There is no denying the fact that owing to the outbreak of the COVID19 Corona Virus has brought it immense changes in our day to day lives. With lockdowns and the social distancing becoming the norm now a lot has changed which includes work from home and online learning. So we are undergoing sea changes in our lives. All these combined are bound to have a major impact on our mental health. So how it might impact and more importantly our children has become a major concern of many. It is to address this concern that Dr. Tirthankar Dasgupta of Moner Alo, who is one of the best Psychiatrists explains in great detail. Let us see what he has to say in the matter.
How Online Education is shaping up young minds?
When it comes to online education or for that matter any education there is something which is called the AGES model, which is used to measure or track the overall impact.
Attention
The first and foremost point which needs to be analyzed is how much the child is attentive while attending the class. In a physical class retaining the attention of the student is comparatively easier, because both the teacher as well as the student are in the same physical environment. But in the case of an online learning, this may not be possible because the student is a remote location in a completely different environment. This indeed is a major challenge for teaching online. So the teacher needs to make the class as much interactive as possible.
Generation
All that we learn gets stored in our memory. The earlier knowledge so plays a part in what the students can gather. The more the same gets reinforced the stronger it gets. Here also the teacher whether it is online or real classroom setting if the teaching is unidirectional with little participation then the teaching is bound to be ineffective. Here again, whether the students are visible on the video is a question. But there are many restrictions and guidelines which need to be followed in the online mode. Owing to this the learning of the student gets hampered to a certain extent. So this indeed is another major drawback of the virtual medium no matter how advanced it may be.
Emotion
Emotion too according to Dr. Tirthankar Dasgupta is one of the important factors on which the quality of learning depends. He believes that it is generally observed that in an environment which of fear and anxiety, the quality of learning may be poor. Here the positive teachers where students can generate more enthusiasm in the students and the learning become much more effective. Here too most would agree that the involvement of the teacher is much easier in a real classroom scenario.
Spacing
It is seen that often when it comes to learning a particular topic, giving some intermittent gaps, what is known as spacing is very effective and is essential for learning. This though easy to do in case of a real classroom scenario, but may not be possible in case of online education.
But he feels that inline too has many advantages as well. These could include saving on travel time and is convenient. There is also scope for taking additional classes where doubt clearing sessions are there.
Thus it is seen that if you weigh the pros and cons for effective learning real classrooms are indeed beneficial in many ways. But at the same time, online education too has many benefits. Besides right now all of us but forced to avail online education as it is no longer possible to conduct physical classes and thus we need to make the most of what students can avail. There is a strong need to make online learning most effective in going ahead.
Watch this video by Dr. Tirthankar Dasgupta- https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1201106210233451