Reflection on Tony Bates
Tony Bates is well known in education circles as a key figure in e-Learning. His latest publication, Teaching in a Digital Age, Bates explains the importance of incorporating digital skills into teaching practice. The remarkable thing about this video and these articles (one and two) are that they are very recent! Not only has Bates been instrumental in encouraging the use of technologies in education, he is still sharing his thoughts on teaching during a pandemic. In the YouTube video and in his articles, Bates explains some of the benefits to learning online, as well as some setbacks. When schools switched to emergency remote learning, technology access and internet access became a huge obstacle for many families. For some, devices needed to be shared among multiple siblings. For others, slow or unstable internet connections may make it difficult to participate in online learning. And even some could not afford devices. I experienced this last year when I was also teaching remotely. For one of my students, the only device she had was her mom’s phone. In addition to this, they could only afford the mom’s cell phone bill, and not any wifi. This meant that once per month, her mom would allow 1 zoom short zoom call which used data rather than wifi. I had to adjust my teaching to ensure her needs as a learner were met. Another one of my students lived in a family with 6 siblings! All the siblings shared 2 devices, so it was difficult to find a reliable time to connect with this student. I find it interesting that the equity of possessing devices and having stable wifi connections affected so many of my students. Those are just two examples, but many others were in the same situation. Bates states that 25% of families cannot use powerpoint or video conferencing because it requires a stronger network connection, He also states that 5-10% of homes cannot afford devices. Based on my experience last year, I would have expected those numbers to be higher. I agreed with Bates when he expressed frustrating that e-Learning experts were not consulted when moving to emergency remote learning. Many teachers had unrealistic expectations placed upon them for delivering content to students. Bates argued that effective online teaching can be done (even in a pandemic), but it requires intentionality to ensure best practices are executed well. Some of the tips he stated in the video include:
1 Comment
Randy LaBonte
5/28/2021 08:45:59 pm
Janessa, thanks for your thoughts on Tony's words. You are correct that it is remarkable that he continues to write, guide, and challenge us and has done so for so many years.
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