IS GERMANY READY FOR THE DIGITALISATION IN EDUCATION?

Fernando M. Reimers of the Harvard Graduate School of Education claimed that, the pandemic, which has spread around the world, has been the worst damage to educational opportunities in at least a century. Corona attacks every student, teacher, school and education department in the world.

The gap between stronger and weaker learners will be even greater, as the latter have weaker self-learning skills and less discipline at home. The pandemic has once again damaged educational equity as there are families who can support their children with digital devices to access the resource and connect with teachers or other students. Whereas there are also poor families in countries like Africa even have no electricity for their children to read in the night or water to wash hands, not to mention about the online learning.

I attended a three-day online conference in June about how schooling was going from different parts of the world after corona lockdown. One picture left a deep impression on me. Around 100 children sat on the brown earth in front of a school in Kenya and listened to the teacher, and in front of each one there was a box of food. Children came to school because there was no food at home. The school was also a shelter to protect them. It prevents children from e.g. working in severe condition or being abused.

In India, children in a school learned under a flyover and had to put up with the noise of construction work nearby (Neville Lazarus, August 29, 2020).

Examples of digital educational opportunities in diffierent cultures

Then a public library in Ghana opened up hotspot opportunities for students who don’t have an internet connection at home.

In Pakistan (Mehreen Zahra-Malik, July 14th, 2020), not to mention a computer or laptop, some families don’t even have a smartphone. A former teacher from Lahore says she has a smartphone and ten children who she can teach in the house where she lives with her extended family.

In China, within a month of the lockdown, almost all of the schools had prepared to teach students and manage the class online. Videos and recordings were created and broadcasted through TVs, school network. Correction and feedback were also done via the respective online platform. The local government visited poor families who did not have computers or laptops and then loaned them equipment. For many teachers it was also the first time they used the technical equipment to prepare the course and teach on an online platform. They struggled and sweated, but they were trying and went through. Students also struggled to focus and adjust, but they were trying as well.

They had one goal that even if schools were closed, learning should not be stopped. Because when it is stopped, the educational gap increases. Hence, all kinds of efforts have been made, all kinds of conditions have been created for continuous learning.

And what happens to education in Germany during the corona crisis in the first half school year?

I also see positive changes in Germany. For example, there are more and more training courses for teachers in which they can learn to how to use digital tools to teach online or communicate, upload materials. For children, there are well designed app to learn while playing. In the new semester starting in September, OMO learning opportunities (online merges offline) will also be offered.

However, I believe that the measures were implemented too late and too slowly. Learning in the last six months was largely laissez-faire. Why? The reasons given in schools are as follows: we have always carried out lessons in the classroom and this is the most effective. Sitting in front of the screen is not good for brain development. Children could not concentrate properly on the screen. We are not prepared for online lessons, because, not every family has a computer and internet connection…

I had a chance to visit one of the schools in Germany. This school has excellent equipment, digital boards, projectors, computer rooms, tablets and a fiber optic network. I was very impressed and said to the principal that this would be a very good basis for virtual classrooms to learn online. The principal replied, children cannot study at home. I felt really pity, because the digital infrastructure is in place, yet the attitude towards the digital learning is still rather analog.

I know it might not make much sense to compare countries, but I can’t help but think of children in poorer countries: they are fighting to get one digital device or struggling with the internet connection to continue learning in the Corona time.

I understand the reasons given above, and agree many of them under conditions are also true. For example, too much screen exposure is not good for children’s development. When the program is boring, the children cannot concentrate in front of the screen. Many cannot study at home (weaker learners cannot study well in school either), especially if there is no guidance/support from adults.

Give digital learning a chance, because students can also learn with fun!

Yes, online learning is less effective than face-to-face teaching in many ways, especially when it comes to getting a feeling for a community, social interaction, or a deeper understanding of one another. However, it has so many more advantages, not only in terms of practicality, time and cost savings, but also more resource sharing. Resource about diverse pedagogical methods, about good quality teachers or other experts in the respective fields. It is also an opportunity to encourage wider and deeper – perhaps intercultural – learning by connecting other students outside of the class, even outside of the country.

The changes in many aspects of our lives caused by a pandemic are irreversible. For example, online learning in the classroom will go from fresh to normal. OMO learning (Online Merges Offline) is the trend in schools even after the pandemic. Covid 19 accelerates the process of digitization in education. It’s stressful for most of us because it’s new to us. Change is usually not easy. It takes our cognitive energy to rethink, to relearn. It also takes our emotional energy to be tolerant of the uncertainty, to try, to fail, and to try again.

In this respect, I would like to invite you to take a break in our thinking. Instead of instinctively resisting change, let’s be still and being for a period of time. So we will allow alternatives. I wish we’d be brave to try. It’s the worst time, but it’s also the best time because now we can finally do something different! Let us actively support children’s learning with diverse ways including digital method as well!

September, 2020

Yangping Zhou