ThePMJournal

Issues in Project Management Amid the Pandemic

Teachers and Technology - An Interview

By Abhinav Manocha

Featuring Alka M. - Third grade teacher teaching at a local school in Brampton Ontario

Alka is an accomplished teacher who has been teaching for 10 years at the three to five-grade level and she has never had to work online as a teacher. As schools around the world have started to pivot to online classes on a brief notice, there have been many issues, from mental wellbeing to simple internet access to not having essential support to turn to when assistance is needed. In this interview, we will address some of those technological issues in the context of teaching online during the pandemic.

How do you use emerging technology to help you combat this pandemic?

In Alka’s words:

Our school provides teachers with a couple free licenses to software’s such as “Brightspace”, and “Google classrooms.” The change to online was so quick that it was difficult to adjust to any software adequately without running into major issues that hold me back from teaching to the best of my ability.

Never had I use the google classroom. I had heard of it but never worked with it. No lecture or guidance was given to us about how to use it effectively. It was very confusing at first. All we were given were instructions on how NOT to go about using google classroom. There were specific instructions given out to us. The most surprising one thus far was: “We are not to call a student by their first name. We must address them by last name and/or student number.” This was very shocking as it made running a classroom challenging. Why this was the case, they never made explicit, the only thing mentioned was that students’ privacy was important to them.

Many students have lost many of their usernames and passwords, and I have little control over any of their account settings. As a result, many students have not been granted an opportunity to be part of the online learning experience. It was particularly unreliable and stressful in a workplace where learning is done over the Internet where these types of situations should arise.

What problems did you face when trying to utilize technology?

It was upsetting how many different programs and applications were updated and required to be used by the school. I was helpless when trying to help the students (grade 3) set up their software that kept changing monthly. Many of the programs that were used were not user friendly, not easy to navigate. When I assigned assignments to students, certain applications did not allow students to scan and post images to the platform we were mandated to use. There was no other way to assess the work of the pupil. I can not expect every student to submit PDF’s or files in specific formats when there is no help or resources being provided to the teachers or students. Some services have been totally scrapped because they were not Canadian based systems. Such as the “See Saw” program. Students’ confidential information as well as [Alka’] own information is at risk of being revealed to third party vendors.

This technical model, which has been adapted over a brief span of time, does not include students of the IEP (individualized education program). They need extra support and accommodation to help them do the best they can in school. In a school environment, IEP students have assistants who can direct them and support them in every way they can. These kinds of resources are not accessible online. Many of them need services that “we” as teachers are not given. This makes it extremely difficult to adapt to the preferred style of and pupil. Not all students learn in the same way, and certain students cannot learn without an instructor present to help guide them. It’s hard to teach ourselves and students on these topics with no outside support.

In that case how did you educate yourself?

Google is the most unsurprising response. Best companion to everyone.

Other ways I helped myself:

What challenges did you face while overcoming technological barriers?

Some applications were accessible only on older platforms, as our report card was only available on the Internet explorer. There were several other difficulties involving the software. Our school IT has made it so if the servers go down on their side, we must wait 24 hours before entering our login information. In the middle of the week, this should not be happening. It occurs too often and sometimes on a daily basis. This was a big set back I’d solved by emailing the IT department they would eventually send me an alt. form of accessing the data I would like access to.

Cross-compatibility problems have often occurred when students or instructors share their work on such apps, and I would not be able to access and/or edit certain papers until they handed over the file. This means that I will have to personally reformat these documents myself or ask the sender to reformat. This in turn, wastes a lot of time and needless delays. Usually this will put me back a couple of days.

I’ve discovered several easy solutions that support me when it comes to simple issues. I would sometimes use my hot spot to connect to 4g Wi-Fi when we had poor internet, which would temporarily solve my Wi-Fi issues. If during a Microsoft team meeting, my laptop microphone could not connect. I will turn to the app on my phone instantly or cancel the entire meeting and record the meeting and then share it. Things like this were very common. It would be the tougher and longer issues that would be the challenge.

Conclusion?

Overall, online teaching has been really helpful to my industry experience. I have benefited a great deal from online teaching, such as: addressing several tasks at a time and responding to changing working environments when they are not ideal or when the technology offered does not help in the way it was designed. As an instructor, there have been some down sides of online teaching and for the students as I don’t think they learn to the best of their skills.

Takeaway

The effect of COVID-19 has undoubtedly culminated in everyone revisiting the innovations that have become the backdrop for many companies. Coronavirus is why we must change our attention from the in-person to the digital and interconnected cyberworld. The transition to this changing world we are now living in has been rather resilient, and companies are struggling to adjust to this uncertain future. Due to this, there is a new demand to educating individuals of emerging technologies.

Based off Alka’s experience how can companies help educate their employees about new technologies in the workplace?

As we repeatedly saw, there was a lack in suppor. There is a need of infrastructure that needs to be address immediately to help individuals who are not used to this growing amount of technology use in their daily lives.

There are many solutions that can help, some examples are:

Incentivize the use of technology. New skills using technology can result in a pay increase or a title promotion. Employees should receive compensation for trying to continue to learn and adapt to a climate in which they are already not comfortable in. This can be used as an opportunity to retrain employees who are bored and demotivated. Money can be a great motivator as it is a daily essential.

Through COVID-19 it is difficult to run things such as “Lunch and Learn” parties but companies still have the option to host seminars to educate individuals and practice team building to help people communicate effectively with one another to help solve their technology problems, as well as simultaneously learn something new. This type of training and mentoring can go a long way when conventional methods of help are not available.