Opinion: The reality of remote learning for teachers and pupils is test for all

Fast-forward to 2021 and it has become the life-blood of the education world, dominating pupil and parental discussions and the subject of many fraught moments in staff rooms; virtual ones of course.

In our pandemic-stricken world though, remote learning has become something we have had to live with, just like wearing masks in shops and remembering not to shake hands or, perish the thought, hug people.

It’s a difficult one though and to say it has caused a few problems is like saying the Titanic had a slight navigational issue.

For the uninitiated; children, university students and indeed many professionals, now learn courtesy of a platform, in other words, a piece of computer software that allows a teacher or facilitator to set up a learning environment which mimics a classroom, of sorts. Here, in these hallowed cyber walls, pupils and learners can get lessons, receive and submit work, talk in a controlled chat room and effectively get on with some kind of learning.

Of these, the two most popular are Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams as well as a third, Seesaw, which is often favoured by primary schools.

In theory, it’s a bit of a God-send, as it has ensured a kind of continuum with society slowly playing catch-up. Dig a little deeper however and there are many, many problems, with all parties often at their wit’s end.

In no particular order, the first is the simple aspect of lesson delivery.

In a classroom setting, a teacher teaches and a pupil learns by process of using many senses and methods of communication. For example, a teacher will know from a glance around the class who is engaged, slightly distracted or miles away.

Likewise, a pupil who just misses the start of one tiny aspect of an explanation has a glance at their friend’s book and within a few brief exchanges, then they get it. Indeed in some instances, children sometimes learn as much from each other as they do from their teacher; it’s a three-way process.

Likewise, a teacher can detect class energy, a strange undefinable dynamism that comes over a class and results with a teacher moving on more quickly or if the reverse is true, slowing things down.

In short, without anybody telling them, they can sense by body language, reactions and general work ethic whether or not to reinforce a point or move on.

In a virtual environment, all this is missing.

Instead, the classroom is a row of boxes or names and for all the teacher knows, their little darlings could be standing on their heads with their younger siblings bouncing on the sofa behind them and a parent giving the lesson marks out of ten.

This raises another question, the vulnerability and security of the teaching environment. Guidelines and indeed common sense would tell you it’s wrong to see inside of a pupils bedroom but if there are three or four children in all corners of the house on remote learning, what can you do?

The new school timetable is another bone of contention.

The Department of Education guidance is quite modest but a lot of schools, albeit in brand new territory themselves, seem to be erring on the side of more work, rather than less.

This is putting enormous strain on teachers and family units with access to workspaces, laptops and even simple issues like nobody wanting to spend all day staring into computer screens or bent over at a kitchen table.

There are horror stories of pupils staying up half the night to finish packs sent by primary schools and over-stretched and well-meaning parents having to have a queuing system for going around their pupils to help them.

One only has to look at various chat rooms and forums run by parents and teachers to get a sense of the real crisis in home life.

Against this, schools, through no fault of their own, are playing catchup and many are responding as quickly as they can to the demands of remote learning.

In primary school, for example, the principal of Lisbellaw PS Mr Jason Kilfedder explained: “Timetables are uploaded before the start of the week. Teachers have been recording daily messages and instructional videos to explain the work that has been set. They can also be played repeatedly and at a time that is convenient for everyone."

For post-primary education, it’s the same concept, but as pupils work their way through the school, it becomes more focused. This is all decided on a school-by-school basis, with all schools trying to normalise the school day, especially in sixth form.

For school principals, it’s a ‘Catch 22’ situation. On one hand, they don’t want their pupils disadvantaged but on the other, they want to maintain some kind of home life balance, a point explained by Mr. Maurice Collins, principal of St Fanchea’s College in Enniskillen.

“We offer a structured timetable based on a reduced learning workload, but flexibility is the key”, he added. “It’s important to us that the workload is manageable and we don’t create or add unnecessary stress, but all our teachers, parents and pupils have been brilliant."

For what it’s worth, the Department of Education guidance is that learning tasks should last around 10-30 minutes for primary pupils and 30-45 minutes for post-primary pupils but many teachers not only in Fermanagh but across all the UK, the word on the street is that this is being exceeded.

For teachers, the main difficulty is the amount of time it takes up; it’s relentless. For them, the main issue is the hours it takes to plan, set up, administrate and mark the work. On top of this, many have had to learn new skills, though, in fairness, this was mostly carried out during the first lockdown.

Pupils now have a portal that they can access teachers on 24-7 and indeed many do.

One teacher reported receiving well over one hundred emails per day, another spoke of one pupil emailing them forty-nine times in a single day and I have seen many screenshots of pupils having emailed their teachers in the middle of the night.

In a class, one can address a quick problem at the end of the class to a few who don’t grasp a salient point. In remote learning, this has to be done individually.

Class management is also taking its toll on teachers. Quite simply, it is not as easy as in a classroom and some schools are pushing individual teachers to phone home and see why those not attending are absent.

This is something which is trade unions advise against for many logical reasons but in any case is prohibitively time-consuming because for every pupil who works until the wee small hours, there are some for whom Netflix is a better option. There are lots of calls to be made.

One has to take account of families who find themselves unable to get their child access to a computer and who themselves, are struggling not only with their children’s curriculum but with life itself.

As Mr. Collins pointed out, “we need to look at the needs of all the families, even those perceived as affluent. Not everybody has a computer each, enough rooms in the house and a parent or parents who are engaged in assisting their children’s learning".

“Vulnerable children are supported over and above but there is a small number outside this who also need help and we need to be helping all of our families.”

All this is laudable but there’s the elephant in the room.

As this pandemic deepens and as our screens fill up with daily horror news stories, we need to make sure that we care for the families we have.

A point also made by Mr Kilfedder.

“Obviously, the children have lost out on the social aspect of their education” and this is an issue which is at the core and is society’s current big dilemma. If we stay isolated, we stay safe from Covid-19 but ultimately, being in school is the best place for pupils to be . . . when it's safe to do so.