School at a distance. New realities of secondary education
Source: sciencedebate2008.com
Teachers online
No matter how we are told, in Russia distance education in the school environment has not taken root. Various online platforms play at best the role of an additional educational resource. Among such programs, video conferencing (lecture) formats are most popular when a teacher, armed with a whiteboard, presentation, and microphone with headphones, broadcasts from the monitor screen. When it comes to educational platforms in which the student needs to gain knowledge, create projects, adjust the result based on expert comments, the popularity of distance education falls. Our school students have not yet learned how to form independently without a mentor. Because there is no persistent motive for learning.
And then the high-alert mode came in connection with the onset of COVID-19. You can argue as much as you like about the effectiveness of the measures taken, but the fact remains: the fourth academic quarter will most likely take place remotely, if not completed ahead of schedule. It would seem that we have recently convinced everyone that the digital revolution has swept Russia, but the transfer of children to extra-curricular education has passed with great creak.
The first problem is the lack of uniform and adequate educational programs in Runet. When dozens of proposals for organizing free online education fell on schoolchildren and teachers, it turned out that synchronizing them with curricula was very difficult, and sometimes impossible. For example, in the Moscow region, video lessons in mathematics are offered, which have already been completed in the conditional Pskov region, and in the Perm region, a couple of weeks to wait for these topics. And if the programs do not coincide with the textbooks ... Naturally, this form of work does not imply feedback from the student. And if a poor student suddenly has a question about the material, there will be no one to ask him. Looking at the next lesson on YouTube, you can only like or dislike and leave a comment you don't need to write.
The first weeks of educational resources were full of generous offers such as “Everything is free for quarantine now!” Naturally, this turned out to be just a marketing move aimed at attracting a new audience to sites. Truly high-quality resources for schoolchildren were both paid and remained, and even the prices were boosted. However, there are good news. In recent years, all schools have necessarily acquired personal sites (or at least pages on social networks) on which homework can be published every day. In addition, e-school systems have been introduced in many regions, allowing parents and students to control grades and complete homework. With classic paper magazines, I think the self-isolation regime would end in collapse.
Source: sciencedebate2008.com
The second problem of distance education was a weak material base. Some schoolchildren generally do not have a computer at home, and Internet access at best from a smartphone or tablet. Naturally, the scale of this problem in the regions directly depends on the well-being of residents. Move on. Even if the Internet is accessible from portable gadgets, it is most often limited to a few gigabytes of traffic per month. That is, neither in Skype a lesson in the online mode to watch, nor on YouTube a recording of the lesson. And in some villages, for obvious reasons, and cellular communication works with great conventions, not to mention 4G. And even if the family still has a modern computer with broadband access to the global network, do not forget about the parents who are at work remotely. If they conscientiously carry out their duties and observe self-isolation, then there is nothing for the children around the PC to do. I think that the employees of banks, some of which were transferred to remote work, will confirm this. Finally, the most important factor in distance education is the housing issue, which, as you know, has killed many. Unfortunately, not all children are provided with individual jobs in compliance with all sanitary rules, which means that remote studies can take place in the kitchen, on the coffee table, and in other inappropriate places. Add to this the mode of self-isolation of grandparents (who often live with children and grandchildren), and parents who are forced to sit at home.
With educators, everything is easier. Teachers in the vast majority are provided with computers and Internet access - the specificity of work obliges. And they are able to prepare a package of tasks for students with links to online lessons, screening tests and educational videos. But here you can organize video lessons with your own presence, and even on specialized platforms. Therefore, tasks through messengers, through which feedback with children is organized, became the real mainstream. By the way, the most anecdotal example of distance education in self-isolation mode was physical education lessons. Do you think the children in these classes as one do fitness in the home? Tests, essays, reports, and so on - that’s the reality of physical education on the удал remote ’. As in most cases, the school subject is “technology”. And the third problem lies in weakly motivated schoolchildren (as they are called losers) and their equally weakly motivated parents. How to organize work with them? The class teacher cannot come to visit, the teacher cannot conduct a short educational program in hot pursuit. At the same time, parents at best do away with themselves, at worst - in a drunken stupor punish unfortunate minors. In general, distance learning is strictly contraindicated in this category of children and parents.
A difficult exam, a difficult future
We touch on an equally important point of the final certification: the exam in the period of self-isolation. Now everyone understands that even if a miracle happens and the children are released from prison and sent to classes, there will be no unified state examination in the classical sense. The state exam, as you know, can not be taken at your school, but the migration of children from one educational institution to another will definitely be prohibited until the end of the summer. Therefore, the exam will be organized for graduates of the school in their native walls. And the Ministry of Education sets the deadlines very flexible - from June 8, depending on the epidemiological situation in the regions. And if the epidemiological situation does not allow? Cancel the exam? And here again a lot of questions. If the USE options have already been developed, they are the same for the federal districts, then what about discrediting the tasks? Who guarantees that there will be no leaks from the region where the exam passed before? And the USE cannot be canceled in any way - tens of thousands of children will be left without the possibility of entering universities. And the exam is valid for 4 years.
Photo: Timur Sharipkulov / UFA1.RU
Of course, the situation can be saved by remote passing the Unified State Exam, but there are no such technologies in Russia yet. And COVID-19, of course, should be the very challenge that modifies the school structure.
Firstly, it is necessary to develop a reliable and workable system for remotely passing state exams. At least in the backup version. Of course, it is difficult and expensive, but in any case, the system will not stand idle - there are still regular seasonal outbreaks of SARS, and the possibility of such epidemics has not been canceled. Secondly, it is worth thinking about the national distance education system in complete analogy with the common video conferencing systems. Such a system must be adequately protected so that no excesses with hackers occur. I managed to build the Mir payment system on my own. By the way, such a system of school conference calls will be in demand in the "peace" time. For example, children who miss classes for health reasons might be able to attend the lesson remotely. Of course, it is expensive and troublesome. However, precedents already exist - these are video surveillance systems at the USE and various elections.
An important conclusion from the current situation is a simple thesis about the indispensability of the teacher's professions. No one will be able to fully teach remotely (how, by the way, to feed and treat) - everywhere a personal presence of a professional in the workplace is necessary. But the office "plankton", which successfully and without any problems went to remote work, in fact, turned out to be especially not needed. Remove this layer in the post-coronavirus world - and nothing bad will happen. And this is the main lesson that graduates of 2020 should choose to learn when choosing a future profession.
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