With all of us adopting to new lifestyle under lockdown online learning is now the norm rather than the exception. The Madressa has taken the step for the safety of our children to start in September as online only.
With this in mind lets discuss some fo the challenges and how we propose to overcome them in the coming months.
The biggest challenges with online learning are as follows:
Isolation - remote learning can be lonely without having the buzz of the class and the ability to work with your classmates
Lack of motivation - Going from classrooms designed for learning to bedrooms and kitchens make it difficult for students to stay motivated with ample distractions
Technical difficulties - having no access to technology or technology not working properly are some of the main concerns when discussing challenges in remote learning
Time consuming resources - When teachers can’t stand in front of a class and teach they have to work hard in the background creating a number of resources to keep the students engaged
Accountability - children and teachers have found that they click and forget to complete activities as there is limited accountability.
“يا ايُّها الَّذِينَ آمَنوا اِستجيبوا للهِ وللرسولِ اِذا دَعاكُم لما يُحييكُم
O you who believe! Answer the call of Allah and His Apostle when he calls you to that which gives you life.”
So how do we tackle these difficult challenges with remote learning and try to help the best spiritual development for our children. At Hyderi Islamic School, we’ve given it a lot of thought and have come up with the following ways to help students and teachers navigate remote learning:
Online Learning with activities: Our new Madressa year starting Sept 2020 will be online only and teachers will be operating schedule classes to give the students structure. The teachers are also working behind the scenes to plan a number of activities in their lessons to keep students engaged
Accountability and deadlines: To keep students and teachers engaged our new tools ensure there is sufficient accountability and with activity based learning teachers are encouraged to set deadlines and plan out student development over the term.
Access to technology: Ensuring access to safe technology was one of the prime concerns as access to technology can vary. With the tablet programme the Madressa is trying to ensure access is universal across all our students in this new environment.
Safety and Safeguarding: Safety of our students and teachers is our primary concern and we ensure this by building a secure online space for our students and teachers to interact, ensuring Madressa can create a secure profile for students so as to protect them such as camera restrictions and website restrictions etc. and by putting effort in planning and executing measures to protect our teachers and students.
Online learning is a new challenge we all have to get familiar with but insha’Allah with the Grace of Allah swt, the efforts of our teams and teachers and the support of the parents we should be able to continue with our mission to deliver spiritual development for our children in this new reality.