be made more interesting with the use of videos, slides and other support material that are otherwise absent from a traditional classroom.
The prospect of
hundreds of thousands of professors and students venturing into academic
cyberspace for the first time has prompted some commentators to take to social
media to predict that this period could alter the landscape future for online
education. "Every academician shall be delivering education online. Every
student shall be receiving education online. And the resistance to online
education will move away as a practical matter," James N. Bradley, chief
information officer at Texas's Trinity University, wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Online teaching has
off late become the face for the educational industry at large. As a
consequence, to the pandemic, schools across the world have shifted curriculum
online and are enabling teachers to conduct live lesson delivery using video
conferencing and education management software. Teachers are able to conduct
sessions, address doubts and deliver high quality education across the globe.
This is an exciting opportunity for the uninitiated to be exposed to the many
benefits of online learning and understand its importance for the future.
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