Italy and Mobile Education

Many students, teachers, classrooms, and educational organisations have had to move to mobile teaching very quickly without much preparation. Mobile education can be a wonderful, liberating, and empowering system if it is chosen intentionally and designed well. In the recent months however, this has not necessarily been the case.

I found this article written by an Italian father fascinating. It looks at the downside of what can happen when mobile education is enforced without much preparation:

“The teacher-pupil balance also shifted. In an online classroom, if pupils aren’t interested or motivated, they can hide far more easily. They can feign technological issues, freeze the camera, mute the microphone. Around this time, I did a few online lessons for various schools and saw the problem close up: when the pupils weren’t engaged they would drift away and, not having them there in front of you, you couldn’t bring them back into the circle.”

It looks at what happens when the boundaries between personal and school life is suddenly removed:
“That fluidity of boundaries has had advantages and disadvantages. In video lessons some pupils have found it embarrassing to share their personal spaces – their bedrooms and, in the background, even their embarrassing parents. Many teachers describe seeing a new side to their students.”

It looks at the effects on teachers:
“The more you look at the educational conundrum in lockdown Italy, the more you see everyone’s vulnerabilities. Students have always felt fretful because of their weekly tests and the stigma of being held back a year. But now many teachers feel insecure, too: not just because education seems like the last priority of government, but because they are scared of digitalised learning and fear being replaced by screens.”

And it looks at how different definition of what it means to educate and to learn are arising.

It’s a long article, but a worthwhile read! You can view the full post here.

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