M2 Evaluate: A Peer, This A Peer
If your fingers have not made contact with any device, or if your eyes were not dry from competing in a staring contest with the monitor, are you even teaching in this pandemic-pushed distance education? Whether we like it or not, we may just have to cling to our gadgets for a couple of years as we still blindly navigate the 2020’s kind of learning. Elmali et al. (2020) found out that preschool teachers and computer education teachers mainly use their gadgets for communication and social media purposes. Their difference is that the former more often use it for music listening purposes, and the latter tends to read news more. Since teachers are stuck with them, or maybe taking out a loan to purchase new ones, these gadgets hold secrets to the key of making teachers’ lives easier. This game of searching will be made easier if teachers remind themselves of their lifelong partners in delivering quality education since day one: their own peers.
It should be made clear that, even though teachers have a channel to teach their lessons (Microsoft Teams, Discord, and Google Meet to name a few), this is not considered as genuine online learning. A learning management system and utilization of ICT tools are surefire ways to differentiate online learning from traditional, face-to-face learning. And we have to address this as soon as we can because, until students of all ages are not able to meet each other again in the physical classroom, sitting in front of a laptop will eat out the depleting student motivation and engagement. Design agency, personalization, and creativity should be present in ICT-backed pedagogies (Lang et al., 2017). With this in mind, it is commendable that the International Society for Technology in Education assures every teacher that by engaging in professional growth and leadership, these to-be-acquired knowledge and skills benefit all educational stakeholders.
During our last in-service training, it was purposely allotted for ICT integration. I felt an urgent institutional direction that my colleagues should, at least, challenge themselves and comfortably try out even one ICT tool to upgrade our way of teaching. Even our school administrator was convinced that for this school year, a criterion in our annual evaluation is created just for masterful ICT integration. I can say that ISTE Standards for Teachers 5a is somehow achieved as the INSET 2020-2021 was filled with guided practice from our TLE teachers who have been the go-to persons for anything computer-related. These teachers were there to selflessly guide us during the March 2020 Community Quarantine lockdown up to the present. Without their missionary spirit, most teachers, if not all, would definitely garner an impression that ICT tools are just an extra burden in teaching.
By having our own local learning community, certain instances happened. In those learning sessions with our TLE teachers, it was evident that there are different paces of teacher participation; some decided to just watch the whole session without trying out the applications. I believe that my colleagues are very much open and patient in trying out new things and they know for themselves that they must upgrade their skills. It's just that they prefer face-to-face training. These seasoned teachers need more support in such implementation (Lang et al., 2017). For me, I can surely go along with the pace of instruction but I am having a hard time in matching the right application to the subject's topic. I also believe that even in distance education, teacher-centered discussion should be a big no, but time is of the essence here.
Lang et al. (2017) recommended that, in these situations wherein some individual teachers are having a hard time in absorbing the new ICT knowledge and skills, one-on-one mentoring should be done. Therefore, these ICT-focused INSET should never be left and done in the beginning of the school year, but I also recommend this be given as modules for teachers. It is a gospel truth that no stark transformation will be done in just a couple of days, so every teacher should be given the appropriate guidance and time in order for them to comfortably and confidently use ICT tools. So, in the second school year in this tumultuous times, teachers mentoring each other should be an overarching need amongst schools as in the previous school year, teachers have now the ample experience and expectations in handling online classes. It may be a shocker for some, but I also campaign that, besides students, no teacher should be left behind.
REFERENCES:
Elmali, F., Tekin, A., & Polat, E. (2020). A Study on Digital Citizenship: Preschool Teacher Candidates vs. Computer Education and Instructional Technology Teacher Candidates. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 21(4), 251–269.
Lang, C., Craig, A., & Casey, G. (2017). A pedagogy for outreach activities in ICT: Promoting peer to peer learning, creativity and experimentation. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(6), 1491–1501. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12501
