What Covid Brought Us
We are living an historic moment due to this unexpected pandemic. We can count in millions those infected by the virus and at the time of writing this article, we are really close to reaching 2 million deaths. Our lives have changed, the economy is facing the hardest and deepest crisis in years and we cannot argue about 2020 being the worst year ever. In spite of this dramatic situation, maybe we can find some good thanks to COVID-19.
The different education systems in every country have needed to make some changes in order to adapt to this new scenario, where crowded classrooms are to be avoided, sick students aren’t allowed to go anywhere near their education centres and those who are expecting PCR test results must wait at home just in case.
In most cases and learning stages, students, parents and teachers weren’t ready to work remotely. Frequently this was due to a lack of training or access to equipment and internet connections, or as it was called too, the digital gap, but then, this awful situation made us get together, doing our best to keep on track with our studies as students and with our work as teachers and a special acknowledgement to those absolutely heroic parents who helped the youngest and those not so young kids not to ‘fall off the wagon’. Thanks to the effort of all of them.
I am pleasantly surprised to see as a teacher that students have got quite a good level of knowledge and usage of new technologies applied to education. Apps such as Google Classroom, Classdojo, or Meet, are now on our laptops, smartphones and tablets. 8 year old students or 56 year old teachers are not asking for help from their family computer geek anymore, because now they are perfectly able to access those platforms, work and send their documents by themselves.
It can be a hard pill to swallow, but nowadays our education systems may be better in comparison to 2019 and all thanks to this virus, that hopefully will disappear, leaving behind this improvement in education.
Rafael Rentero Egea
Escuela Oficial de Idiomas