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What is more important to buy for study, a set of notebooks or a quality tablet? We do not know the answer to this question. But we are sure that distance education will develop. So, the lessons of the last school year will still come in handy.
From October 5, Moscow schoolchildren will go on a two-week vacation. Thus, the city authorities hope to reduce the growth of infection with seasonal diseases and a new type of coronavirus.
Employees of the departments responsible for education assure: the school with calls, changes and roll calls will remain with us forever, no matter what. However, the country plans to expand the possibilities of online education, and the reality in which we live dictates its own terms…
We cannot change the present or influence the future, but we can make sense of the distance learning experience we had last spring. Why did some families categorically not fit the “remote” format, while others thought about transferring their child to home schooling? Let’s find out with the experts.
For two stakes
At first, both children and parents reacted to distance learning with curiosity and enthusiasm. The first ones liked that they didn’t have to get up early and wear a uniform. The second is that you can observe how teachers and students actually behave. After all, open lessons in schools are often rehearsed and do not look like what happens in everyday life.
“My students at first perceived what was happening as a game,” says Inessa Zhavoronok, a teacher of Russian language and literature. “But when it turned out that online learning has the same requirements and assessments as regular lessons in the classroom, their interest began to decline.”
And if at school a student, under the strict gaze of a teacher, is unlikely to dare not pass a notebook with a control, then at home, when no one is watching, many have a temptation not to do the task on time, to cheat: something did not work, the file was not attached …
“Teachers began to communicate much more with parents, to report how their children are doing: “Homework is not ready, the test has not been passed…” says Inessa Zhavoronok. So parents had to become managers of their own children: setting up conference apps, troubleshooting gadgets, making sure everything was done and sent.
But most of them were also working from home during this time! It is not surprising that many mothers and fathers were as happy about the end of the school year as the students themselves. Children and adults returned to a more familiar style of communication.
“There is a big difference between the roles of a parent and a teacher,” reminds child neuropsychologist Aivar Mamyshev. – At school, the child receives knowledge, at home he receives love and support. If mom and dad become teachers for him in some sense, then this support becomes less, because the resource of adults is not unlimited.
Even those parents who have chosen homeschooling for their child most often do not teach it themselves, but hire tutors and tutors. After all, moms and dads have completely different concerns and functions: to feed, educate, care for, and ensure safety.
“Parents should not participate too deeply in the learning process if they themselves do not like it,” Inessa Zhavoronok is sure. Moms and dads are not professional teachers. They can’t—and shouldn’t, most importantly! – know how to explain a particular topic. Otherwise, what is the school for then?
What do parents think
My 12 year old son has become more independent. He studies in a family class, there are not many children, and the lessons are only three days a week. And before self-isolation, the son said: “I only go here because my mother makes me.” Two weeks after we switched to remote study, he began to moan: “I want to go back to my class …” It turns out that he liked it there, but he did not understand it! But while he was studying at home, he became much more organized. He began to follow the schedule himself, after the lessons he continued to read about what they were discussing. For him, this is an unprecedented level of interest. At the same time, he took care of the food, because they have “Cooking Together” lessons in the class. So I was able to take a break from the stove in conditions of self-isolation, when everyone did nothing but eat. Olga
It was easier for me in quarantine than in his absence. There was no need to get up early, worry about uniforms and dinner. But I am aware that we were in a privileged position: one child with a separate room, high-speed Internet and his own netbook. Not everyone is so lucky! In addition, the daughter is old enough (13 years old) to deal with the technique on her own. The only thing that bothered me was hypodynamia and lack of communication with friends. Actually, these are perhaps the main arguments in favor of going to school. Evgenia
My daughter had no problems with distance learning. I just turned on her tablet and sent her links to study chats. I didn’t climb into the rest at all, sometimes I just went to bed. And the daughter herself studied, did her homework. We liked. Alyona
Online learning left mixed impressions. Lessons on Zoom in the class of my 9-year-old son were taught only by an English teacher, assignments were sent for other subjects. He suffered so much that they must be done! I didn’t have the patience to fight. The 13-year-old daughter studies at the same school, but she is delighted: you can sleep long and less intersect with classmates. Elizabeth
sit and watch
It would seem that with distance learning, children should be less tired, because they do not have to get up early, get to school, waste time changing shoes. Paradoxically, it was precisely these actions that schoolchildren often lacked.
“Children find it easier to tune in to learning when the environment matches the tasks they have to complete at the moment,” says child psychologist Anna Reznikova. – At school, the child is used to being collected, while the house is a place where he can relax. The psyche reacts to a change in the external picture, and in the remote mode, the scenery has not changed for weeks.” Switching to work mode by simply opening the laptop did not work for everyone.
“According to my observations, it was easier for high school students to survive this period than for elementary school students. Although the latter grew up with gadgets in their hands, teenagers have more experience with online learning,” explains Anna Reznikova. Part of educational competitions and olympiads has long been held in virtual reality, and therefore the older the child, the more likely it is that he completed some tasks or listened to lectures on the Internet.
It was harder for elementary school students and children who are often distracted even in a working school environment. “For those who experience difficulty concentrating even under familiar conditions, it turned out to be much more difficult to study remotely,” notes Aivar Mamyshev. — For children who did not fully develop phonemic perception — the ability to analyze and synthesize speech — it was not easy to recognize the teacher’s speech through the dynamics of gadgets. Due to the heavy load on the Network, the broadcasts of the lessons hung up, and then the students lost the thread of the story, got lost.
Nevertheless, learning with the participation of technology is also a skill, and if it is developed, then over time it will become easier for children to study remotely, the neuropsychologist is sure. The child’s brain adapts to the conditions and the gadgets that he was given, so it is necessary that the equipment be of high quality. After all, this is a health issue. Yes, the eyes will adapt to a colorful monitor, and the ears to a quiet microphone, but excessive stress can have a bad effect on vision and hearing. And it also distracts from studying.
What do the kids think
Many of my classmates do not have the best technique. And their hissing microphones sometimes interfered with the lessons! In general, it seems to me that it is much easier to study morally at school: you communicate with friends during breaks, you see teachers in person. It’s much better than distance learning. If not for the pandemic, I would be categorically against this format. It seems to me that it makes sense, only if you can’t do without it. In the meantime, the system is imperfect, and this greatly complicates the entire learning process. Artem, 17 years old
Distance learning is much better and more interesting than standard school education. Many people are used to just sitting out 45 minutes in class for the sake of grades, but what’s the point? In distance learning, the amount of knowledge that teachers give to children is no different, and our lessons lasted 30 minutes, and the breaks between them were decent. Yes, there is a refrigerator. Nikita, 16 years old
I missed my friends and my teacher. And it was not clear when it was time to do the lessons. I used to understand: I came home, had dinner – and I had to sit down. And then in the evening, you can relax, watch cartoons. When you are already at home all the time, time flows very slowly. I want us to study like before. Sasha, 8 years old
It’s good that you didn’t have to waste time on a trip and fees, You can also eat during the lesson and get enough sleep. But that’s probably all. The lessons were more like lectures: you only listen to what they tell you, but you cannot interact. At our school, teachers, explaining a particular topic, often draw diagrams on the blackboard, explain a lot on their fingers. If you do not understand something, you can stay and ask questions during the break. In the online format, this was not possible. As a result, instead of a full-fledged lesson, a training video on Youtube was obtained. Jacob, 17 years old
I liked studying from home. You can not rush anywhere in the morning, wrap yourself in your favorite blanket and drink tea while you study. No one makes noise around, does not interfere, and unnecessary objects can simply be ignored. Dream! Yana, 13 years old
The future of the tablet?
“The advantage of distance learning is that even if a child is sick or has gone to another city, he can attend the lessons,” says Inessa Zhavoronok. “But communication between the teacher and students in the classroom is also an exchange of energy that helps to assimilate knowledge.” Perhaps someday lessons with a “live” teacher will become the lot of the elite, and children will perceive the rare communication with teachers as a real miracle.
So at one time, synthetics and plastics were expensive innovative materials, and today natural fabrics and materials are valued much higher than artificial ones … In this case, “loudspeakers” teachers who do not put their soul into the lessons, but only retell chapters from textbooks, will remain unclaimed. However, such at all times were not particularly popular.
Education, like other areas of life – work, shopping, communication – is increasingly moving online. But no matter how developed the delivery of ready meals, we still go to restaurants. You can buy everything your heart desires in online stores, but we still love to go through the hangers with dresses in shopping centers. We like to change the environment and interact with others.
Therefore, the children for the most part missed school – even those who do not particularly like to study. After all, a school is not only about gaining knowledge, but also about a unique atmosphere. Sounds and smells, clashes of elbows and reassuring smiles. Notes flying through the aisle and the rustling of a candy wrapper in algebra … It is unlikely that virtual reality will replace all this. Therefore, I want to believe that the school with its lessons and breaks will remain with us.
To study? Easily!
Child psychologist Anna Reznikova offers parents several tricks to help their children.
Keep motivated. Don’t limit yourself to questions like “Did you do your homework?” or “Was it difficult on the control?”. Discuss studies with your child, be interested in what exactly he likes in a particular school subject. Once you know this, you can offer him courses or materials that will keep him interested in learning.
Add creativity. Who said that studying has to be boring? Creative tasks, puzzles, riddles, games like “What, where, when?” help to better assimilate new knowledge. Example: If your child likes to play war games, you can study the history of the ancient world by examining the methods of warlords and studying their cunning strategies.
Determine how information is received. We all perceive information differently: by ear, through images or through reading. By figuring out which method is best for your child, you can find interesting additional materials in his “format”. One will like flashcards and diagrams, another will love documentaries, and a third will prefer lectures and audiobooks.
Separate the purpose of gadgets. If possible, let the phone or tablet remain exclusively for games, and the laptop or desktop computer is used in the educational process. So it will be easier for the child to switch attention between school affairs and leisure.