Remote teaching helps, but not the same

THE closure of schools has not meant that education in Clare has entirely shut down, as many teachers continue to give classes online.

Impossible just a few years ago, the development allows exam students to continue working towards their goals, while it helps give a degree of structure to thousands of teenagers who have to keep their physical distance from everyone apart from their families.

Tara O’Loughlin teaches Maths and Business at St Caimin’s in Shannon and she is using Microsoft Teams to keep things going.

She says that she has learned more about what works, since Covid-19 forced the school closures. “What I started doing when the lockdown first occurred was recording myself on Powerpoints visually so they could see me doing it and posting it up online. I was doing that with all classes andthere’s a thing on Microsoft Teams where you can chat to the students so we got constant communication and the feedback I was getting off my students was that it was grand, but we’re finding it a little bit difficult, so I switched to going live with them on a daily basis, and that’s what I was doing up to the Easter Holidays, where we would meet for an hour once a
day.

“That works better for them, definitely. They get instant feedback, there’s clarity, it definitely helps them. From my own perspective, if you’re doing that five classes a day it’s quite straining, particularly when I have my own
kids in the house as well. You’re trying to juggle everything, but from a teaching and learning perspective I know my Leaving Certs definitely have found value in the live classes.”

However, she says it is important that people don’t become so enthused with the technology that they drive on bald headed and allow a digital divide to emerge. “We need to be mindful of those who don’t have the IT, don’t
have the software, don’t have the parental support. We need to be really mindful that we might be widening a disadvantage gap by ploughing ahead. That’s important, every school needs to be careful.”

Jacquie Murphy teaches Irish and Geography at St Patrick’s Comprehensive in Shannon.

The school were able to give laptops to some students who didn’t have them at home, and while she feels remote learning does help, there is still a loss in not having regular classes.

“Nothing compares to being in a classroom with them, but this is the best we can do in the limited time we have had to organise everything and put it together. At least they are still connected to us in a lot of ways, they’re still
getting that input, still get to ask questions. With the Teams app there is a messenger feature there, so if they have any questions they can message me, submit their work, I can correct it and there is feedback, so there is a
lot of elements they are still getting, but the connection isn’t the same really,” she says.

She says it is important that teachers are aware their students may be under exceptional amounts of stress at the moment, with parents perhaps having lost jobs and concerns about the health of relatives.

While exam students understandably receive most attention, she says all students at the school have online education available to them. “We prioritise leaving certs and junior certs at the moment, but they all get assigned work and they all have videos. It also depends on the individual teacher as well, their access to technology and how good they are with technology. If you’re a teacher with children at home, they’re probably trying to study themselves online. A lot of the children wouldn’t have access to technology or the broadband might not be great, so you kind of have to give work based on what people can do.”