I. TEORIAS, PESQUISAS E ESTUDOS DE CASO

 

Educational scenario and quality concerns in online digital distance learning during and after pandemic 2020

 

Cenário educacional e preocupações com a qualidade no ensino digital à distância online durante e após a pandemia de 2020

 

Escenario educativo y preocupaciones sobre la calidad del aprendizage a distancia digital durante y después de la pandemia 2020

 

 

Vinod Kumar Kanvaria^I

^IPhD, Assistant Professor, University of Delhi, Delhi (India). E-mail: vinodpr111@gmail.com. ORCID: 0000-0001-6801-1652

 

 

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ABSTRACT

With the change in the world due to COVID-19 and pandemic 2020, the educational field has also undergone a massive great change. The educational scenario has almost entirely changed due to this novel situation and new normal have redefined the field of education. Distance learning through online digital mode, giving rise to digital distance learning, has arose as the need of the hour and well accepted not only by the stakeholders of educational field, but also by the entire educational fraternity across the globe. This gave rise to a flood of online learning programs keeping in mind the distance learning at its root. Students and their learning for academic growth, teachers and their learning for professional growth and teacher educators and their professional growth were highly affected with this concept of online distance learning and flood of such programs in the field during pandemic 2020. The quality of such programs and learning from such programs is a matter of great concern and demands a discussion at length. The current chapter makes such an endeavor and critically discusses various issues and factors affecting learning in such a changing scenario pertaining to students, teachers and teacher educators.

Keywords: distance learning; online digital distance learning; students; teachers; teacher educators; COVID-19; pandemic.

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RESUMO

Com a mudança no mundo devido ao COVID-19 e a pandemia de 2020, o campo educacional passou por uma grande mudança massiva. O cenário educacional mudou totalmente devido a esta situação nova que redefiniram o campo da educação. O ensino a distância na modalidade digital online, dando origem ao ensino a distância digital, surgiu como necessidade, bem aceito não só pelos stakeholders do campo educacional, mas também por toda a fraternidade educacional em todo o globo. Isso deu origem a uma enxurrada de programas de aprendizagem online, tendo em vista o ensino a distância em sua raiz. Os alunos e sua aprendizagem para o crescimento acadêmico, os professores e sua aprendizagem para o crescimento profissional e os formadores de professores e seu crescimento profissional foram altamente afetados com este conceito de ensino à distância online e inundação de tais programas no campo durante a pandemia de 2020. A qualidade de tais programas e aprender com esses programas são motivos de grande preocupação e exige uma longa discussão. O capítulo atual faz esse esforço e discute criticamente várias questões e fatores que afetam a aprendizagem em um cenário de mudança pertencente a alunos, professores e formadores de professores.

Palavras-chave: educação a distância; educaçãodDigital adDistânciaoOnline; alunos; professores; educadores de professores; COVID-19; pandemia.

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RESUMEN

Con el cambio en el mundo debido a la COVID-19 y la pandemia durante el 2020, el campo educativo también ha experimentado un gran cambio masivo. El escenario educativo ha cambiado casi por completo debido a esta situación novedosa y al llamado nuevo normal, que han redefinido el campo de la educación. La educación a distancia a través del modo digital online, ha surgido como una necesidad del momento, siendo bien aceptada no solo por los actores del campo educativo, sino también por toda la comunidad educativa en todo el mundo. Esto dio lugar a una avalancha de programas de aprendizaje en línea teniendo en cuenta el aprendizaje a distancia en su raíz. Los estudiantes y su aprendizaje para el crecimiento académico, los maestros y su aprendizaje para el crecimiento profesional y los formadores de maestros y su

crecimiento profesional se vieron muy afectados con este concepto de aprendizaje a distancia en línea y la inundación de dichos programas en el campo durante la pandemia 2020. La calidad de dichos programas y aprender de estos programas es motivo de gran preocupación y exige un debate extenso. El capítulo actual hace tal esfuerzo y analiza críticamente varios temas y factores que afectan el aprendizaje en un escenario tan cambiante perteneciente a estudiantes, profesores y formadores de profesores.

Palabras clave: aprendizaje a distancia; aprendizaje a distancia digital en línea; estudiantes; docentes; formadores de docentes; COVID-19; pandemia.

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Introduction

As the COVID-19 came into existence, the entire world started being in a sort of turmoil. One and all, on this earth, got affected severely due to this virus and after-effects of its entry in the humankind.

Arise of Covid-19

COVID-19 was a surprise to everyone in the world. As soon as it came into existence, it created a terror among people, including the teaching-learning fraternity. Initially, people used to think that it is not a new virus, but the old one from the category of influenza-type corona virus meant for cold and cough. But, later, with the availability of shared knowledge from the various stakeholders and medical-professionals, it became clear that it is new sort of corona virus which arose in 2019, so it was called as novel corona virus (2019-nCov) and the disease generated by it was called corona virus disease 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19 on 11 February, 2020 by the World Health Organization. The very first case of novel coronavirus outside of China was confirmed on 13 January, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020). This disease, in a very short span of time captured the entire world, including developed, developing and under- developed countries across the globe. Hardly a few countries might have remained as an exception for this Covid-19. This virus created a sort of panic in the mind of one and all. Undoubtedly, it became severe while it and its concerns had arisen for students and learners at various stages throughout the world.

Pandemic 2020 and Lockdown

The spread of this virus could not be stopped and when people started dying due to this virus's disease at mass level, the world level stakeholders like United Nations and World Health Organization characterized and declared this COVID-19 as the pandemic, rather global pandemic, on 11 March, 2020 (World Health Organization, 2020). And, all this happened in 2020, so this pandemic can be called as pandemic 2020. Followed by the spread of this virus across the countries, the top administrators were made to think about the precautionary measures, which could be adopted as there was no certain cure and sure-shot medical prescriptions for this disease. One of such precautionary measures was the lockdown. Hence, in 2020, various countries started the lockdown in a successive or whole as a single-part mode. The lockdown started the panic and concerns of common men at a mass level and that too at a large scale. It created not only psychological concerns but also social concerns among the people, at large. It largely affected the mindset of academic fraternity. The question arose in the minds of teachers, students, parents and stakeholders of educational field that what would happen to the education and future of education due to this lockdown. And, this question gained more significance while the lockdown got extended again and again and the lockdown duration got elongated and elongated. So, everyone in the education fraternity tried to sort out the problem arose in their own capacity, individual as well as institutional.

Need of Distance Learning through Digital Mode

The quest for finding the solution to the effects of lockdown problem and enthusiasm for teaching and learning, the education fraternity found a mass level and widely-accepted solution as the distance learning. This distance learning and teaching was adopted to take place of the face to face mode learning and teaching. This was a sort of sudden shift, at mass level, in the field of education. Another question was how this distance learning and teaching would take place; the answer came from the digital world. And, this answer was learning and teaching through the digital mode. The online digital mode consisted of several pre-requisites like digital advanced devices, internet communication facility, electricity, ease of communication and presentation, advanced and need of the hour like sophisticated and secure software, applications and websites, mental readiness and capability of learners and teachers and teacher educators, etc. And, all these things were not uniform across the globe. These things were varying at large scale not only among developed, developing and under-developed countries, but also across various regions of an individual country too. Rural areas differed from the urban areas, socially disadvantaged areas differed from the advantaged areas, economically stronger strata differed from the economically weaker strata, and these differences were also at a high range. So, though the need of distance learning through digital mode was widely accepted and arose as a boon in the field of education, the further problems were also not lesser. But, instead of all the limitations, the distance learning through digital mode began, got momentum and spread across the entire world.

Flood of Online Programs

Countries, like India and others, welcome the concept of distance learning and teaching through digital mode at a large scale and this idea just got exploded across the country at all the levels viz. school level, college level, university level and learner's level, teacher's level, teacher educator's level. The result of this explosion appeared in the form of flood of online programs. Online seminars, online conferences, online workshops, online faculty development programs, online capacity building programs, online refresher courses, online learning sessions, online classes, online counseling sessions, online quizzes, etc. were a few to name. And, such programs were taking place irrespective of authenticity, validity, credibility and most of the time without any proper preparation and proper planning. Almost, everyone, who knew a little bit of computer operations started such programs, and the flood of online programs was the massive observation. People started making online social media/community/communication groups like WhatsApp groups, Telegram groups, Facebook groups, YouTube groups, etc. and started such online programs. Sometimes, the reasons for such massive online programs did not seem to be academic or professional but to establish the organizers or group administrators or certain group of people as the so- called well-known academician in the field, which was quite evidential with the quantum and quality of such programs. And, at the end of participants and learners, the quality concern including sincerity, seriousness, availability of resources, etc. was a major issue, which should be observed, studied and talked about in detail for larger benefit. Let us focus upon these issues with respect to members of academic field i.e. students, teachers and teacher educators and their learning from such online programs.

 

Learning of students

The pandemic 2020 affected a lot the entire teaching-learning fraternity, but the students were highly vulnerable to the situations arisen due to this pandemic and its effects. Their learning was hampered and they were very much concerned about their present and future studies. Those, who were at the crucial point of their educational period like National Board Exams were very much in a sort of dilemma what to do or what not to do and what will happen to their career. Then, the online digital distance learning came as the apparent solution to all their problems, which was nothing but the product of educational stakeholders. Though the online learning appeared as a sort of panacea but, the learning of students was affected due to several factors pertaining to online learning and teaching programs. Let us discuss about them.

Accessibility of Devices

The major and foremost pre-requisite for learning from online programs was being able to attend these programs. And, for having this ability, accessibility of required devices was a major issue. The learning of students during this pandemic was very much affected due to lack of such advanced devices which could made possible online video- conferencing, online video and document sharing, online visibility with clarity, online and offline storage to install and run various software, etc. Since the online learning needs a lot of functions to do, so the such devices also should be accessible to learners which can handle such operations. So, the lack of such devices with the learners affected the learners' participation and hence their learning.

Accessibility of Internet Facility

Internet facility is the minimum essential condition for distance video-conferencing. As the online distance learning is taking place through the video-conferencing platforms, the accessibility to internet facility is a major issue. Those, who do not have ample internet facility, their learning would be hampered at a large level. Along with internet facility is attached the speed of the internet, continuity of signals, availability of internet signals at particular locations, strength of internet signals, cost of internet facility, etc. So, since every learner cannot afford all these and do not have all these altogether, hence the learning is affected at large.

Availability of Electricity Facility

Another important aspect is electricity facility. All the modems, mobile phones, computers, desktops, laptops, Phablets, etc. need electricity to function. And, it is a very well-known fact that all the places do not have the equal quality of electricity facility. While rural areas suffer a lot for electricity absence or discontinuity, the urban areas are advantaged on this aspect. Even the urban areas have some more privileged and less privileged sort of regions with respect to the electricity issues. So, the availability of electricity facility affects a lot the learning as most of the sessions are scheduled for some specific timings.

Concentration

Though the learners attend the online programs and sessions, but their concentration plays a vital role in their learning. Since they are learning from home, the home environment, the home space, home activities, home members, home time table, etc. affect a lot their concentration during the online interaction. Not only their concentration, but their availability to attend online classes are also affected at a large level by these factors. And, if learners are not attending the online sessions with ample concentration, their learning certainly gets affected.

Health Issues

Another significant factor is health issues, which affect a lot the learner's learning during this pandemic. Since health of almost everyone is affected, directly or indirectly, due to Covid-19, the learners also cannot remain affected by the health issues. If any member of the family is suffering from the health issues, then the learning is suffered. If health of a close friend is affected, then also the learning is suffered. If relatives or neighbors are facing some health issues due to Covid-19, then also learning of the learner gets affected. And, above of all, if the learner himself/herself suffers due to health issues or gets some sort of positive reports for the disease, he/she cannot attend the online classes, as and when needed as per the schedule, this also affects his/her learning a lot.

Family Issues

Family, its members affect a lot a learner's learning. Whether it is a nuclear family or joint family or extended family of a learner, various aspects related to closed members or distant members affect learner's learning. If any of these are not supportive or are in some problems, then a learner cannot attend online learning classes efficiently and hence cannot learn effectively. So, family issues affect one's learning a lot, directly or indirectly.

Instances from the Field

In India, a tele-conferencing helpline service namely, 'SAMVEDNA' (Sensitizing Action on Mental Health Vulnerability through Emotional Development and Necessary Acceptance) was started during pandemic 2020 to record the complaints of children under National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (Outlook India, 2020; The Times of India, 2020). This helpline also tried to solve the issues through tele-counselling pertaining to learners particularly at school level. As a record, just in 15 days, around 5500 children shared their problems on this helpline and amazingly most of the complaints were related to the online classes (Dainik Jagaran, 2020; NCPCR, 2020). Some peculiar type of complaints were, "lady teacher does not allow to speak in online class, tells to mute the microphone all the time, gets bored during online class due to keeping silence all the time, sometimes feels sleepy during the online class, teachers do not explain the things but get started as a tape-recorder, parents are fighting at the home hence the online study is getting hampered, when the school will open so that studies can be done with the friends, father had been suffering from the corona disease so feeling insecure in moving out from the home, so not being able to go to school for problem solving, parents not allowing to play games, not feeling good in playing video games and online interaction, and above of all now even siblings and parents also come to know about getting scolded by the teachers due to attending online classes at home, etc."

 

Learning of teachers

Not only students, but teachers also attended several online programs for their enrichment and being prepared for online learning and professional growth. Several distance learning online programs were organized for teachers and they took part in those programs. Their learning was also affected a lot due to this pandemic. Let us discuss them in detail.

Computer savvy

Not all the teachers are computer savvy. Their ease of handling computer and related service and goods affected their learning. Those, who were more well-versed with computer use and operating upon computer in an easy manner and knew how to go with a newer software and application, learnt easily and others' learning was hampered.

Accessibility of Devices

Digital devices and their accessibility hampered a lot the learning of teachers. Not all the teachers had high quality digital devices. Those, who had accessibility of digital devices, and that too of good quality, could learn in a better manner than those who did not have accessibility to the digital devices. Devices and their availability with the teachers were the major cause behind the lesser learning of teachers and hence making them not able to prepare themselves for digital distance learning in this pandemic era.

Accessibility of Internet Facility

Internet facility with high speed, good signals, high level of continuity and with ease of access and working on all the available devices was another reason which affected teacher's learning. Though the teachers wanted to learn for their professional development and combat with this pandemic, but the lack of internet facility made them helpless to get connected to learn.

Availability of Electricity Facility

All digital devices run through electricity. Even if they store some electricity in them in the form of chemical energy, but they need to get recharged with the electricity to work for longer duration. And, electricity supply and availability to teachers too is non-uniform and unequal. So, lesser availability of electricity than that of the required amount affected the learning of teachers negatively.

Concentration

Teachers need to concentrate during their learning. But the concentration building and keeping that up to high level was not so easy, while learning from home. There are several reasons due to which teachers could not concentrate for a longer duration and the continuity of concentration too could not be maintained. So, lack of concentration is one of the significant factors, which affected the learning of teachers even if they had all the hardware and software facilities.

Health Issues

Health plight of self or family members or relatives or neighbors affected a lot teacher's learning. Those, who had such issues, could not make up ample time, concentration and availability for digital distance learning and hence could not learn better ways of teaching and learning through online mode during this pandemic.

Family Issues

Since teachers used to stay at home and learnt/ worked from home during this pandemic, the family and issues related to them affected a lot their learning through online mode. Family issues could not be handled while being online for academic and professional learning, and family issues affected a lot for making them fully available for online learning.

Sincerity and Honesty

Not everyone wanted to attend the online learning program with utmost sincerity and honesty. Some of the teachers were attending such programs just for the sake of fillers in life. Some were attending as they were directed and made by the administration to attend such programs. Some were attending such programs due to one or the other mandate, so not all were participating with equal sincerity and honesty, and hence, their learning was hampered due to their attitude and unwillingness to attend online programs for learning.

Race for Certification

As soon as the flood of online programs started, there started a race for certificate collection among teachers. Some teachers were very passionate and eager about to collect as many certificates as possible during this pandemic. They registered in a lot of programs at the same time, logged in all at the same time, but did not attend any with seriousness or sincerity. They just started to collect as many certificates as possible and started to showcase them through their online profiles and social media. The race, that who can collect more certificates, hampered their learning. Some of the teachers attended so many online programs during this pandemic to collect the certificates on the same theme and topic, but still did not know anything about that topic or theme.

Interest Areas

Digital distance learning made it easy the availability of lot of courses for learning while sitting at home. So, the teachers started attending a lot of programs irrespective of their interest areas and ample previous knowledge of the field. Since, the programs were attended not due to interest but other factors, which could not create interest among teachers, they were not able to learn up to the mark.

Specialization Subjects

Every subject has some specialized knowledge domain. If anyone wants to learn through online mode, he/she should have some basic knowledge of that subject. Some of the teachers were attending online learning programs irrespective of their specialization subjects, hence were not able to draw a lot from the online learning. Since the course was freely available, they attended the program, that is it. But, due to lack of specialized previous knowledge, teachers were not able to learn a lot from these online programs.

Instances from the Field

It was observed during several online sessions (Kanvaria, 2020b; 2020c; 2020d) that some teachers did not know even basics of computer and computer operations. Some teachers were not able to work on word documents or using basic searching option on a browser. Some were not able to use the online platforms made for online interaction. They used to switch on microphone anytime and used to speak anything to their family members during an online talk. Some teachers used to share the online certificates for participation all the time through their WhatsApp status. Some teachers were not having even the basic knowledge about the field to which they were belonging and had official certification for that field.

 

Learning of teacher educators

Teacher educators, who teach or educate teachers, were also not so ready for this sudden change in the field of teaching and learning. In fact, they are the professionals on whom lies the entire onus of preparing teachers for teaching. Teacher educators help in professional preparation of not only pre-service teachers, but the in-service teachers too. This pandemic, through digital distance learning facility, made them also to learn new things for preparation, planning, professional growth and equipping with the basic things in their respective field. The learning of teacher educators was also affected due to a number of factors. Let us discuss those.

Race for Certification

Flood of online programs resulted into race of certification. Instead of learning something new in the field, the focus was shifted to certification collection. Instead of quality the concentration was saturated at the quantity. With the increasing habit of uploading everything on WhatsApp status or Facebook status or social media, some of the teacher educators started focusing upon collecting more and more certificates for participation than the learning or its quality.

Point Scale for Promotion

Counties, which have point scale or point-based system for promotion of teacher educators, made directly or indirectly getting misguided. So, for a greed of increasing points for promotion, some teacher educators did not focus about getting some quality output or learning from digital distance learning during this pandemic, but focused about collecting more points for promotion in the system.

Job Sustainability

Teacher educators are working not only in government or public or semi-government system but in private system too. Many teacher educators are posted in private system of educational institutions. In private institutions, it was a sort of indirect or unseen threat upon the teacher educators that either show some output or go on unpaid leave or face removal from the job. So, in order to save their jobs or to sustain in the job, during this pandemic, teacher educators started unnecessarily attending and/or organizing enormous number of online programs, which were not useful for them. Hence, they did not learn anything even after attended a big quantitative number of such programs.

Interest Areas

Many teacher educators started getting registered into or attending a vast number of online programs, which had nothing to do with their interest areas. It merely became a sort of formality to attend such programs, without any significant learning. Such participation in programs without interest had no expected level of output and the hence the learning was not up to the expected level.

Specialization Subjects

Teacher educators are highly specialized professionals in their particular field. Everyone is not the master of all the subject areas. So, a teacher educator, who is attending a program of learning relevant to his/her specialized areas, learns in a better manner and then such learning is fruitful for him/her. If the area of program does not match with the specialization area of teacher educators, chances are more that the teacher educator will learn lesser than the expected or required. So, lack of knowledge about the specific knowledge about some particular area may hamper the learning of a teacher educator.

Sincerity and Honesty

In many of the online programs, during this pandemic, it has been observed and now has become a very generalized thing that some of the teacher educators register for online programs. They come online for participation, but instead of participation, they start asking for link for feedback and certificate for such programs, as in most of the online programs the feedback form has been made mandatory to receive the certificate for participation. They are not sincere or honest to attend such programs or learning from these programs, but only the certificates. Some teacher educators somehow click on the joining link but then do not listen to the speakers, but used to type their unnecessary details like name, designation, institution, address, mobile number, email address, etc. in the chat box all the time, again and again. Some others, do not listen to anyone but suddenly appear at the end of the event and do praise the speakers irrespective of anything, as they think that praising will help them in getting certificates. So, the lack of sincerity and honesty affect the learning of teacher educators a lot.

Changing Scenario

During this pandemic, almost every day the scenario was changing. Every day, a new set of guidelines, norms, regulation, operating procedures, notifications, orders, etc. arriving in the field, created a sort of turmoil in the educational field. Teacher educators and their learning were affected a lot due to this every day's changing scenario. They had to cope up with the changes all the time and most of their energy and efforts went into unfruitfulness just for the sake of coping up with the changing things in the educational field. Hence, instead of learning, teacher educators had to cope up with the continuously changing scenario which negatively affected their learning.

Instances from the Field

From a series of observation related to various online programs, WhatsApp posts, Telegram posts and Facebook posts, many instances have arisen which depict the plight of learning of teacher educators through digital mode during this pandemic (Kanvaria, 2020a; 2020b; 2020c). Some teacher educators shared to have obtained several certificates for the same day's events organized by different organizations. Most of the teacher educators do not read the information given in the information brochure or online instructions of online programs. Some teacher educators do not have even basic knowledge of that field of which they claim to have attended lots of online programs. Some of teacher educators started making annotations on the presentation screens of the speaker during presentation. Some others, who had claimed that they have attended and resourced several online programs, did not know even how to handle a zoom meeting or google meet platform efficiently.

 

Discussing the future of digital distance learning

Let us be optimistic and discuss in detail the future of education through digital mode i.e. online digital distance learning. Suppose, all the issues pertaining to the digital distance learning are dealt effectively and efficiently to get the maximum advantage of the facilities and workforce, then the golden future would not be a dream anymore but will come true. The output will not only be the quantitative enhancement but also the qualitative enhancement in learning.

Students and their Learning

Learning of students will be enhanced in certain ways. Each and every learner or student will have accessibility to digital devices. These devices will be advanced in nature which will be capable of ensuring high level of communication and sharing with the peers and teachers by the students. Students will have mobile phones or tablets with latest operating system, ample random-access memory for good speed, high level of storage for running a lot of applications and software, large read only memory for storing documents, pictures, images and videos. Each student will have accessibility to internet facility with ample technical features. The speed of the internet will be high enough for video buffering and video-conferencing and downloading learning materials. The internet facility will be continuous and will have high strength of signals, so that there would not be break in communication and discussion in online interaction. The internet facility will be available round the clock so that the communication for the learning purpose would be possible in ubiquitous manner. Every learner would have availability of electricity facility. The electricity facility would be continuous so that continuity of online interaction can be feasible irrespective of the breaks. The devices can be charged anytime and for longer duration in order to use them for the longer interaction. If the electricity facility would be available then the digital distance learning is possible even while charging the device. The ample electricity facility would help the learners in taking care of eyes also by working in an environment with ample light. Every learner would learn with a high level of concentration. The ease of ensuring concentration in learning would lead to the efficient and optimum level of learning. The things which would be learnt with more concentration will stay for longer in students' mind and cognition. The concentration in learning would enhance students' work efficiency. Students will be healthy and no health issues will affect students' learning. There would come a day when either COVID-19 would come to an end or there will be proper vaccination or medication for this disease. Students will be free from any mental stress due to massive health issues. Students will be able to

go to computer labs or cybercafe's cabins or open spaces hence family members would not be present to affect their online learning. So, family issues would not hamper their learning. Like one learner shared that the parents were fighting at home hence her study had hampered. Such things would not reappear again, when the normal situation will be achieved in future.

Teachers and their Learning

Significant factors affecting learning of teachers will come to a positive plight when these would positively affect teachers' learning. All teachers would be computer savvy. They would be capable enough of handling computers, digital devices, auxiliary devices and operating on these devices. They would be able to work on various software and applications required for online teaching and learning. They will have a sense of using computers and internet and will be well-versed with what to do or what not to do while using internet on any digital devices. They would have ample knowledge of cyber-security issues while logging into various websites for teaching and learning purposes. They will be aware of using various browsers and issues related to them while surfing online.

Teachers would have accessibility to digital devices required for online teaching and learning. These devices will be either provided by the system or the system would support to acquire such devices which would be highly advanced as per the requirement. The devices would be ample and efficient enough to deal with the requirement of speed, storage, operating system, ease of installing and using application software for various tasks like two-way audio-video communication etc. Such advanced devices would enhance the teachers' performance and hence their learning for the professional development and academic growth. Teachers would have accessibility of internet facility. Internet facility would have not only high bandwidth but also continuity with high speed. The internet facility would be ample enough and appropriate to handle all the online audio-video-textual communication in two way with no spatial and temporal constraints. The facility would be good enough not only in urban areas but the rural areas too.

Teachers would have availability of electricity facility irrespective of local constraints and geographical limitations. The continuity and load holding capacity should be high to enable the digital distance learning at any time and for any duration. The availability of electricity would also give flexibility of relooking at the learning material as and when needed. As the learning habits are not same across the globe or a country, the flexibility should be provided for anytime and anywhere learning using mobile devices which can be carried and charged anywhere and anytime.

Teachers also need concentration while learning or planning for teaching. There would be ample concentration, while learning, in teachers and they would be less affected by other factors. The environment would be a healthy environment for learning and planning. The concentration in learning would help improve not only efficiency but also longer retention of learning.

Health issues would no longer affect teachers due to not only arriving at an end to the prevailing current pandemic but also the medical facilities available in sufficient quantity, as per the need. There would be cure for every small to big health issue. So, the better medical facilities at the reach of the teachers would create a tension-free environment for learning and planning for teaching irrespective of concerns for health issues. Teachers would be free from family issues and the learning will be taking place in the formal space. The formal classroom is less affected by the family issues than the home. So, the teachers would again be going to the schools or other educational institutions for learning and teaching and they will be using digital online and offline facilities there in place of at their home.

Teachers would take up the digital distance learning programs with sincerity and honesty. They will attend the programs in toto, not just for the sake of attending those. They will read and follow each and every instruction meant for the programs sincerely for proper understanding and follow-up. The honesty will be reflected in their actions while attending such a program. They will not simply advertise themselves. They will not just ask for the feedback link in the beginning and all the time thereafter during the program. They will not ask for the certificate link all the time during the ongoing program for learning. They will not only listen to the experts/resource persons seriously but will also follow the guidelines provided by the organizers of such learning programs.

Teachers would not run in a race for merely certification. The certificate obtaining will not be only aim to get registered for some online learning program. The collection of enormous number of certificates merely for attending or participation in such events will not be the only aim of teachers. Certificate showcasing drive will not only the agenda which would fascinate the teachers but the teachers will register for only those programs, which will of their interest or priority or specialization and which they will attend to really learn something from for their upgradation or enrichment or professional growth.

The attending or participation by teachers in online digital distance learning programs would be filled with a passion and interest. Those areas would be chosen for attending the programs which would belong to their interest areas. It is the interest area which would really help teachers to learn something new in the field and to grasp the learning made from such programs, easily.

Specialization subjects is another aspect which would affect teacher's learning. Teachers will pick and choose such a program for online learning which will belong to their specialization areas. Better and more learning in specialization areas would help in professional growth of teachers and may likely to help in their upgradation or promotion in their specific field.

Teacher Educators and their Learning

Teacher educators' race for certification collection would come to an end. The participation or attendance in digital distance learning programs like faculty development program, capacity building program, induction program, orientation course, refresher course, workshop and other professional growth or enrichment programs would be directed towards learning than the passion for certificates. It is not the quantity of certification, but the quality of certification, would decide the faith of the teacher educators in the professional field. Even a teacher educator with high quantity (as the most of such certificates are provided freely, without any charge) of online digital distance learning certificates may be discarded for promotion or upgradation and a teacher educator with lesser number of certificates of higher quality will be promoted and upgraded in the field, though the minimum requirement for such promotion or upgradation will still prevail in the field.

The point scale for promotion would prevail but with a clause of quality or high quality. The point scale will not directly affect a teacher educator but the quality aspect and quality evaluation of such programs and teacher educator's participation would become the deciding factor. In fact, the point scale for promotion will be modified and renewed innovatively in such a manner that it will make a balance between the points and the quality. Teacher educators would learn more from the digital distance learning programs than merely reaching higher at the point scale. Job sustainability of teacher educators would not at stake anymore. The teacher educators, who would be doing good in their jobs, will get the good in their jobs. They will not be removed from the job just for the sake of removal for saving the money or economic resources by the system. Teacher educators will not attend or organize enormous number of digital programs just for saving their jobs and sustain in their jobs, but the quality of learning would be their main, first and foremost, agenda. The threat to their jobs will not prevail anymore over their efficiency and effectivity in their professional field.

Interest areas would be another deciding factor, while a teacher educator would choose a digital distance learning program to attend. Teacher educators would choose such digital distance learning programs, which would be belonging to their interest areas and in turn will enhance their academic and professional knowledge I the field. Learning gained due to interest lasts longer. So, the interest in the field and wisely choosing distance learning programs would enhance the learning and hence professional growth of teacher educators. Teacher educators are highly specialized professionals with respect to their specialization subjects pertaining to the specialized areas. So, the teacher educators will think of attending those distance digital distance learning programs more which would be pertaining to their specialization areas. This will give them proper learning with respect to the relevant issues with respect to their area of specialization. They will remain up to date with peculiar set of knowledge, recent ideas, recent trends and upcoming priority areas belonging to their field of specialization in order to keep themselves elevated, enriched, equipped and powered in their respective field. Teacher educators will attend the online distance learning programs with sincerity and honesty. They will be sincere and honest, while reading the program brochure, program information, program instructions and guidelines for registration and filling the required forms. They will be sincere and honest enough while listening to the speaker, interacting with the resource person, fellow participants and organizers of the programs, responding to all the instructions by the organizers throughout the programs, executing the tasks given by the resource person and organizers. And, above of all, they will honestly and sincerely perform all the post-event tasks and exercises, as instructed to them. The sincerity and honesty would be reflected not only in words and talks, but also in their actions. Teacher educators will be less affected by the changing scenario. In fact, they will develop a habit of adaptation to the changing scenario. This will help them in future too to easily cope up with the changing situations in the field. Change is the rule of the nature and humanly created environment. So, the teacher educators would develop in them such a skill, attitude and aptitude towards managing themselves during the change, managing teachers during the change and managing the change itself in the system. Being at the peak of the practitioners in the field of education, teacher educators not only help in policy making but also in implementing that policy in the field through other level's practitioners. They indirectly control the entire system of education through directly controlling pre-service teachers, who in turn affect and change the entire field, and hence indirectly affecting and changing the entire field of education. Even stakeholders of educational field also get inputs and feedback from the teacher educators in various matters and issues. So, in future, teacher educators will be less affected by the changing scenario, even if some other pandemic arises in future, and in fact they will change the entire educational scenario in future if any such or similar new situation arises again in future. The entire discussion made above with respect to students, teachers and teacher educators is an endeavor to make it clear that there would be a golden age, once again, in the field and education through better learning of students, teachers and teacher educators in new era of digital distance learning.

 

Summary

With the arise of Covid-19, the entire world came to a sort of mental distress. This COVID-19 affected almost everyone on this earth. With the beginning of pandemic 2020, the lockdown appeared as one of the major precautionary measures to save the humankind from this pandemic. The lockdown affected not only the common man but also the educational fraternity up to a great extent. The lack of movement out of home gave rise to need of distance learning through digital mode in the field of learning and teaching. But, the ease of digital organizing of online events, led into the flood of online programs. Though the online programs came as a f lood for students, teachers and teacher educators, but learning of students, teachers and teacher educators was affected up to a great extent.

Factors which affected a lot the students were accessibility of devices, accessibility of internet facility, availability of electricity facility, concentration, health issues and family issues. Significant factors affecting learning of teachers were being computer savvy, accessibility of devices, accessibility of internet facility, availability of electricity facility, concentration, health issues, family issues, sincerity and honesty, race for certification, interest areas and specialization subjects. Peculiar factors affecting learning of teacher educators were race for certification, point scale for promotion, job sustainability, interest areas, specialization subjects, sincerity and honesty and changing scenario. Several instances from the field re-affirm these factors and their effects on learning of students, teachers and teacher educators. Hence, though the online mode digital distance learning has arisen as a boon in the teaching and learning, but the learning and its quality has been affected a lot in this changing educational scenario in digital distance learning due to the pandemic 2020.

 

References

Dainik Jagaran (18 October, 2020). Concerns of Children Heard on Samvedna: Lady Teacher Does Not Let Speak (page 1). Dainik Jagaran, New Delhi, India.         [ Links ]

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Kanvaria, V. K. (2020c). Reading sincerity, important factors and challenges in online sessions during COVID-19 times: An exploration. Paper presented in the LSME Online International Conference on Role of Management, Education and Social Sciences in Responsible Research and Innovations: Challenges and Realities, 20 August, 2020. London School of Management Education, UK.         [ Links ]

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Outlook India (21 September, 2020). NCPCR launches toll-free tele-counselling number for children affected during COVID-19. Outlook India Publishing Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India. Retrieved from <https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/ncpcr-launches-tollfree-telecounselling-number-for-children-affected-during-covid19/1940144>         [ Links ].

The Times of India (21 September, 2020). Child rights body reaches out to children impacted by COVID-19 with tele-counselling. Bennett Coleman Company Ltd. New Delhi, India. Retrieved from <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/child-rights-body-reaches-out-to-children-impacted-by-covid-19-with-tele-counselling/articleshow/78241317.cms>         [ Links ].

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Recebido: 22.09.2020
Corrigido: 07.10.2020
Aprovado: 16.10.2020