Dear
DBS
News from your students • Issue 4 • March 2020 • Dubai British School
New uniform – a new school look • What it takes to be on TikTok • Distance learning – shaping future learning methods • Choosing universities • Keeping the work/life balance this break • Sixth form • Agony AUNT • Comics • COVID-19 – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW •
E-learning: Temporary solution or the future? By Zoyena Omar-Jafri
-learning tools provide educators and students with ac _____cess to resources they could not have had otherwise, no matter their status or location. A Philosophy student in England can learn from a top Professor a continent away, in their own time whilst balancing a full-time job and a family at home.
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Even though e-learning has become an education equalizer, it is still not a replacement for the traditional classroom. Sure, the technology is advancing, but it is not flawless. Just like any new, burgeoning innovation, e-learning faces its own challenges. Perhaps e-learning and the traditional classroom will one day form a union: compensating for one what the other lacks. THE STATE OF THE TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM In a traditional classroom, educators will tell you they need to be on their toes, trying to engage their students at every moment. But students do not always cooperate—maybe they are bored, zoned out, or too focused on the sun outside to pay attention to maths. That lack of engagement is a challenge for the student as well. They cannot hit pause on a teacher and rewind back to the moment they stopped paying attention - which results in confusion and bewilderment. Accounting for a student’s individual attention span is also an issue in traditional classrooms. Some students fatigue after 50 minutes, others after 15, and there is no way to adjust for that in a real-time environment. Despite these problems, once the teacher and the student meet in the middle and find that engagement, it is magic.
THE EMERGENCE OF E-LEARNING One of the ways e-learning has tried to mimic the social aspects of a classroom is through tools like messaging boards, Facebook groups - and yes, sometimes chatbots! They give students the sense they are not just staring at an empty message board, but instead are talking to real people about real homework. Of course, this cannot truly replace the communicative, communal atmosphere of a traditional classroom. Students naturally learn from one another while solving problems and working collaboratively. They are validated and encouraged by face-to-face time with a teacher that does not come from a pre-recorded video. E-learning has yet to find a way to effectively imitate that. From the teacher’s perspective, e-learning tools give them precise, clear-cut feedback on how a student is engaging with material. They can see where students get lost in a lesson and grade assignments with the click of a button. A reduced workload allows teachers to demonstrate their skills in other ways—ways that are more beneficial to the students and the classroom. Less hours spent grading workbooks means more time spent engaging each student on an individual level. It is this combination of customized content and resource management that will allow teachers to lead our classrooms into the future. [continued on page 2]
Being surrounded by like-minded people, actively participating with peers, and seeing students come alive once things click is a social energy you cannot replace—even with Artificial Intelligence.
COVID-19: What you need to know Turn to page 3
Want to join the team? Email Jia-Wen Ooi or Christina Kurian for more info! 09jiaooi@dubaibritishschool.ae 09chrkur@dubaibritishschool.ae
STUDENT Sixth Form article – Infected!
Page 5
school School uniform changes to happen at DBS Page 2
Events
School uniform changes to happen at DBS Turn to page 2
TikTok – The New Craze Page 8
