2020 is a roller coaster year with a series of unfortunate events. First an entire country caught fire. World War Ill released a trailer. And then the Chinese started getting sick. So very sick that a pandemic officially broke out all over the world in just a matter of two months. I guess Earth really got creative with her new year's resolution this time adamant to teach the human race a lesson that so mercilessly had polluted her land and water and air for his greed.
The effect of Covid-19 is more than dead people lying on the streets. It touched and shook every aspect of the economy and society. Panic and fear everywhere. Social distancing became important, lockdown was necessary as a result educational institutions had to be closed down too (this was a fantasy come true for lazy students like me). Nobody has expected it to be this bad. WW III didn't scare us as much as Covid-19.
The lockdown gave open to a whole series of new problems. Especially the educational institutions were in a fix. And more especially for college students like me who has to go through a four year course and now when we are just a step away from being a final year, losing a year was looming large.
Lucky for us, the world has seen a great deal of advancement in the field of technology for the past years and communication has since then became so much easier. Now an era of online classes has begun.
Technology has never failed in keeping us stay connected. This advantage became a boon at times like this. Not only are we connected with family and friends but also with our studies. How? Online classes! All you need is a laptop or a mobile phone with a generous amount of good internet. Apps like Zoom, Google classroom and even WhatsApp got spotlighted and are being used for conducting classes.
The fact that mobile phones are helping students study would have been a shock for the 2019 and previous year’s teachers. They have only seen and understood until that point that when a student, a mobile and a good internet get mixed, the result is distraction and a zero in quiz (mobile phones were never allowed in exam halls and students didn’t study for the quiz because of the distraction). So yeah, the then teachers would have said “yeah right like that’s gonna happen”. Well guess what bro, that just happened.
You don’t have to wake up early and get dressed for a class. Just be aware of the time the assigned teacher has set up for the class and boom! You’re in class. I never dreamt, in fact it was a dream that I wished one day I could attend class just from my bed. Guess what? Now I can! Get the phone, get the app, punch the code and voila! I’m in class, also in my bed! I just woke up now.
Thanks to the technology and dedicated teachers, the problem of taking a gap and wasting a year is solved despite the need for social distancing. You don’t have to crowd in a classroom for learning. You could do that in your room. You could be anywhere doing anything. Attending a class has never been this casual.
Online classes are physically easy but mentally frustrating if anyone asks me. And not all but many people would agree with me including (and surprisingly) teachers. In fact I have been brought to light that it is so much harder for teachers. They have to think hard and smart on how to make this work. The pressure of moulding students at times like this is so stressful that one of my teachers had confessed to me that she was seeing stars.
The method of completely adopting the style of teaching online is a new experience for both the students and the teachers. We are so used to and comfortable with the traditional style of learning with blackboard and benches that we feel and somehow are convinced that no amount of advanced technology could replace that because it just doesn’t fit in. We are not very open to change I think. We resist it. We are pessimist about it. Because we think it is hopeless.
Another major drawback on the issue is the network problem. Everybody has faced it more often than not. Nagaland is not very well developed. Students from different parts of the state do not have the same facilities. Even I have had the misfortune of poor connectivity. One time I almost missed my quiz, lost my mind that day. Another time I spent my entire day trying to figure out how to submit an assignment because the app to confer the pictures into files was not working properly, the internet was poor and I gave up. And I live in Dimapur. Imagine how much worse it must be for the students from the interiors.
Looking at the present scenario, I wish I could say that I know of a better alternative but there is none. Online classes, no matter how confusing and frustrating I find it, seem to be the only solution at the moment. It has its ups and downs of course, but what doesn’t? Even the ying has its yang.
In conclusion, my opinion is that both the students and the teachers have to come and work this out together, help each other with empathy and understand each other's situation, the whole situation. Learning is a two way process. So let’s learn. And may everything happen for the best!
Chubazungla Walling
Nagaland University
Medziphema Campus