Online Education: A Double-Edge Sword
Photo taken by Josué Bonilla.
When I started my major at English Teaching, I honestly thought that, when the moment of my teaching practicum came, I would be prepared for the challenge, but then the pandemic struck the world. Humanity was not prepared at all, and education was not exception. Here in Costa Rica, the Ministry of Education tried different solutions to satisfy and accomplish the teaching-learning process successfully. The moment for a forced virtuality seemed to be solution, but not all the Costa Rican school, high school, or college students had the resources for a digital learning; teachers were included as well.
I was worried about whether my future pupils would be able to connect to my classes or not, by I was forgetting myself and my computer that might not be able to fulfill the challenge I was about to face. I prepared my classes the best way I could, but sadly, my computer failed in the first two classes and of course, I was frustrated because that was something that I could not control, or at least those were my first ideas. Before every class, I was confident about myself, but my worries were more focused on my low-performance computer.
Did I find any quick solution for my computer and its low performance? Hopefully, yes. What I did was to try different browsers, and select the one that fits best with my computer and the Microsoft Teams app (which is the official app for online classes, so I could not change that), and I made it to the point that now, I can teach my classes without problem and not spending extra money to solve my problems.
I believe this process is all about trial and error because even the Costa Rican Ministry of Education is making changes on the road and looking for the best option to cover students´ necessities around our country.
Digital education is a wonderful and useful tool that can encompass new ways of teaching, bring fresh ideas to the teaching-learning process, and innovate in ways that maybe are not discovered yet, but it is important to be aware that we have to work with the resources at hand, and give our 100% + 1 to give our students a good experience.
The same happened to me. I never thought that I would have to perform my teaching practicum like this... And, as you said it, no one was ready for this. Unfortunately, the social gaps are showing, demonstrating that the education in CR is not as accessible as it should. :(
ReplyDeleteI completely share your feelings! What a mess! Unfortunately, neither the Ministry of Education nor us were prepare for this situation. Even though, I consider that we made it great. For being our first time and as we had no other option, we were able to face the reality and so, we worked harder to achieve positively the professional practicum.
ReplyDeleteWow, amazing! Teams is heavy af. You seem to be a can-do person, that's great. Remember you can ask for a computer to U library in case you need one.
ReplyDelete