By Robert "Bob" Reyes
As the entire Philippines marks the historical official start of classes for Basic Education this week, the country embarks on a new era of schooling -- homeschooling.
Because of the on-going pandemic, this will be the first time in the modern history of the country where students, instead of getting up early to avoid traffic jams on their way to campuses are staying at home waiting for their teachers to go online and start their classes. But not all have been privileged to have an Internet-capable device and decent Internet connection at home.
For School Year 2020-2021, the Department of Education (DepEd) gave schools several options on the learning delivery modality that they may adopt while face-to-face meetings in classrooms are still not allowed. The most common of these modalities are (1) Modular Distance Learning, and (2) Online Distance Learning. According to DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio, 59% of enrolled learners in public schools all over the country opted to have Modular Distance Learning over Online Distance Learning modality.
With the Modular Distance Learning modality, learners were given individualized instruction in the form of Self-Learning Modules (SLMs) in print or digital format (electronic copy). In this modality, teachers are responsible for monitoring the progress of the learners. Students may seek assistance from their teachers via email, telephone, SMS or Instant Messaging, etc.
As for the Online Distance Learning modality, teachers act as facilitators tasked of engaging learners employing active participation through the use of available technologies via the Internet. This type of instruction allows live synchronous interactivity between teachers and students. Responses in this type of learning modality are real-time.
But not all who chose to be part of the Online Distance Learning modality are enjoying decent Internet connection at home.
On the first day of this school year for public schools (some private schools started weeks ago), I asked a couple of co-parents and teachers about their experiences:
- Several parents complained that their Internet connection was not that stable. There are times that they experienced lag in the videoconference platform, while some say they kept on being disconnected. Same thing with some of our teachers. Internet connectivity will be a challenge especially if you are just using mobile broadband. Many factors may affect your Internet reception depending on location, telco signal strength, and userbase saturation. It is ideal to have a wired broadband Internet if you intend to be online on videoconference for quite some time. Not to mention that the cost of prepaid Internet in the country is uber high.
- Some parents are not briefed properly of their roles during this homeschooling. A piece of advice to my fellow parents with homeschooling kids: we are there to “assist” our children during their online classes if ever they require technical help, etc. May I just remind parents that we are not part of the class where our kids are enrolled with? Let the teachers do their job of facilitating the class.
- The lack of netiquette (Internet Etiquette) training for both parents and students is evident during online classes. From the side of teachers, it would be best to set an online classroom rule for students. This may include a constant reminder for them to mute themselves when they are not called. For parents, please be mindful of the surroundings of your homeschoolers. Always think that both the camera and microphone of the device used by your kids are on. There had been funny anecdotes of people shouting randomly, singing with the use of a videoke machine, and even half-naked dads walking behind their kids during online classes.
Local Tech Communities Ready to Lend a Hand
We all know that this homeschooling thing is something new to most of us -- especially to the non-techie ones. We have to face the fact that some parents are not as technologically savvy as compared to their kids. This is the time for us to help them and make their homeschooling journey better and more enjoyable.
The local arm of global non-profit Mozilla started offering free technical support to homeschooling stakeholders (parents, teachers, and students) from their website and Facebook. Problems ranging from Internet connectivity, software applications, hardware, and device troubleshooting can be asked from a pool of tech support volunteers. Know more about Project AskAlab via http://bit.ly/MozillaPHAskAlab
Another bayanihan initiative is spearheaded by no less than Manila Bulletin’s Tech News Editor Art Samaniego aimed at helping non-techie parents with their technical problems (on devices, applications, etc.). Check their Facebook Group out via https://bit.ly/2SuriQI
So, how were your first days of school so far? Let us know.