If someone is asked what is their favourite memory about their school days, without a second thought they’d say the time they spent with their friends – pulling each other’s legs, getting punished for silly pranks and sharing lunches together. However, along with all these, one thing I used to love during my school days is sitting beside my mother and watching her as she put fresh brown covers on to all my new text and note books before the start of every new school year. The evident excitement of buying new pencils and erasers, bonding with friends over studies and jokes – things were so simple back then.
Today, as the world is moving more and more toward the digital approach, physical classrooms are getting replaced by video conference tuitions and textbooks are getting replaced by laptops and iPads. While it does save students from the burden of carrying heavy books to schools and colleges, some people believe going digital is beneficial only to a certain extent.
In the times of the COVID-19 pandemic with all the academic institutes shut down, teachers and students are forced to adapt to the online method of sharing education, which many find rather inconvenient as compared to the traditional way that they have been used to for so many years.
I interviewed a university student to know about his opinion on how the sudden change in the way of getting education is taking an effect on his learning abilities and overall academic growth. Abhishek Narvekar is a first year Bachelor in Information Technology student at the InHolland University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and he believes the lack of social interaction is one of the reasons why he does not encourage distance learning beyond a certain limit. “For me, socializing with my classmates is extremely important. It acts as a source of refreshing my mind against the tedious load of studies and exams,” he says.
When asked about how does taking lessons online while sitting at home affect his level of learning, he says he finds it a bit inconvenient and saturated by just sitting at one place for a long time and attending all of his lectures. “There’s hardly any time to clear your doubts in online sessions and no proactive interaction with the lecturers,” he says, adding that he finds the online way of teaching less motivating, which in turn makes it difficult to grasp knowledge.
The only advantage of distance learning, he believes, is the time saved by avoiding travel to the university. His professors use Microsoft Team for conducting online sessions, which he feels is pretty simple and straightforward, when asked if he faces any issues while operating the learning platform.
Furthermore, when inquired whether he encourages the extensive use of distance learning around the globe, even for primary students, he says it is the need of the hour, but believes its is equally essential for students to have some amount of physical activity, understand the importance of learning through a traditional approach and socializing with friends. “Nowadays, everything is being conducted digitally – lectures, exams and even art classes. The way, students will start losing touch of traditional methods and totally rely on digital platforms,” he says. A vast dependence on digital equipment can also affect their mental as well as physical growth, and it should be controlled beyond a limit.
We also discussed about the problems faced by those students whose academic courses need them to be physically present for a class and how are they managing the same given the lockdown situation everywhere. “Students studying in the medical field or those who need to conduct chemistry tests in the laboratories are being called once or twice a day to their universities, of course, while strictly following the social distancing guidelines,” informs Abhishek. Before signing off, Abhishek has an interesting and noteworthy point to add. “One thing we should also consider while taking everything digital is, not everyone can afford it. There are plenty of families in the rural areas who do not access or the required financial conditions to buy the equipment, and for them, there will always arise a question on how are they going to provide for their child’s education if it moves digital.”
