During the distance learning period, 85% of the students had access to a digital device to do the homework, 92% of the students had access to the Internet and 86% of the teachers were involved in distance teaching activities, shows the statistics for March that were presented by education expert Sergiu Corlat, informatics teacher, at a workshop staged by Soros Foundation Moldova, IPN reports.
Accordion to Sergiu Corlat, the process of switching over to online education was swift, unexpected and happened when no education system was ready to do it. The problems identified in this process are related to digital technology, availability of educational resources in digital format and digital skills of teachers.
Pavel Cerbuşca, director of the National Lyceum “Aristotel”, presented a study of distance learning. The research covered 35,000 students, 24,000 parents and 6,500 teachers. Most of the students understood well the topics taught online, but 3-3.5% said it was harder for them to understand and the teachers didn’t notice this. The teachers thought they explained everything, but not all the students understood well.
According to the study, the homework during a day could be done during 5, 6 or even 7 hours, besides the time spent online with teachers. Also, 80% of the teachers and 65% of the interviewed students needed special guidelines to be able to take part in distance learning.
Pavel Cerbuşca concluded that distance learning was an alternative for the education system and this does not lay emphasis on knowledge, but on the development of values, arousing of curiosity, abandonment of the teachers’ authoritarian style, etc. He formulated recommendations for improving distance learning, concerning well-formulated tasks for teachers, compilation of the timetable of activities.
Elena Grigoriev, teacher of the Theoretical Lyceum of Doroţcaia village of Dubăsari district, said that their teaching staff encountered difficulties in initiating distance learning as not all the teachers had digital training and the students had to install a number of applications on the phone so as to be able to maintain communication with teachers. Among the faced problems were the lack of modern equipment, the lack of digital skills among teachers, especially among those of retirement age, the lack of contact with students and others.
The teacher noted that such projects should be continued as they make the teachers to improvise, to find solutions. This process also brought the parents and children closer and maintained the teacher-parent connection.
Psychologist Daniela Terzi-Barbăroşie said that owing to isolation and the absence of communication with mates, the students are predisposed to a state of stress and the parents are subject to enormous pressure. The lesson that should be learned from this experience is that education consists not only of teaching and assessment, but is also built on the innate curiosity of people and the period is now suitable to consider what learning is, starting from the interests of students and the professionalism of teachers.
