From classroom to virtual lessons, Covid turns teachers tech-savvy

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, July 1

 The Covid pandemic has helped teachers become tech-savvy by shifting from classroom lessons to online learning.

A majority of teachers were not familiar with gadgets or online classes, but now they have learnt a lot about e-learning techniques and strategies to keep their students engaged. Some of them have learnt from their children, while a few have gained knowledge from their colleagues.

Rashmi Chaudhary, an English teacher of Dyal Singh Public School, main branch, said she was not familiar with gadgets and it was a bit challenging. “Covid has taught us a lot. We became tech-savvy, while earlier we were limited to receiving calls or dialing the number,” she added.

Randhir Singh (48), a commerce teacher of Tagore Bal Niketan, said he had little knowledge of technology, but now he learnt a lot more from his children and was using all apps for online teaching. “It was a Herculean task for me to get updated, but I tried my best and now I can operate the gadgets being used in online classes,” he added.

Madhu Grover, an English teacher of Dyal Singh School, Sector 7, said: “Virtual classroom is totally different from the actual one, for which we have to prepare a lot.”

“It was challenging for me to teach my students online but with the help of my school’s technical team, I learnt to use various apps and now taking virtual classes without hesitation. I used to conduct smart classes in the school prior to the lockdown, but it’s totally different to hold an online class.”

Sonia Arora, English teacher, Dyal Singh Public School, main branch

The technical teams of the schools are also contributing a lot to educate their teachers about the new techniques. “We apprise our colleagues about new technologies and the handling of gadgets. Besides, we have to check the security features of all the apps being used by the students and staff members for online classes. We have also learnt a lot during online classes,” said Khushali and Teena, IT experts of Dyal Singh School, main branch.