I've been in a few meetings lately. The recent Cov0d-19 lockdown has made us transition to online classes, online assessment and online webinars. While this is a good thing, the common misconception that gets thrown around is that:
"The Young Will Figure it Out..."
Let the Younger Teachers Figure it out
It is unfortunate that many in the administration have decided to set objectives and leave it to the younger more "tech-savvy" teachers to implement it. While it is true that younger teachers are more receptive towards new technology and tools. It is a misconception that we know what tools to use and how to implement it.
I remember the need to implement a learning assessment online for an upcoming exam. The administrators only gave the order and were adamant that the younger teachers find a way. A solution was provided but many of the older teachers preferred that the younger teachers handled the entire process.
Let the Younger Students Figure it out
It is also unfortunate that many of the administrators assumed that students are familiar with any software that we throw at them. The unfortunate truth is that many of the students get really stressed using platforms such as Google classroom.
I had a student who was extremely stressed out because he was unable to log in to the classroom. The reason? He was logged into the wrong account.
The Point
Age is a poor determiner of the students' or teachers' ability to use technology. What is really required is clear guidelines and leadership to help guide the students and those at the grassroots levels to implement the tools in a uniformed way. This can be done via examples and good communication to properly guide the teachers and students in the new norm.
From experience, many of the students were not able to use the new tools because they were only familiar with Instagram and facebook. They will still need time to transition over to the new platforms for learning and assessment tools.
For my class, I tried to mitigate the stress from the students by giving them a trial before the online test was implemented. At least that gave them some time to get used to the test before they sat for it. The point is to reduce the exam stress as much as possible before they sat for the test. The same can be applied in online learning since many of them have never been on an online class before this.
That being said, here's to hoping that all this will improve over time. Maybe in time, there would be better guidelines.