We were asked to do an essay on the status of our students, our status as an educators, and the status of the school administrators on technology integration based on some standards. We are to base our essay on our teaching experience and observations in the school where we are currently employed.
Before I do my essay for submission, let me just first have some free write experience here as an exercise. Let me write based on my own understanding so far.
Technology is anything that helps us do things easier, if not better. Technology replaces some of our manual works.
More than a year ago, we went into lockdowns and quarantines. For a few days, classes in my school were suspended. After some time, the administration decided that we do our classes online.
First Attempt with Online Classes
Since it was the first time we implement the online classes. We first experimented on a lot of things. There were set guidelines but we still explored things on our own. What we first did was prepare modules. We created messenger group chats. We then sent the modules to the messenger group chats per class.
The students then downloaded the modules. They were given few weeks to accomplish the modules. Additional instruction were given by respective teachers. The students passed their activities by taking pictures of their papers then sending them to the messenger account of the teachers. Asynchronous consultations has been prevalent during the first attempt on online classes. That would be, the students ask their questions thru messenger then the teacher would answer as soon as he/she is available.
The electronic means and apps that we used were messenger, e-mail, and Facebook. During these times, there were still no official email addresses by students.
Early Attempt with Online Distance Learning (ODL) thru the Learning Management System (LMS)
After two trimesters, our school managed to implement the Learning Management System. We use the canvas. With that, all teachers and students were given their official email addresses and passwords that they were to use for the LMS. The email and password will be their log-in credentials to access the canvas.
By this time we now call the online classes as online distance learning or ODL.
During the early phase, we encountered a lot of problems. Many students are still unfamiliar with emails and LMS. They had a hard time following the instructions given in the manual on how to log in to the LMS. We had to accommodate their questions one by one just so we all could enjoy the rest of the term.
What problems have we encountered?
The challenges that I have encountered so far were the lack of interest of some students to learn with the new system or go along the changes that are already happening; some still do not have gadgets in their homes (this is true); and there is a problem with uniformity of implementation of the ODL.
Some teachers were very strict while other teachers were not. Students on the other hand have varying levels of compliance. Some submit immediately while other students wait for deadline before submitting. Sadly, some dropped because of the situation. We extended our service by reaching out to them. Some came back while others dropped for good.
Conclusion
Overall, the integration of technology is slightly in conformity with the standards that our professor has given.
For the students, some are very much involved with their learning while some are not. Some put to use their knowledge with technology while others dreaded using the platform altogether, hence requesting for printed modules which we also accommodated.
For me as an educator, if truth be told, I was in awe with the many things that I can do online. Technology does not only act as a substitute to our chalk and talk. It also acts to augment, modify, and redefine what we have been doing so far. I am enjoying talking over zoom. I like the annotate feature of the app. I like that even without projector we simply share our powerpoint presentation. We can just also send them message thru messenger anytime and we can be very flexible and accommodating to students’ request. I personally am against very strict implementation because it will kill the interest of the students. Incentives for early birds will do and encouragement for the rest.
Personally, the online classes has been advantageous for my situation. It is worth noting that despite the problems that arose because of the pandemic, I was able to assume my role as a teacher, housekeeper, and mother. It has been challenging but at least my separation anxiety with my children has diminished. Also, I could cook and do some house chores while I am on break. I also have the time to play a little bit with the children. The greatest challenge I’ve experienced so far is when I mix up all my priorities and ends up with nothing done. But of course, this is not an excuse. I shouldn’t take for granted the big help of technology. I am one blessed creature that even during these times I have a job to keep and I have this platform as side hustle. And most of all, I have Him to keep me sane all throughout.
