We are all going through a monstrous pandemic which we had never imagined in our dreams or fantasies. Nobody was expecting it to be so disastrous.
But, alas! This is our reality now.
Our life has shrunk mainly into virtual platforms. And, our living room has now become the most happening place.
Along with others, teenagers are also badly affected during this pandemic. This is probably a discrete experience for them. Though they are in a need to accelerate their adventures whereas they are locked inside the four walls without much social interaction.
Teenage is the time to interact, experience and understand, thus creating an ability to think and reason logically. All this is possible mainly through social interaction and peer group influence. The development that happens during this age mainly decides their future, life and character formation.
Classroom plays a vital role in their life as it provides a platform to question, understand and conceptualise their thoughts, but unfortunately our teenagers are aloof for the past one year and a half. Their world is just a rectangular mobile or a laptop screen with limited access to the outer world and unlimited access to the negative side of it. This situation might create anxiety, depression, insecurity, violent behavioural changes and short temper among the teenagers.
Nowadays, learning has become just a virtual vision for them. The shift from offline to online classes might not create a fruitful teaching learning experience for many. As teachers, we can eliminate this by having interactive sessions more often during online class hours. Let’s not just impart the syllabus-based curriculum, but also guide them to take up free online courses available, listen to them with great patience and mentor them to face the hardships of life.
Like every cloud has a silver lining, this period could also be a time to strive well. Let our teens realise that learning is at their fingertips now. They can choose a wide variety of free online courses from websites like Coursera, Alison, Udemy, edX etc, for various topics like personality development, career grooming, improving communication skills and so on. Many of the universities abroad provide online certificate courses at minimal fee. The advantages of taking such courses are, there is no time limit, and one can access any course according to his pace, time and convenience.
Though ‘The New Normal Digital Learning’ has many restrictions, on the other hand it grants flexible personalised learning experience.
Let our youth not be a slave of this pandemic but come out of it as winners.
Yes! Together we shall overcome.