Sudden Remote Learning in the era of Covid-19
How students, parents, and teachers are adjusting and coping.
If your children are doing remote learning right now, they aren’t alone. Currently, 90% of the world’s children are at home, learning or trying to learn remotely, many for the first time. Formal classroom learning has been the standard in most countries for up to two hundred years, and suddenly we are being thrown into a crisis remote-learning experiment. Lots of us are doing this while juggling working from home, and others are doing so while working on the front lines of the pandemic, trying to protect their families from their higher virus contraction risks.
The concept of “homeschooling” is not new. Before classroom learning became the norm in industrialized countries in the late 1700s, education was done entirely at home by parents or tutors, and through apprenticeships, whether trade skills or academic pursuits. Around the 1960s, a “homeschooling/home education” movement began, which was critical of formal school education for a variety of reasons, including dissatisfaction with the quality of school education, racism, bullying, and limitations on religious liberty. The concept of educating children at home, outside of formal classrooms, became gradually accepted in mostly English-speaking countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, and is gaining acceptance elsewhere as well. The format of homeschool education varies widely and can include books, workbooks, online education, correspondence education, and even a couple of days of in-person lectures in some hybrid versions. In some places, it is a remote replication of the national education curriculum, and in other places, it is much more flexible, with only some core elements as a requirement. In contrast to its acceptance in the English-speaking diaspora, homeschooling/home education is illegal in most of Asia and Europe.
This isn’t “homeschooling”. It’s Sudden Remote Learning.
The sudden shift to remote education taking place in our homes by the masses globally, as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic movement restrictions, isn’t “homeschooling”. It’s a rapidly created program to help students enrolled in physical schools to keep up with the state curriculum for however long it takes to get the pandemic under control. The intention is that students will not fall behind since teachers can provide instruction remotely and students will be able to pick up again when schools re-open. Since many parents are working from home, with no babysitting or extracurricular activities to keep students occupied, this has become a lesson in multitasking, flexibility, and patience. How does sudden remote learning look across the world? What stands out in these accounts of sudden remote learning is how similarly we are all experiencing it. We’re all in this together.
China
Ann is in high school in Kunming, China, which is the capital of Yunnan province in southern China and has over six million residents. Ann and her classmates did remote learning from February 10th to March 21st. They used a platform called DingDingTalk. She explained her schedule:
Get up at 7:00am, then read and recite Chinese poems or English words till 8:00am. There were 3 [two-hour] classes a day and several ten-minute breaks [between] them. Teachers would give homework through DingDingTalk. We printed it, and handed in it through DingDingTalk. We signed in twice a day through WeChat, and signed in our temperatures every morning and night. We are now in school, [and] also sign in temperature twice a day, wearing face masks during the whole time in school, everybody takes alcohol gels to wash hands between the classes.
Everybody is trying our best to overcome the virus.
I miss going to school of course, I miss my classmates and teachers, and the foods in school cafeterias, I miss running in the school playground. I’m in a public school, which covers an area of 160 mu (107000 square meters) (parks, lake, fishes, flowers, very beautiful).
My school is the best high school in Kunming, everyone here is the top student, most of us don’t have to think financial matters, so everyone here has access to technology. Maybe some students living in mountain villages [don’t] have their own phones, but they can use their parents’. 5G has covered big [areas], and 4G [is] every place (except old-growth forest). You know Chinese anti-poverty project has done a really great job. If students can’t own a phone [it is] more because their parents don’t think they can manage it well. Most of us use mobile phone to take classes, some kinds of phones that are available to internet just ¥300~400) [[around 40 to 59 Euros] Every student needs to learn IT knowledge.
My advice, emmm…if having classes through the internet, don’t sit or stare at the screen for a long time, get some exercises; keep a school time schedule (get up and sleep on time, do homework); some students can’t control themselves to play games, I think parents need to do something; provide a quite environment for children; Clean home frequently, keep air flowing. Of course, the efficiency of studying at home is low, we should understand and accept it. If going to school for classes, WEAR FACE MASKS ALL THE TIME; prepare alcohol gels to wash hands between classes; use your own bowls to have meals. Don’t take elevators, don’t eat together…
Vanessa lives in Hong Kong. She has two sons, aged 8 and 6. They have been doing remote learning for 10 weeks… possibly 11. She has lost count and calls it “hellish”.
[There is] a daily Google Slides presentation with work for [the] day, include[ing] small videos. Check in and Check out Zoom call. Approx. 30/40 mins each, [with the] whole class. I dropped expectations a great deal after about 5 weeks. We were all stressed and unhappy. My 6-year-old now makes our coffee and 8-year-old makes our pizzas. Life skills
Germany
Yvonne lives with her husband, son, and daughter in a small town outside of Munich, Germany.
I think we are really privileged and I am very grateful that I don’t have to think about our jobs and money. Other families will have more sorrows and difficulties in these crazy times.So, we are both home with two almost teenage kids in a small three-room apartment with a balcony. [Our son] is 11 and in 6th grade and [our daughter] is 12 years old in the 7th grade, both are in Gymnasium [University-track school]. First, I tried a fix[ed] schedule for the day. Already in the first two days I [threw] the idea over board. [Our daughter] likes to sleep very long and needs a lot of time after waking up. [Our son] gets up at six o clock every day and is busy, once he is on his feet. Even I like to sleep a little longer and take it easy in the morning.
The only [set] program which [I kept] is the workout at around 10 am. This is a must for everybody. Afterwards we eat together and then I start to print out school papers and check the new tasks for the day with one kid at a time. We will fix a time, when the kids will start their homework. The kids can decide themselves when to start. If the tasks are not done, they have to work more the other day or on the weekend.
[Our daughter], is an emotional learner. She needs sometimes only to sit with me and everything is ok. She is very self-critical but also very hardworking. [Our son] is more [of a] loner. He is doing the things alone and very fast but needs more control. Both are normal pupils with moderate grades.
Aside [from] schooling I have loosened the media control. Normally they cannot do anything electronic during the week. Gaming, TV etc are only possible at the weekend. The last two weeks they had media time in the evening with the order to read before bedtime. Mostly we sit in the big bed an read together. We puzzle, cook, write old school letters, [play] board games and so on.
Czech Republic
Madri lives in the Czech Republic and her children have been doing remote learning since March 11th. Officially, it will continue until May 12th, for now. She has two children, who are in 1st and 3rd grade in a public school.
Grades 3 and up use Google classroom. Grades 1 and 2 [do remote learning through] emails. One TV channel is completely dedicated to school. They use it for explaining new and difficult concepts. They have a system like Mondays are Czech language days, Tuesdays are Math days, etc. My 1st grader has his classes every morning at 9 and grade 5 starts at 11:40. There is a Facebook page and website to tell us the day before what they’ll need for class the next day, like coins, a glass of water, etc. There are no tests and if they don’t go back to school before the end of the school year, they’ll be graded on the tasks they handed in now and previous tests in the school year. The entrance tests for universities and high schools will happen 2 weeks after the schools reopen, whenever that is and the summer holiday will not be made shorter to compensate as this is a stressful situation, not a holiday.
Philippines
Irene lives in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, which is densely populated city of nearly 2 million residents. She has three children, who are in 1st, 5th, and 8th grade.
Here in Manila, the schools have been closed for the past 3 weeks. It has been very stressful. Since I work fulltime, I have to also be connected to work and at the same time, help my 7-year old with schoolwork.
Working full time means that I normally have a nanny who does the cooking and cleaning, however, when the lockdown started, she was no longer allowed entry to our part of the city. So now. I have a lot on my plate
The school uses Teams. For my 1st grader, we have to do the short video call on my phone since my 8th grader uses the only computer in the house. My story is a bit different because they are currently being integrated in the German school system. They only started during the end of October. Since my kids are not so fluent in German, it is very challenging for the 1st grader during the video calls because he can barely understand anything. The audio is also often so bad so I have to really concentrate to help him.
To me, it is always a relief when the video call is over. As soon as his call is over, I have to check my e-mails. He on the other hand is very reluctant to do any schoolwork. In his mind he is at home so he wants to play the whole day. I don’t force him, I give him time to play and then reel him back in to do some work. But then I have to keep checking the time because I am also in charge of lunch, etc. Also, internet sometimes fluctuates and is slow so in the first week that I had to upload the homework, it was so bad that I gave up. It wasn’t until the next day, that I was able to upload his work. My 8th grader does everything on her own so I have no problem with her. My 5th grader is only participating in the German language classes of my 8th grader so he is also pretty much on his own
Needless to say, I am soooo lagging behind the 1st grader’s work, though it is not seen strictly at the school for now.
United States
Oğuzhan lives with his wife and two children near Tampa, Florida.
We have been having a hard time with the remote learning for our kids. We have two sons, one is going to kindergarten and the other one is a 3rd grader. They receive a weekly plan, and they are supposed to follow that every day. After the first week, we are frustrated because we are spending so much time and putting so much effort into having our sons complete the assignments.
Meanwhile, we try to keep up with our other responsibilities. My wife is pursuing a PhD, and I continue to teach remotely for the university as well as continue to do research. At the university level, I think everything goes well with remote learning. Both my wife’s school and my school have the needed infrastructure, and we were able to go fully online in a week. However, I think the elementary school system should do more to help their students and parents. It would be nice if they had online meetings during school time. They initially scheduled a meeting with the students, but then they canceled it (I think) because of privacy concerns. However, during these meetings, students do not need to use their cameras. It is so hard to keep them busy with meaningful things (without screen time) at home.
Mita lives with her husband and two children, aged 4 and 7, in Jersey City, New Jersey
My husband and I both have the privilege to work from home. We both have demanding jobs. Now in the pandemic, we are trying to home school our children as well. Here are some things we are focused on:
Aligning on schedules the night before:
What work meetings are a must to attend?What meetings do we both have to do at the same time and have to turn a show on? When do we have to help our children dial in for their school meetings? We have honest conversations about our workload and remind ourselves one job is not more important than the other.
Divide and conquer household chores:
I find it’s easy to slip back into cultural stereotypes of who is expected to do around the house. I don’t have to make all the meals and do the laundry and clean the bathrooms. We have an open dialogue about it and discuss week to week who will do what. That way no resentment builds in an otherwise tense situation.
It’s ok not to complete every assignment.
The teachers and our kids are doing the best they can. And if they don’t finish an assignment, it’s ok. The magic that happens in the classrooms with the teachers and their friends just can’t be recreated at home. Being on zoom with twenty 4 year olds doesn’t help recreate that magic, either. We try to guide them and let them focus on the things they want to do. For my 7 year old, he knows what assignments he has to complete and he has until dinnertime to do them. We help guide him and try not to hover. And if they repeat Pre-K 4 and second grade it’s going to be ok. We just take it a day at a time.
Deborah lives with her husband and two daughters, who are in 6th grade and 3rd grade in Loma Linda, California.
For the past nineteen years, I have been a public school teacher in Southern California, where I currently teach second grade. I have enjoyed interacting and teaching kids face to face in large groups, small groups, and one on one. So switching to remote learning within a matter of weeks was quite the challenge and has required overcoming many learning curves and employing lots of creativity. Preparing for overnight remote learning success was a little like drinking from a firehose. Now, a week into the remote teaching and learning process, I am finding that I am standing in the midst of many trials and tribulations, as well as small joys.
In preparation to switch to remote learning, I participated in all of the professional development opportunities my district offered through distance learning. I quickly learned many new skills that I had not needed to rely on before. For example, I learned how to use multiple online platforms to conduct student meetings, as well as how to utilize Google Classroom to connect lessons and assignments with my students.
However, the biggest challenge has been bridging the home to school connection since we are no longer coming face to face with students and their families. After many phone calls, emails, and other communication apps, I have been successful. No teacher or family was prepared for this rapid transition to distance learning. My job became making sure every family had access to technology so that together we could move forward with distance learning. If a family did not have access to adequate technology, I connected them to school sites where they could obtain the necessary devices that their children needed.
One difficulty is that families and students have various levels of experience with technology, which resulted in varying levels of technology-related questions being directed to me. Sometimes, I could answer the questions. Other times, I had to do some research before answering questions. Fortunately, families were patient as they tried their best to work through these challenges. In addition to the difficulty that parents have experienced with remote learning, the students have missed seeing real faces and being at school with their friends. However, when the technology does work, we see each other, and their faces light up.
Remote instruction delivery is unlike the traditional method. Now I can be found in my living room or kitchen talking into a camera to explain grammar concepts to my students while my own two children (ages twelve and nine) are just out of camera sight working online with their teachers. When I am not on camera with my students, I am often creating digital worksheets, sorting through appropriate digital lessons, and connecting our available digital curriculum for my students. While taking care of my students, I am also running back and forth to help my own children connect to Zoom calls or Google Meets. Amidst this whirlwind circus of activities, I find it very rewarding to see the faces of my eager students when it is their turn to connect with me. I have seen inside my students’ homes. I have seen their younger siblings waving into the camera, the cakes they made with grandma, and so much more. During this time of social distancing, we are all so far from each other. At the same time, we are so close to each other as we talk inside our personal space at home. This experience is both heart wrenching and heartwarming.
Australia
Katy lives in Sydney, and has three daughters.
I have three girls in public school in Australia year 3, 7 and 9. All of them are using Google classroom and it’s been pretty smooth. My youngest needs a lot of support and my middle has health concerns so I’ve taken leave without pay to be home with them. I’m a preschool teacher so technically my job is still going but enrolments are down a lot so this worked well for us all.
Vicki lives in Brisbane, and has three children.
[My children are in] private school kids, [in] grades 3, 7 and 10 and we’ve been homeschooling for a week now and it ends Friday as we go on Easter break. The older girls manage their own classes it’s zoom I do believe, (physical) school is still open for essential workers. My son has a list of activities for the day that are all online in school box’ which is the app the school uses and he is an independent worker so doesn’t need much from me honestly. Hardest part is the physical activity as that’s on his sheets so he’s getting bored not running around much as parks are all closed.
Japan
Yoko lives in Nishinomiya city in Hyogo prefecture, which between the major cities of Kobe and Osaka. She has two children, a 10-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son.
In some universities they do have online classes but some of them are complaining about it. Some students don’t have unlimited Internet environment so it costs them a lot. At [my children’s] school, I’ve never heard them discussing about it. My kids received a lot of homework. That’s it. I think it’s the same for all of the public schools in Japan. On the other hand, the Osaka International school started remote clasess on the day school closed. They said they’ve already prepared for it before it happened. They have classes same as usual in the morning. It’s really great.
Italy
Jula lives in Padua, which is in northern Italy, west of Venice. Her son is 16 years old and is in the first year of his International Baccalaureate program at a private school.
[My son’s] last day of physical school was February 21st before the White Week holiday break. During that week, the Italian government shut the schools down. Therefore, this week marks one month of remote learning.
Initially the teachers emailed PowerPoint presentations and assignments to cover the curriculum they would be doing in class with deadlines. The students already had their own email address, and an account on Google classroom and documents with shared files. Google is the system the school was using. An, the students were already uploading their assignments for the most part.
After the first week, online sessions via Google classroom began based on the normal schedule, with teachers conducting presentations and class for the full duration of the class time).
At home, we have amazing broadband and my son has a microphone and camera so there was nothing for us to do to get him prepared for remote learning. I mention this because it was a problem for some of his classmates who didn’t have webcams or microphones. (And some teachers too)
The school has been sending out weekly updates on the remote learning experience, sharing feedback, concerns and offering solutions. The main concern is too much screen time. Therefore, they have been trying to figure out how to provide a more blended learning situation. (Turn away from the screen, just listen and take notes, worksheets sent home, half the class time on presentations and then letting the class go with assignments that can be done on paper, etc.)
I did notice that my son was leaning too much into the presentations because they have access to them after the class, rather than take notes. And, I even caught him not writing down the math equations. So, I started dating a piece of paper and checking it after the class. He is in the habit now, but it is something I check in with him on all the classes. This is a problem I had highlighted to the school before and I read an article on it too — how teachers giving out these presentations like the classroom is a business meeting, is not good for students. They need to be taking notes.
I know the teachers in the middle school are insisting on webcams so they can monitor this age range better.
For the most part, my son’s class is comprised of students who are serious learners as they are getting close to taking IB exams next year.
For PE, I was making him do some jumping jacks at the first break to make-up for the fact he wasn’t walking up and down the stairs at school to physical move from room to room. And, at the end of the day, we were going for a long power walk for over an hour. Now, we have been restricted on that activity here in Italy, so we run around the garden at lunchtime and in the evening.
The sliver lining is that the long commute via train and bus is not needed. Now, instead of leaving the house at 7am and not getting back until 5pm, he can stay in bed until 8am if he wants.He claims he is not missing the social interactions (he’s a bit of laner as he’s moved around so much). He is enjoying the online banter before the teacher joins the calls. He has said that some of the teachers are still digital aliens and aren’t great with the technology. Others are fine.
Sweden
Karin lives in Sweden, one of the few countries where elementary schools are still open and social distancing and other restrictions are relatively relaxed. She is teaching high school students remotely.
I’m both at parent and a teacher. But my kids are small and still in primary school so they’re going to school, which I think is great.
I’m teaching my students who attend ’gymnasiet’ (it’s almost like high school, the students are 16–19 years old) in mathematics. I think it’s actually working really [well]. We have our classes according to the regular schedule and I meet them in Microsoft Teams. So the students have classes all day like on a normal school day.
I start up the class in Microsoft Teams, and I call their names one by one, mostly to hear their voices and make sure they are actually there. After that, I share my oneNote screen. In oneNote I can write with a computer pen (I have a touch screen) and the students see while I’m writing so it’s like a regular lecture like on a white board. When there have been particularly tricky contents in the lecture, I’ve asked them to watch a video that explains the same thing before the class. After the lecture part of class, I write some recommended assignments from the book that I want them to work with and they are free to ask me questions about the lecture or about the assignments. If they don’t want to ask the question so that everybody hears, they can ask me in a private chat. I always explain in the common meeting though, because the chance is big that someone else have the same question. On the occasions when I have nothing to do I make sure everyone is still in the meeting. In the end I go back to the meeting and stop sharing oneNote so that they can see me again. And I sum up the contents of the class and tell what will come up next. Pretty much like regular class, except we’re not in the same room.
Mexico
Bibiana teaches at an international school in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas.
It has been very hectic the transition from IB curriculum in the classroom to online. I believe that the speed at which this service was required here in Mexico by the parents, students, and educational institutions was a challenge. We as educators were asked to come up with two weeks of lessons within a day. These lessons would be rolled out using our educamos internal digital system. As the week went by it was obvious that a lot more time and preparation would have been a better way to approach this need for IT expertise, trainning and execution.
As an educator I have little input and thus I was mostly in survival mode, trying to digest all the information about various applications, and procedures…I was concerned about how to present the information to children too young to follow instructions in the classroom. Second graders do use technology, but they cannot do so independently, let alone follow instructions. It is then up to a parent to help. I am now faced with both students and parents that like me might not be fluent in the language of computers, apps, and in general the digital world. As the second week came by and the administration realized that our internal system could not handle that much traffic other options were explored. I am currently using ClassDojo, educamos, and YouTube to provide the students with the best support to remain productive from home. I am overwhelmed with how to keep track of the work. Stressed about giving comments in a appropriate amount of time. Stressed about technology, internet issues and if my parents and students can handle this much as well. I am also striving to do my best. I need the families of my students to bring education to the home and make it a positive, fun experience for the family to share. Some parents and students are rising to the occasion and taking ownership of their education. The students and parents are building great amazing projects together and completing activities that demonstrate the students’ abilities and gifts. I think we are all learning from various perspectives and people in different environments, which makes my students projects all that more special. I am proud of the parents and students for making this effort during challenging times.Technology has been a stressful and frustrating tool, but it has also been the answer to keeping us connected and active in a situation that years past would have been more emotionally devastating due to the lack of innovation. I am happy to have had this incident teach me to develop a more amicable relationship with technology.
This pandemic experience is a marathon, not a sprint. Hang in there and keep going.
Roshan T. Ramlal, Ph.D. is an epidemiologist in Atlanta, Georgia (USA).
Saskia E. Akyil, M.A. is a science journalist in Munich, Germany.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling_international_status_and_statistics