{"id":538,"date":"2020-06-01T08:16:14","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T06:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/?p=538"},"modified":"2020-06-01T08:16:15","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T06:16:15","slug":"inequality-in-distance-learning-virtual-meeting-and-teleworking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/?p=538","title":{"rendered":"Inequality in distance learning, virtual meeting and teleworking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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A few weeks\nago, one of my students emailed me: “I don’t have the intention to quit\nthe course. I have been absent because of my very bad internet\nconnection”.  She lives in Luxembourg,\nwhich is this year\u2019s richest country in the world based on GPD per capita (https:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/countries\/richest-countries-in-the-world<\/a>: Luxembourg $119,719; Norway $86,362;\nSwitzerland $83,832; Ireland $81,477; Iceland $78,181; Qatar $65,062; The\nUnited States of America $64,906; Denmark $63,434; Singapore $62,690; Australia\n$58,824). Those in developing nations, where there is a vast gap between the\nhaves and have nots, experience even more inequality in distance education, virtual\nmeeting and teleworking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abrupt shift to education online has created practical, technical, and emotional challenges; and the lack of reliable technology and internet access is only a tip of the iceberg. There are issues concerning teachers\u2019 ability to carry out their tasks remotely, home environment that favour or disfavour learning, and help (or lack of it) that students get offline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data compiled\nby the Teacher Task Force, an international alliance coordinated by UNESCO, found\nthat half of all students currently out of the classroom \u2013 or nearly 830\nmillion learners globally — do not have access to a computer. As well, more\nthan 40 per cent have no Internet access at home. (https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2020\/04\/1062232<\/a>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I teach adults at their company premises, which haven’t resumed yet. Currently, I have only two classes online. My son has been at home since the end of March finishing his first-year tertiary studies virtually and will return to Warwick University (UK) in October.\u00a0 My friends and acquaintances have told me that they will continue to have video conferences instead of face-to-face meetings until the end of 2020. Whatever and wherever the situation, there is a form of inequality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through distance teaching, I got to meet my students’ children who needed instant parental care, men who wanted information from their wives right away and barking dogs (one of them jumped into its owner’s lap while we were discussing dog-eating people). Online lessons involve synchronous teaching in real-time, providing students with experience close to traditional classroom instruction. Overall, there are pluses: 1) active participation, 2) individual-centred teaching\/learning, 3) varied materials used; 4) safe and stress-free environment. As a teacher, however, I miss observing my students doing their writing exercises and role plays. On the other hand, I save about two hours of commuting, and this gives me more time to prepare to be a better moderator and guide in their learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After three\nlessons via Zoom, my students had a stocktake; all of them expressed a strong\npreference for face-to-face learning over a virtual class. Their main reasons\nrelate to social interaction and the psychological role of non-verbal\ncommunication.  Considering that two of\nthem use their phones while the other four their personal computers with\nwidescreen monitors, there is an inequality issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all organisations across the globe have brought their board, committee and staff meetings and conversations into homes using technology platform and video conference software. The most used for these purposes are Cloud Meeting, ClickMeeting, ezTalks Cloud Meeting, Facetime, Freeconferencecall GoToMeeting, GroupMe, Infinite Conferencing, JoinMe, Skype, Slack, TeamViewer, WatchItToo,  Webex, Zoho Meeting, and Zoom. These obviously save travel times, but the equipment can be expensive and requires compatibility. The quality of image and sound depends on the amount spent on technology, which is not the same for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the pandemic, virtual teaching and meetings are here to stay. Can we erase inequality? How can we reduce this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile,\nif your concern is making the most of distance learning or meeting, check out\nthe following articles to start with: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c7 tips for effective virtual learning\u201d https:\/\/www.quizalize.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/10\/7-tips-for-effective-virtual-learning\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow To Run\nA Successful Virtual Meeting\u201d by Ashira Prossack on https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/ashiraprossack1\/2020\/03\/30\/how-to-run-a-successful-virtual-meeting\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow to Run\nEffective Virtual Meetings Communicating Well With Technology\u201d by Mind Tools\nContent Team on https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/pages\/article\/running-effective-virtual-meetings.htm<\/a> (seen 11\/05\/20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the\nbest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, one of my students emailed me: “I don’t have the intention to quit the course. I have been absent because of my very bad internet connection”.  She lives in Luxembourg, which is this year\u2019s richest country in the world based on GPD per capita (https:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/countries\/richest-countries-in-the-world: Luxembourg $119,719; Norway $86,362; Switzerland $83,832; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-societal-issues"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}