As online teaching and learning continue to be rolled out amid COVID-19, teachers and educators have been faced with a sudden rush to re-learn their jobs.

Nadya Papagiorcopulo

Between the pitfalls and the pros, the thinking is that online schooling has been a saviour, but nothing can beat face-to-face communication post-corona-virus, teachers say.

It may be relied on more as a teaching tool in the future, but educators, who have experienced drastic adjustments and a redefinition of their roles, say it can never replace the traditional classroom environment.

Since their closure, schools have reached out to deliver their curricular programmes remotely, with some educators feeling motivated and others overwhelmed as they enter students’ home to get their message across.

Support and training in video-streaming tools has been under way to help them acclimatise to this new way of schooling.

“One day, we were at school and overnight we had to dive into a totally new experience,” says Junior College lecturer Adela Degiorgio.

Charlene Vella

A parent teacher, one of the challenges has been keeping her child quiet for hours at a stretch while delivering live lectures. “It’s near enough impossible!”

For San Anton School senior sector teacher Helen Camilleri, admittedly “far from a techie”, the idea of having to do everything online was “unbelievably daunting”, and initially, she thought she would never manage the move to the virtual classroom.

“I have a good rapport with most of my students and they are happy to help and talk me through things if I get stuck. I’m learning a lot from them,” she says, also praising the support of colleagues.

From Zoom, to Google Meet to Microsoft Teams, the options for online learning are available, with some teachers preferring live lectures to recording their lessons so they can engage with students.

“We can say good morning and I can ask them how they are feeling. This helps keep up a good relationship and allows them to ask questions just as they would in class,” says Degiorgio about live streaming.

Teachers are also there to help children go through these challenging times

An important element of the job is reading students’ faces to tell how much they have understood, teachers concur. This is now limited, especially if they decide to keep their cameras off.

Nadya Papagiorcopulo, who teaches the core subjects to 10-  to 11-year-olds at St Michael School, has also focused on creating a sense of ‘classroom’ and interaction with the children, while university lecturer Charlene Vella says she found it hard to “speak to a laptop” and has tried to recreate the usual environment too. Having said that, “it is awkward to suddenly become so intimate with students that you can see inside their homes,” she adds.

Apart from obvious internet connection issues, which mean being thrown out of the virtual lecture room, Vella lists as cons the fact that “outgoing” students may have had a hard time adjusting because they are accustomed to being out all day.

On a personal level, the mother of two toddlers says her workload has tripled.

“We are facing a new type of mental exhaustion from having so much on our plates,” she says about the toll the changes have taken on working parents.

Additional disadvantages for Degiorgio include noise from construction works, which disturb the flow of the lesson.

Every child has a right to education and, through online learning, this has been possible, says Papagiorcopulo, but student life, in its broader definition, has been lost.

“They are not able to meet their friends and this is unfortunate. Meanwhile, special care is hindered because there is only so much a teacher can do from behind a screen. Being unable to point out the struggling learner is frustrating,” she says.

“Children’s emotions are an important part of their education and teachers are also there to help them go through these challenging times and focus on compassion. An awareness of the child’s day-to-day well-being has been taken away with remote teaching.”

On the plus side, however, online learning means no traffic and parking issues to the benefit of the environment; the possibility for introverted students to emerge from their shell; and also the ability to get through an explanation without interruption from flying hands.  

In future, technology may be used to open doors for students who cannot be physically present to follow courses and feel part of a classroom environment, the educators believe.

“Those working remotely are proving to be just as efficient and this could also encourage young mothers to return to work sooner,” Vella believes.

As to what the teachers have learnt, Degiorgio thinks the need to remain abreast of the latest technological tools has been an important lesson.

Nevertheless, she hopes to return to the classroom soon.

“When the ‘normal’ is taken away from you is when you realise how lucky you are to have it.”