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How did you cope with all the changes that took place during 2020-2021 regarding CoViD19?

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Nuevas formas de aprender y enseñar a partir de la pandemia | Melina Furman | TEDxRiodelaPlata

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How challenging did you find learning to use new technologies?

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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With COVID-19 continuing to disrupt the world, education systems had to adapt their mode of teaching to respond to local lockdowns and school closures across the world. Language education was no exception. What are the effects of this disruption on language education? What opportunities has the educational community had and what risks is it facing? This post points out that while teachers have adapted exceptionally well to the new reality in order to provide continuity for their students, educational systems still face considerable gaps with the design of the learning experience - gaps that have not been bridged since the beginning of the pandemic. Perhaps more alarmingly, the crisis has exposed existing inequalities in education - from access to the internet and digital devices to access to quality online courses.

, a radio programme run by the great On 11 December 2020, Daniel Xerri and I appeared on Teachers' Coffee George Kokolas and Natassa Manitsa from Express Publishing . There was no particular agenda and although we knew we would be asked questions about language learning during COVID-19, George had insisted that we look at the radio interview as a friendly chat over coffee. And so we did 🙂
Listen to the interview
Grab a coffee and listen to us talk about the impact of COVID-19 on language education as well as our suggestions for the way forward. George and Natassa created a really friendly and relaxed atmosphere and with both of them on the decks, you will also listen to some great music in the background. If you prefer to read it instead, find the written interview below the recording.

https://sophiamavridi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/V5-1.mp3
Read the interview
The interview started with a friendly chat among the four of us with George and Natassa referring to our recently published book English for 21st Century Skills as a best-seller among Express Publishing's teacher reference books. Indeed, readers' appreciation posts have been flooding social media in the last six months, something that keeps making us all very happy. This brought us to the main interview, with George and Natassa taking turns to ask questions:

George: We had a conversation with both of you on separate occasions back in Spring. After 8 months of "teaching through a pandemic mode", how are you assessing education now compared to then? Are we making any progress, maybe a transition or a change of mindset among teachers? Or does everything remain the same?

Sophia: Absolutely, I think the ELT community made tremendous progress regarding remote teaching and the use of technology in general. Of course, we are talking about those who were able to move online, because we can't assume that all teachers in the world were able to do that, there are huge digital divides between those who have access to the internet and devices and those who do not. So those who did move online, made tremendous progress. We all remember how the transition from face-to-face to online happened. Within a week or perhaps shorter than this. So, teachers and managers had to dive in and learn how to teach remotely very fast simply because there was no other way. It had to be done. So the teachers were brave, exceptionally brave, and all the educational community, managers, administrators, and students - they dived in although it was a steep learning curve for them and they provided continuity. Some better than others - but this doesn't really matter because there were differences in skills, internet connectivity, equipment, training.

So, teachers are now in a better position to use technology to assist language learning. And I think that teachers are lifelong learners in general. They are exceptional people. Honestly, I don't think you can be a teacher and survive the realities of the classroom if you are not a learner yourself. I'm not talking just about technology here; I'm referring to lifelong learning in general.

So yes, it's been a huge change of mindset and teachers moved from I "can't" to "I can" with regards to technology, which is an incredible achievement. However, I think there is a catch here, and I would also like to refer to the negatives - unless Daniel wants to add something here. Daniel, what do you think?

Moreover, what is also clear is that whilst many students have adapted and have ultimately continued with their education, there have been many thousands of students who have given in to absenteeism. They haven't been online attending lessons, they haven't been engaging with remote learning with the same kind of engagement that we hope for. So most often what happens is that the people who are ultimately the victims of opportunity gaps - low-income students,for example - they have been put at a bigger disadvantage because of the pandemic when compared to their better off peers. Sophia pointed out that one of the most critical opportunity gaps is the uneven access to technological devices and access to the Internet, which are vital for remote learning. In fact, a recent study by Human Rights Watch on the African context shows how many thousands of students in different African countries have suffered because of the pandemic, suffered in terms of their education. Existing inequalities have been exacerbated because of that, especially when it comes to girls' education, interestingly enough.

Sophia: Daniel, thank you so much for all this because sometimes I feel lonely when I talk about the negative side of this transition. I fully agree with you and just want to add that the challenge ahead of us is to move away from the emergency remote teaching that we're still in - it may be a more mature phase, we are not where we were when we started back in March but we're still in some kind of emergency mode because there are still gaps with the pedagogy, there are gaps with the materials, there are gaps with students' learning as Daniel rightly said, and there are also gaps with teachers' workload; teachers are still struggling and juggling, and are overworked. Also, students' distraction is considerable, and I hear people say: "Students are distracted online" or "Students don't like learning online". And my answer to this is that this is NOT online learning. This is still emergency remote teaching. Which may be an excellent approach for the crisis, but it should not be the new paradigm of online education. So, the reason why I'm saying that, and I assume Daniel as well, is that it is understandable why all this happened because change during a pandemic is not easy. Let's face it. But the challenge ahead of us is to bridge the gap between this situation and more pedagogically sound and inclusive online learning solutions.

Daniel: And in terms of the gap, if I may add to what Sophia has been saying, yes, it's vital to bridge the gap, but a question that comes to mind is whether governments around the world will have enough money to do that. One of the biggest issues in 2021 is going to be, how are we going to finance education? Prior to the pandemic OECD countries as an average spent 11% of their budgets on education, but because of the pandemic a lot of money had to be funnelled into the health sector and the economy in order to allow the economy to come back on its feet and to deal with the immediate problems of the health sector. So, what is going to happen in the immediate future? If there isn't enough money for general education, not only language education, not only ELT, but general education more broadly. And this is not only being said by the OECD. In fact, a recent policy note published by the World Bank shows that one of the biggest effects of the pandemic on countries' education is going to be how much they are able to spend on education.

Natassa: Well, it's really nice that you have decided to touch all this because we are used to listening to people making really impressive comments as far as online education is concerned, and though you mentioned that there has been progress between the previous lockdown and now, and Sophia said the situation might be slightly better, I hear you are both very sceptical towards this new era of online teaching. What really attracted my attention is the fact that girls have to face quite a lot of problems as Daniel mentioned, especially in Third World countries. I will just add something more positive here. I've heard that generally, the global economy might rise after March. This is according to the latest studies that I have seen as far as the financial side is concerned but I'm not sure whether education is going to benefit from that. But let's be more specific. If we were to compare remote learning in spring and winter 2020, what would be your review?

Daniel already gave the bigger picture and talked about finances etc and I totally agree - but in a smaller scale school or institution, we need to educate the teacher with quality teaching and quality online support. We cannot leave the teacher alone to build the plane while they are flying it. This happened back in March but now we need to move to something more grounded. But for this to be achieved we need quality training, not emergency remote training which is quite common lately. Suddenly, there are many people sharing content online, presenting about teaching online, and some of this content is very good, but some is extremely poor, and we need an extra layer of critical thinking to approach it. I'm not talking about teachers presenting what they do in the classroom, best practices etc. This is absolutely fantastic. I'm talking about people who think that they have found a golden opportunity here, and just because they have a Zoom account and did some emergency remote teaching themselves during the pandemic - perhaps they also did a How to teach with technology course 10 years ago - they are now giving training sessions about how to teach online, some of them charge them as well. What I want to say here to teachers is that they need to be extra careful because most of this training is emergency remote training and it won't take them where they want to go.

George: I must tell you that I'm speechless. This is one of the best interviews we've ever had on this programme. I think that's a proper webinar because we're having two experts who are so eager to share all these ideas. Thank you for speaking your mind and expressing your opinion so freely. Everything that you have pointed out makes very good sense. Let me move to the next question. What would be your ideal scenario after this pandemic? Let's assume that COVID-19 ends in two to three months. What would the ideal educational scenario be for both of you?

Sophia: I want to believe - and I've said that before - that when this pandemic is behind us and we're ready to go back to the classroom, I really hope that we won't just go back to how things were before COVID-19. Because teachers have learned a lot along the way. So I hope that we use this knowledge and this mindset to go forward. If technology is used appropriately it can really assist education and language learning on so many levels. I'm not talking about this tool and that tool and tools everywhere. But good use of technology can promote collaboration, creativity, sharing, learning; so we need to use this knowledge to go forward, and as a digital learning specialist consulting institutions around the world, I can say that some institutions are already looking ahead and they're not going back to how things were, and I think that this is all very positive. I just hope that it won't just be the privileged few, but all teachers and all students will be able to not go back to how things were, but they will be able to go forward.

Daniel: Well, in terms of my wishes or expectations for the future, and if I had to focus on teachers, what I would hope for is that teachers are provided with the support to meet the social, emotional and academic needs of learners in the future if challenging circumstances continue to occur. We're all thinking that there is going to be a post-COVID future, but as Bill Gates reminds us in his TED Talk from 2015, the future that we are all going to live through is one where our biggest enemies are going to be these pandemics that will occur every few years. Let us not forget that COVID-19 has been described as a Black Swan, an extreme condition in a VUCA world . A VUCA world means basically a world characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. So what I would hope for is that teachers are provided with the necessary support so that they can develop the socio-emotional competencies required in order for them to deal with these challenging scenarios that they're going to face in the classroom and elsewhere. And that would involve being equipped with a repertoire of skills and knowledge, including mindfulness, stress management techniques, and the ability to engage in teamwork so as to solve problems more efficiently. As well as having the necessary digital literacy to adapt to such situations if they had to happen again in the future. And it's not just me saying this. This was all pointed out in a recent special issue of the European Journal of Teacher Education , which shows that teachers during the pandemic were shocked at all levels. But at the same time, we also saw teachers finding solutions to problems, problems that they had not encountered before. Let us make sure that the teachers of tomorrow, the teachers of 2021 and the coming years are better equipped to deal with such challenging situations if they had to happen again.

Sophia A lovely wish, thank you, Daniel 🙂

Natassa: So that is amazing. I don't want this show to end. But this has to be my last question. Since we referred to your excellent book English for 21st Century Skills I want to take the opportunity and thank the rest of the authors that contributed to this amazing project of yours. So, my next question is which 21st century skills could be the most useful to teachers to apply during the pandemic and any future pandemic that might occur?

Sophia: I think it's all, I wouldn't like to just pick one. I think it's easy to get carried away and think that the skill of digital literacies is the most important. It is very important, and that's my specialism after all, but it is not the only one. Social justice is very important too, and Daniel and I already talked about inequalities and digital divisions. Also, well-being, critical thinking, leadership, and so many more are important to keep us going. For example, the ability to step out of our comfort zone, something that teachers did to a great extent during the pandemic, and they are still doing, has nothing to do with digital literacies. It shows leadership. It shows creativity. So, during a crisis, we need them all. Our students need them all more than ever before. So, buy our book English for 21st Century Skills ; that was the conclusion.

The interview closed with good wishes for a Merry Christmas and a much happier new year from all four of us. A big thank you goes to Natassa and George for being such great hosts. And for playing some fascinating music throughout the interview.

Merry Christmas to you all, and a happy and safe new year ahead!
Please cite as follows:
Mavridi, S., & Xerri, D. (2020). The effects of COVID-19 on language education. Digital Pedagogy [ Teachers' Coffee radio interview]. Retrieved from https://sophiamavridi.com/covid19-language-education

Her research focuses on online learning and the increasingly important role of digital literacies in education. Read more about her work Sophia Mavridi is a Digital Learning Specialist & Lecturer in English Language Teaching at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. here.

Daniel Xerri is a Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Malta. He is the author of many publications on different areas of education and TESOL. Further details about his talks and publications can be found here.

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The effects of COVID-19 on language education. An interview for Teachers' Coffee

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With COVID-19 continuing to disrupt the world, education systems had to adapt their mode of teaching to respond to local lockdowns and school closures across the world. Language education was no exception. What are the effects of this disruption on language education? What opportunities has the educational community had and what risks is it facing?

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At the beginning it was quite difficult for me to keep up with everything. I didn't have Internet connection so I wasn't able to provide virtual lessons regularly. However, I tried to be in touch with my students as much as I could.
I was also facing a high-risk pregnancy and I never stopped working.
I was glad when 2020 was over.

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I didn't find it difficult. I have always been interested in technology. I do assume that this pandemic has led me to investigate more about apps I had never used before.

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This pandemic caused, unquestionably, a change as regard as our idea of ​​education. It was hard to face the fact that we weren´t prepared to cope with this new situation.  In addition we realized the huge educational inequalities that we had in the educational system.

How to cope with all these changes? It is a complex task but we always try to do our best. It comes to my mind something Rita Pierson said in TED Talks Education “Every child needs a champion”:

“teachers become great actors and great actresses, and we come to work when we don't feel like it, and we're listening to policy that doesn't make sense, and we teach anyway. We teach anyway, because that's what we do”

I think this is what teachers did and continue doing. We teach anyway with the tools we have and making an enormous effort

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It was hard for me because I was not aware of the large number of digital tools, applications and programs available in relation to education.  I had to learn very quickly how to work with them.

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This pandemic made us realize that we live in a hyper-connected world and leads us to reflect on what we can learn in this new scenario. Innovation in education that used to be slow and isolated becomes a fast process of learning new teaching techniques. These new strategies are already part of a new generation of teachers both in the formal education system and in our daily life, learning in community. The ideal school for teenagers today includes having a choice about what to learn or how to do it. This also tells us that we have to teach students to organize their homework and to learn how to learn.

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Miriam Novillo Hall Lockdown in this pandemic scenario pushed us towards remote teaching.  The transition from face to face teaching to online teaching was super-fast and nobody (students and teachers) could easily adapt to that process.  All the educational community was brave because they were working on unfamiliar field. However the achievements were substantially enormous.

On the other side there were also negative issues to take into account. Lockdown was imposed in many places and it forced students to face new realities as regards their learning process. Even now with the return to face to face classes teachers have to deal with for example, the length of lesson time and take into account that they may have students that did not received (or barely received) instruction in almost two years.

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In the first place, it took me a long time to establish communication with the students and their families because I didn't know them, therefore, with the help of my classmates, a WhatsApp group was set up to collect information and keep us informed. Then, when I was able to communicate with all the students, I started giving my lessons. In addition, I had to re-plan all the classes and activities because the ones I had thought about before the pandemic didn't suit in the new scenario.
In second place, the most complicated and priority was to maintain and sustain the affective bond with all the students since some lacked the technological means to receive or do the activities.
Last year was a difficult time for both teachers and students. Every difficulty that arose I was able to overcome this year. I learned from my mistakes, therefore starting the 2021 school year online or in person was not that complicated for me.
Personally, the positive of 2020 was that, I learned to use educational platforms and various technological strategies.
The negative is that not all students have computers, notebooks, cellphones  and internet.

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I agree that this pandemic made students and families revalue school and the work of teachers.
Taking the example mentioned in the video, "just as treasures appeared on the beach after the tide, so appeared the problems." For example, students who didn't communicate with the teachers, others who didn't carry out tasks because they didn't have a family follow-up and others who for particular reasons couldn't receive or do the classes and activities.

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At first it was quite difficult, I had to learn quickly educational technology.
In particular, that part was the only positive last year.

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In this interview, they mention that there were differences in skills, Internet connectivity, equipment and training.
Therefore, teachers are now in a better position to use technology to aid in language learning. They think teachers are lifelong learners in general. They are exceptional people. They think that you can't  be a teacher and survive the realities of the classroom if you are not a learner. They are not just about technology; they talk about lifelong learning in general.
Also, everything that happened has been a huge change in mindset and the teachers went from "I can't" to "I can" when it comes to technology, which is an incredible achievement. However, they do mention some things negatives. For example, the confinement forced the students to adapt quickly to a reality they were not used to, the teachers also had to adapt very quickly and in many cases without support. Although now things are returning to normal in many countries, there are still problems with the length of the lessons.  In many countries many students receive short lessons. They wonder what the effect of this will be on these students, since education in the early stages of a person's life is of crucial importance and has a great impact on the development of the individual.
Also, while many students have adjusted and finally continued with their education, there have been many students who have not been attending online lessons, they have not engaged with remote learning with the same kind of participation that was expected. Therefore, what happens most often is that low-income students are at a greater disadvantage due to the pandemic compared to their more affluent peers. Sophia notes that one of the most critical opportunity gaps is unequal access to technology devices and Internet access, which are vital for remote learning.

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First I tried to steablesh contact with all my students. Then, I began delivering online lessons which at the beginning were really hard because they were very differetne from the faceto face lessons. I learnt a lot by watching other teachers in youtube, investigating about apps that could make classes more attractive. For the students who couldn't participate in the classes becuase of the situatutions we all know, Iprepared lots of material which I send them via whatsapp. 

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First I tried to steablesh contact with all my students. Then, I began delivering online lessons which at the beginning were really hard because they were very differetne from the faceto face lessons. I learnt a lot by watching other teachers in youtube, investigating about apps that could make classes more attractive. For the students who couldn't participate in the classes becuase of the situatutions we all know, Iprepared lots of material which I send them via whatsapp. 

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It wasn't that hard for me to use new technologies because I have always been a fan! In fact I had used Google Classroom before the pandemic and I'd always taught using PPT presentations in the class.

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I should come across this text at the beginning of this year! It was really hard for me to combine face to face classes with virtual ones, to motivate students to keep it up even though we saw ech other every three weeks. There are lots of students who never came back to school or were so demotivated that it was almost impossible for me to apply any new strategy. I felt fustrated but now, that we are coming back in whole groups I hope things improve.

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At the beginning of the Pandemic everything was confusing at school; we had never been trained to use technology of any kind and from one day to the next we had to use Platforms that we never knew before. But as many collegues we had to learn by doing, and searching for info in the Internet. Hence, I learned to use Classroom and not only interact with my students by using my Gmail, which was always full of mails of students and their productions. That was a crazy time, too much work. I checked my students´work and sent it back at weekends and along the day no matter the time.
Anyway, Youtube was great help at that moment, and so I learned about apps and other techno tips, also learned about links and tutorials to enrich my work and I hope I did the best I could do. But I tell you there´s a world of new things related to e-education and e-learning that many of us do not know and it would be great to learn about that. Thanks for this opportunity to share our experiences.  Sandra.

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I like this text a lot. It has provided me with answers to questions I have had since we were told schools would close.
I think that coming back to teaching whole groups will be challenging since there are lots of students who haven't been attending lessos during this year and some have not even attended virtual lessons last year. We will need to do our best to get those students to feel motivated again so they can finish this year better.

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I agree with her perspective. This pandemic brought us the opportunity to innovate our teaching practice and it also encouraged us to work collaboratively. However, it also presented us with situations that were hard to handle.
I believe that students will remember this part of their Education forever as it was challenging for eveyone.

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In this interview, speakers present positive and negative aspects of this pandemic.
Among positive aspects I highlight the fact that teachers are lifelong learners which means that we never stop learning and we can adapt to different teaching contexts.
Among negative aspects I would like to highlight the fact that there has been a considerable amount of students that have stopped attending lessons which means that their education has been disrupted.

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In fact at the very begining I was quite shocked  because I didn't know how to manage in that particular situation. To be honest, I' m not a big fan  of technology .It was really hard for me.However,  I got down to work and I started to watch   videos and learn how to use different technological tools.
As time went by,  I realized that I only could communicate with few students .Not all of them could connect; using mails or WhatsApp and that made me feel frustated.
Afterwards, Classroom helped us to continue our process of virtual teaching and learning although I was overwhelmed by activities and corrections all day long.
IN 2021 , when we met in face to face lessons every 15 days , I found Confused and isolated students therefore I felt the need to socialize each other again.
Taking everything into account,( as i always say: )" EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING",  I made up with technology and I I acquired new  knowledges about this new era.

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I tried to do what I thought was best for the students at the time. Practical work, detailed explanations. Sometimes I send worksheets in the hope that the students would solve them. but the reality is that there was not much support from the family in virtuality

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I agree that this pandemic made us realize a reality that was not visible, or that was not given importance, inequality and the lack of basic needs. At the same time, it gave us the opportunity to reinvent ourselves as teachers. It also made us realize that we live in a hyper-connected world

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At first it was overwhelming, but as I became more familiar with the platforms, I calmed down and I was able to do my job better. It wasn't difficult, it was just new

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In the interview, the positive and negative aspects of this pandemic are presented.
Of the positive aspects prevailing the fact that teachers are lifelong learners, we never stop learning and we can adapt to different teaching contexts.
Of the negative aspects, I highlight the fact that there has been a considerable number of students who have stopped attending classes, which means that their education has been interrupted and the little support of the families in this aspect

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I found the text very useful. Since we were told that schools would close, we have had to reinvent ourselves so as not to leave our students adrift. It is overwhelming, perhaps out of fear or paranoia, to go back to teaching entire groups, students who have not been to school for a year and a half. I find it difficult for students to motivate themselves with the return to class

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For me it was very hard at first for several reasons. I didn't have a laptop computer (mine had broken down the year before and I hadn't been able to buy a new one), just a desktop, and my children and I had to take it in turns to use it at home. At the beginning, I wasn't able to buy one because computer shops were closed and shopping online wasn't available so my mum lent me hers  as she wasn't using it. Once I had solved the problem of getting a laptop, the new challenge to overcome was getting familiar with the use of Classroom, Zoom or Google Meet and designing  activities for students to do online. At times, I felt overwhelmed by all the context we were immersed in, the extra hours I worked at home at after-school timetables and all the changing resolutions and demands coming from the Education authorities. I felt that nobody cared for our mental health.  (Daniela Obreque)

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For me it was very hard at first for several reasons. I didn't have a laptop computer (mine had broken down the year before and I hadn't been able to buy a new one), just a desktop, and my children and I had to take it in turns to use it at home. At the beginning, I wasn't able to buy one because computer shops were closed and shopping online wasn't available so my mum lent me hers  as she wasn't using it. Once I had solved the problem of getting a laptop, the new challenge to overcome was getting familiar with the use of Classroom, Zoom or Google Meet and designing  activities for students to do online. At times, I felt overwhelmed by all the context we were immersed in, the extra hours I worked at home at after-school timetables and all the changing resolutions and demands coming from the Education authorities. I felt that nobody cared for our mental health.  (Daniela Obreque)

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I agree with Melina Furman. The pandemic has led us to reflect upon our teaching practice and finding new ways of facilitating knowledge to our students. I had to plunge into the world of IT and get familiar with new apps and programmes I had never used before. Another thing I'd like to highlight is that families became aware of how essential our role as teachers is and that teaching is not as simple as many people believe. Last but not least, this pandemic has shown us that links among us are important and that everyone is in the same boat, which implies that we get out of it  as a whole, not by ourselves. (Daniela Obreque)

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I agree with Melina Furman. The pandemic has led us to reflect upon our teaching practice and finding new ways of facilitating knowledge to our students. I had to plunge into the world of IT and get familiar with new apps and programmes I had never used before. Another thing I'd like to highlight is that families became aware of how essential our role as teachers is and that teaching is not as simple as many people believe. Last but not least, this pandemic has shown us that links among us are important and that everyone is in the same boat, which implies that we get out of it  as a whole, not by ourselves. (Daniela Obreque)

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It was a new challenge, hard at first, but I could overcome it as soon as I got the devices to carry on with online lessons. I learnt to use some tools by tutorials and I did some courses related to new technologies applied to education. However, I was very reluctant at the very beginning concerning virtual teaching/learning. (Daniela Obreque) 

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It was a new challenge, hard at first, but I could overcome it as soon as I got the devices to carry on with online lessons. I learnt to use some tools by tutorials and I did some courses related to new technologies applied to education. However, I was very reluctant at the very beginning concerning virtual teaching/learning. (Daniela Obreque) 

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We go walking on an strage new pandemic education world doing our own path with beautiful moments and awfull others, but always learning about all this.
liliana viyerio

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I found the text very engaging! This whole covid situation really turned the world upside down but at the same time I think it brought us many new things to learn from as well as different ways of doing it. In my particular case, luckily, it was not difficult for me to work with technology but I did notice that it is not the same: from the student who does not have a computer to be able to work better in virtual classes, the student who does not have internet, the one who connects in the zoom but turns off his camera and the teacher does not know if he is really witnessing the class or not...There are many factors that in a certain way did not favor teaching and some others that in turn gave us new tools and even new self-learnings that I think that is the most important thing that we must highlight of this crazy reality that we are living today. <Lucía Lagos>

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The podcast is about the transition between face-to-face and online education during the first lockdown and how teachers and students had to adapt quickly to a new forced reality. It also speaks about how our role as life-long learners helped us pass from "I can't" to "I can" as regards dealing with new technologies in teaching. Some drawbacks are also mentioned in this podcast, such as absentism due to opportunity gaps like uneven access to technological devices and the Internet. Inequalities have been exacerbated due to the pandemic. Teachers being overworked and students' distraction are also mentioned as negatives. (Daniela Obreque)

# data[].attributes.subject
The podcast is about the transition between face-to-face and online education during the first lockdown and how teachers and students had to adapt quickly to a new forced reality. It also speaks about how our role as life-long learners helped us pass from "I can't" to "I can" as regards dealing with new technologies in teaching. Some drawbacks are also mentioned in this podcast, such as absentism due to opportunity gaps like uneven access to technological devices and the Internet. Inequalities have been exacerbated due to the pandemic. Teachers being overworked and students' distraction are also mentioned as negatives. (Daniela Obreque)

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At first working with technology was not difficult for me. But I was frustrated by the fact that as the months passed by the students became more demotivated every day, of course that always led me to look for new ways to regain their desire to participate in virtual classes, but still, not all had the same enthusiasm. I always made sure to do the classes through explanatory and didactic videos where they could see me and hear me, to not lose the connection with them and that they knew that their teacher was on the other side just like them and WITH them. The return to class was as if we were at the beginning of the year all over again, but I am grateful that it happened because I realized that they need the presence not only to learn but also to be heard and communicate in an space where they can feel accompanied in case they need it. <Lucía Lagos>

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Reading the article I remembered situations and experiences from last year.
We teachers really had to reinvent ourselves and learn to teach outside of school.
The challenge was to organize ourselves, keep us all communicated and not lose the bond with any of the students. Unfortunately, there were students who were excluded, although attempts were made anyway to reach them, situations that were difficult to overcome arose.
Now that we are in face-to-face classes and there are no bubbles or groups, we find students who have adapted to the virtual format and are having a hard time recovering the rhythm.
Now that we are all together at school, I agree with what the article says, about proposing coexistence activities and gradually adding the curricular content that they have to learn.

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I agree a lot with Melina, to begin with when she talks about we are in a kind of "global educational experiment", it really felt like that. I also agree that although this pandemic took away and prohibited us a lot, at the same time it brought us many things and made us realize many others. In the case of us teachers, it forced us to look for new ways and strategies when teaching and in return gave us this toolbox that she talks about. And as she rightly says, in the case of parents, it teach them how difficult it is to be a good teacher and educate a person. But I am left with that reality: how much we, society, need the school and the teachers. <Lucía Lagos>

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Luckily I am self-taught and it was never difficult for me to use technology, so my challenge more than anything was to find new tools and ways to capture the attention of my students when teaching them, taking into account the frustration they had for this whole situation. and demotivation. I think technology is a great tool once you learn to use it for good! <Lucía Lagos>

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It has been a huge change in mindset and I totally agree that teachers are lifelong learners. On the negative side, it is true that inequalities have been exacerbated. Teachers are overworked and at a certain point the education of students has been interrupted, something that in the long run, of course negatively affects teaching / learning. <Lucía Lagos>

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I think the pandemic brought a disaster as regards educaction. However, standing in the same perspective as the girl in the video, I think that it represented a challenge to all teachers and demanded to revise our teaching practice. Thanks to pandemic I leanrt a lot about ICT and my students too. Let's look at the positive side

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They talk about the two faces of remote teaching and learning. On the one hand, it was a huge progress in teaching and learning, because it developed many skills on tstudents and teachers. However, there were many realities that made remote learnign excluisve for some students and teachers. Teachers in some cases, lack of support and had lots of dificulties in keeping up with remote teaching. Morevover many students decided not to attend online lessons becuase they didn't want to.

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How challenging did you find learning to use new technologies?

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How challenging did you find learning to use new technologies?

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I didn't find it difficult. I really enjoy making use of technology. Due to this pandemic, I could make use of different technological resources and I learnt how to use many online tools. The greatest problem I faced was that most of my students (70%) didn't have internet access since they live in fruit farms. So, I couldn't use technology as much as I wished. -Johanna Burgos

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I didn't find it difficult. I really enjoy making use of technology. Due to this pandemic, I could make use of different technological resources and I learnt how to use many online tools. The greatest problem I faced was that most of my students (70%) didn't have internet access since they live in fruit farms. So, I couldn't use technology as much as I wished. -Johanna Burgos

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I found the article very interesting. As a teacher, in my opinion, I think that with "the absence of having face to face interactions" during the pandemic, has really meant something...In the way that people finally began to pay attetion how important schools and teachers are for the students. Education has been the focus of our society.

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It's been a hard work. But I think that we can handle anything with love and patiente. We have learnt many new things in order to improve our system of education. We have adopted new manners of teaching, tried to use different materials and resources. We have applied new methods and techniques. For example, the use of technology has been one of the main resources that helped us to do so.

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Being a teacher is a challenge... But as regard this question, in my personal opinion it was not difficult how to use new technologies, but how to make students being part of this new type of learning. I guess that was the most difficult issue for most of us.
Rocio Sanabria

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I really agree.
I think that is it very important for teachers to start paying attention on our students' interest, to make a confortable classroom where there is a good atmosphere and each of them feels part of...
We must put our students at the centre of this process of teaching-learning

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This interview focused on how education has been affected by the pandemic. There are two speakers who tells us about their own perspectives ,how this has come to positive and negative results. For example, they agreed that teachers had made an effort in order to adapt to this new way of teaching. And how difficult was for some children to improve their cognitive development.

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I have to say that at the beginning it wasn´t easy for me to adapt myself to the use of these new technologies, without a previous and total knowledge of them. I really had to reinvented myself and try to do my best and I´m happy to say that I´ve learned a lot, alone and also with my colleagues´ help. I think it was a time to learn, to learn for us and what´s more important, for our students. Marcela Varas

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Technology hasn´t been an obstacle for me at all. I've always been interested in it even before the pandemia, but this especial situation has encouraged me to research about methology and look for more apps to make my classes more interesting and motivating.

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At the beginning of this worldwide pandemia, teachers and students went through difficult times until together we found an organizing way of teaching and studying. Everything seemed chaos but luckily today’s we can see how much we have learned all this way. Countries and schools worldwide have shown us how they have created and adapted new ways of organization in order to keep education as a priority taking into account students and teachers´  health of course.Today´s hybrid classrooms, in Argentina, vary widely according to the subject matter taught and the needs of specific groups of learners. But is interesting to highlight how creative and how fast have teachers adapted their lesson plannings to this new way of working online. So this education initiative has allowed us to create more engaging learning experiences for students. 

# data[].attributes.subject
At the beginning of this worldwide pandemia, teachers and students went through difficult times until together we found an organizing way of teaching and studying. Everything seemed chaos but luckily today’s we can see how much we have learned all this way. Countries and schools worldwide have shown us how they have created and adapted new ways of organization in order to keep education as a priority taking into account students and teachers´  health of course.Today´s hybrid classrooms, in Argentina, vary widely according to the subject matter taught and the needs of specific groups of learners. But is interesting to highlight how creative and how fast have teachers adapted their lesson plannings to this new way of working online. So this education initiative has allowed us to create more engaging learning experiences for students. 

# data[].attributes.body
In my case the transition into digital classroom was immediately. I was able to use different tools, apps and resources but it was the first time in front of a virtual class. I remember spending my free time checking homework and planning lessons to keep students engaged and motivated. It has been a challenging and demanding year but it was also an opportunity to learn and grow professionally.

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In accordance with what my partners have stated, this podcast is about how education has been affected by de pandemic. The two speakers point out that in spite of all the achievements teachers, students, families and institutions have accomplished there is still a gap that must be bridged. The real challenge today is bridging the gap to a more pedagogical and inclusive reality. The speakers say we are going through a more mature phase on emergency remote teaching, but we still have to enhance some pedagogical aspects related to materials, students learning, students distraction when working on line and their dislike, as well as teachers workload.  (María Luz Davico)

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Experimenting with new resources and aproaches was a positive aspect of distance learning, an unexpected chance to grow and innovate. I totally agree with Melina. Paying attention to our students´interests is necessary. Each of them carries out a different learning process.

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Using new technology wasn´t difficult for me. I enjoy working with applications and new programs. I agree that we´ve learnt much more about it.

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Nice podcast! A clear photography of how our experience during the pandemic has been.

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I found the article very interesting. As many teachers, I have reinvented myself during the pandemic. Now, the new challenge is to take advantage of students coming back as whole groups and rethink our practices.

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The text has good questions to help us to think and compare our contexts in general terms. My experience as teacher of CEPJA in Ñorquin-có was that all my students don’t have access to internet or phones with Android, most of them are adults and it wasn’t easy to me: I tried to build a bond for they know I was present when they need me, that they weren’t alone and the school was going to back as soon as possible and it happened this year. The constant uncertainty is worry but with the other teachers, we try to make the most of days when we are in the shcool. I like the suggestion that have a day for organize the activities and share tools but we haven’t time enough for this work paid in CEPJA.

The challenge is order the communicational channels with other teachers, with students and families to work together in a hybrid modality useful for each of us in order to keep the quality of public education.

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I felt alone at the first time, I lost my dog he was like a human son to me. Then there was very uncertain times, in winter Ñorquin-có suffered a terrible snowfall, and I lost the communication with my students, it was hard. I tried to be present and write each of my students an specific day of the week but answer their questions the rest of the days. This year we returned with happiness and we tried to guarantee the sanitary protocol in order to promote the trust in the school as a safety place.

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I don’t have difficult with new technologies, I could pay by myself a new computer (the old one was stolen) and an internet service at home but I know teachers that don’t have the same lucky. I understand that it is easy when you have resources but when you don’t have them you are out. It is hard to buy new technology, everything is expensive and our salaries don’t cover it.

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I liked the article, I found it relatable. I agree that teachers had to reinvent teaching, but at the same time I think that this hybrid education is here to stay. I found some advantages of online education, and at the moment, back in the real classroom, I am using some tools  that were incorporated during 2020 lockdown. (Just in case, my name is Adriana Aragón)

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I liked the article, I found it relatable. I agree that teachers had to reinvent teaching, but at the same time I think that this hybrid education is here to stay. I found some advantages of online education, and at the moment, back in the real classroom, I am using some tools  that were incorporated during 2020 lockdown. (Just in case, my name is Adriana Aragón)

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Adriana Aragon. At the beginning of the lockdown I didn't think it was going to take as long as it finally did. However, I had begun introducing technology in the English classes in 2019. For example, I had assigned a group work about some English speaking countries, and in order to do it, I divided the students and I created whatsapp groups that I administered and followed. Students had to share their contribution and work together at school. The results were very good, since most students engaged immediately and found the activity different and appealing.  All in all, that 2019 experience helped both my students and me to communicate more fluently at the beginning of the lockdown. However, a group of students either couldn't be reached or chose not to answer their teachers' contact

# data[].attributes.subject
Adriana Aragon. At the beginning of the lockdown I didn't think it was going to take as long as it finally did. However, I had begun introducing technology in the English classes in 2019. For example, I had assigned a group work about some English speaking countries, and in order to do it, I divided the students and I created whatsapp groups that I administered and followed. Students had to share their contribution and work together at school. The results were very good, since most students engaged immediately and found the activity different and appealing.  All in all, that 2019 experience helped both my students and me to communicate more fluently at the beginning of the lockdown. However, a group of students either couldn't be reached or chose not to answer their teachers' contact

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I agree! we learn every day different things ,especially we as Teachers we learn new technologies ways of teching

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I agree! we learn every day different things ,especially we as Teachers we learn new technologies ways of teching

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It was difficult at the first time because I had to learn new ways of teaching ,but after a time I found very interesting contents to teach for my students

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It was difficult at the first time because I had to learn new ways of teaching ,but after a time I found very interesting contents to teach for my students

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I wish  I had read this text at the beginning of  this pandemia where we didnt have the slightest idea of how going on at schools.
I  totally agree with the text which suggests to renew our strategies as educators  , to learn ; not only about technogy  and to take good decisions in this  uncertain situation.
Everybody has learnt something  about this unknown experience,  positive or negative learning. Basically the most important point is that we tried hard  to renovate our plans.

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I totally agree with  her! I think that every hard moment  in life ,always  teach us something new.

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It was a big challenge for me! I was not used to manage technology.  So, it gave me the opportunity to learn and  I became  a big fan of it!! I spent time surfing and watching tutorials about   how to use different resources availables in order to get my students engaged in my  virtual lessons. VIVIANA CACERES

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During pandemic I had to face with many challenges regarding my own life style and the way I teach my students. I had to learn about different tecnological tools, strategies and resources in order to delivery my lessons and keep in contact with children and families. The biggest challenge was to keep students motivated to learn in the virtual world.
Alejandra Marks

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I think this is a very interesting article as it states some important issues, such as the role of school as an essential institution and the role of teachers within societies. This text deals with different topics related to our return to school and the way we must  teach our students from now on according to the reality we will find there. It requires that we rethink our practices and reinvent ourselves due to the reality of our students and the course of the pandemic.  On the other hand, we must not forget our students have had a hard time trying to catch up with the contents, to aquire autonomy that can be intimidating for those who lacked time management skills or those students who did not have a computer or any other technological support. Hence, as the article states, we must establish a prioritary curriculum that contemplates these factors in which we must modify our practices, and take advantage of those strategies and tools that worked for us at 2020 and use them to help and foster our students in their learning processes the best we can.

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I agree with Melina. Her questions are shared for many of us. We realized how things have been developing and how people started to show their skills ; students also have realized how important is to have social interaction with their peers, how relevant is to organize their time to be productive. Other students have been affected by this lack of contact with others but paradoxically a world hyperconnected. We as teachers were forced to use technology that we had never used before just because we have been tied to traditional models. We all started to share our knowledge and so many of us grew in our practices, which is fabulous.

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I found it a bit difficult since we had never been instructed in the use of TICs. In the blink of an eye we had to start using platforms and a number of technological devices that, personally, I didn´t know that existed. Thanks to Youtube!! as their tutorials helped me a lot!., otherwise, I would have been in trouble. Anyway, this is great debt that the education system has with teachers. That´s for sure!.

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This podcast deals with different aspects to have in mind as to the pandemic and the way it affected the learning community.  Probably the most outstanding aspects referred to in this audio is the teachers capacity to adapt in this reality even though we were /are overworked, and also on the part of the students as the lockdown was impossed they had to adapt very quickly, and do not forget that many were easily distracted online while others have not been engaged online.  Now as things are getting back to normal we have to consider those students who did not keep in touch with their teacher and do not have the rhythm or the exposure that is expected to have. Daniel mentions that in his own country lessons have been reduced in length and they do not know what the impact will be in the life of those students; finally, he states that those who have the technological devices will eventually take advantage over those who lack the technology and I think he´s absolutely right.

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I think all crisis time, like this pandemic, makes all workers reinvent our practices. We are living a historic ecology - economic- social crisis product of the capitalism system: the school, the public education is not out of this context. I wonder all the time why and what we are teaching, what kind of world we want for our students, if we give them the neccesary tools for living in a better place. Sometimes some words sound pretty but the real world is not, there is too much violence (the social inequality is violence) that the school needs to be a place where we can walk, learn from each other without this violence, ignore or pretend it doesn’t exist is a mistake to me.

The hyper connected world is a challenge because most of students don´t have access to internet, phones or computer in urban and rural contexts, and we must to give them tools equally and review all the time our practices for it. The school and the teachers that help to our students and ourselves to think are completely necessary in this crisis time.

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The podcast presented possitive and negative aspects of pandemic, teachers have the capacity of adapt in this context and have an open view of the social inequality that helps to think better teaching practices. I like and share that educators are life-long learners and we can make an auto-critic of the old practices in order to continue learning.

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We, teachers had to prepare in March to work with students in a same year but different levels, this happened because lots of students didn't participate in many lessons in 2020, so at the beginning of 2021, it was really a challenge worked with them! They didn't learn much.

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2020 was a difficult year to manage as regard teaching. In one of the school, where I work, the executive team decided to make agrupamientos, so we had to make written assigments with other subjects. It was a challenge, because we didn't have any training. We did our best, but it didn't work very well. Not only was difficult for us, but also for students.
This year, we met students who didn'tdo much last year, so we had to teach again and practice the same topics than in 2020, we tried to solved their doubts and helped them. Many of them, had lost the training of studying and doing some practice. Now, that we are at school, happy inn our classroom, we are doing our best, trying to motivate our students!

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I didn't find it difficult, before the pandemic, I've taken some workshops and my training teacher at the university motivate us to learn! So, I when we had to use technology in different lessons, I didn't have problems!

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As I was listening to her, I felt again that feeling of uncertainty that felt last year!
Thinking in those students who didn't have any virtual connection, or in those students with family problems!
So I hope we can build that SCHOOL, students need! Argentina need a new school!

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Positive
Teachers and students did the best. It was a challenge for both.

Negative
Learners suffered a negative effect, and they tried to adapt.
Those students who didn't be online o did activities are in different level, regarding those students had an active participation.
The access to devices, made those levels be more different!
Teachers did their best, and sometimes without support.

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Very interesting article! In my case, It was really difficult at the beginning to get in touch with my students. Most of them didn´t appear at virtual classes, and this made me feel dissapointed. Besides this, very few students did the activities in classroom, so it was really a hard time for us teachers, now they are coming to school, we have a real communication and they like this...

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I believe everything changed after the pandemic. And made us reflect on our task as educators. We had to look beyond the classroom, understood and deal with new kind of problems. In the matter of fact there are students that have been absent from education for over a year. The question is then, “how am I going to take these students from where they are to where they need to be?” It is complicated but not impossible. I look forward to keep working using as many old and new strategies as I can.

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About virtual lessons... it wasn`t so a dramatic change to me, because I like working with new technology and it was a new challenge for me. It was difficult for our students because some of them didn`t have internet al home so we had to send them written activities with explanation. A lot of them said they didn`t understand virtual lessons, they need being at school face to face with the teachers, but in spite of all the context I think we did the best, we stayed teaching with our own bit sources from our houses.

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I think as Laura, I tried to do my best too, internet connection interrupted all the time in my zoom meetings or when I was having an oral exam with some students by whassap. It was very difficult working like that
Liliana Viyerio

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I agree with all !!! all the comments an ideas are what happened with us, We lernt new ways to teach, we used technology ,some of us, with fear but always giving the best. Families were angry with us sometimes because their chidren weren t at school an others were grateful with us. It was difficult for all of us but I think we grew as humans beings. Our pupils did a great effort too.
liliana viyerio

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I didn`t find difficult either becasuse as Laura I`ve already applied them in my lessons to motivate my pupils. But some teachers were afraid about finding new ways to teach using technologies they didn`t know about.

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She thinks it was a tremendous progress to all the education community regarding they all continued teaching, a lot of times with luck of supports. Pandemic demostrated all around the world the social differences to students`education access.
All the education community teachers, families and student had to adapt very quickly to the huge change from face to face to virtual lessons. It was difficult for all.
liliana viyerio

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She said teachers were brave, and all educational community providied continuity. I strongly agree with that
liliana viyerio

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All new material is usefull to learn new skills and theories ...
liliana viyerio

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I believe that this text has many good points. Unquestionably, virtuality is here to stay forever. However, we as teachers have to keep on developing and thinking of new dynamic strategies that catch the attention of our students. Definitely, the most relevant point in this text for me is to keep reinventing as a teacher.

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During the pandemic I tried to do what I supposed that was the best way to learn for my students. I had to learn how to use many new tools that I had no idea how to use them. Absolutely, the most challenging task was to keep my students motivated and interested in the subject.

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I really liked the text. I found it very interesting. I believe that coming back to school with the whole groups will be challenging because most of the students haven't been attending virtual lessons. They didn't feel motivated.  So, teachers have to do our best to catch students attention. (Romina Carabajal). 

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I really liked the text. I found it very interesting. I believe that coming back to school with the whole groups will be challenging because most of the students haven't been attending virtual lessons. They didn't feel motivated.  So, teachers have to do our best to catch students attention. (Romina Carabajal). 

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I tried to do my best to improve the virtual lessons and to keep in touch with those students who didn´t have internet connection. (Romina Carabajal)

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I tried to do my best to improve the virtual lessons and to keep in touch with those students who didn´t have internet connection. (Romina Carabajal)

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This pandemic situation made us think about the important role of education. Teachers had to rediscover and redesign lessons and the way to teach. This pandemic situation forced us to innovate the teaching practice. (Romina Carabajal)   

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This pandemic situation made us think about the important role of education. Teachers had to rediscover and redesign lessons and the way to teach. This pandemic situation forced us to innovate the teaching practice. (Romina Carabajal)   

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I didn´t find it difficult. I used to apply technology in my lessons before the pandemic. I learned to use new tools to improve the virtual lessons. (Romina Carabajal) 

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I didn´t find it difficult. I used to apply technology in my lessons before the pandemic. I learned to use new tools to improve the virtual lessons. (Romina Carabajal) 

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This podcast shows some positive and negative aspects of pandemic. Positive aspects: -Education made a tremendous progress regarding remote teaching. Teachers and students learned  to adapt to this new situation. Negative aspect: Unfortunately, a great number of students didn´t have the opportunity to attend virtual lessons. (Romina Carabajal)

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This podcast shows some positive and negative aspects of pandemic. Positive aspects: -Education made a tremendous progress regarding remote teaching. Teachers and students learned  to adapt to this new situation. Negative aspect: Unfortunately, a great number of students didn´t have the opportunity to attend virtual lessons. (Romina Carabajal)

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It was hard to come back to school, many students and teachers were anxious and didn't feel motivated enough to this new challenging of 2021. I believe that we always do our best and together we can deal with all the obstacles on our way as always did. Romero Laura Cecilia

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It was hard to come back to school, many students and teachers were anxious and didn't feel motivated enough to this new challenging of 2021. I believe that we always do our best and together we can deal with all the obstacles on our way as always did. Romero Laura Cecilia

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The text describes some of the different problems we have faced as consequence of the pandemic. It talks about  hybrid learning, and the difficulties  it carries to those students who do not have an internet connection or technological devices. It also mentions the importance of take into account the  community welfare and learning achievements. At the begging of the school term, our subject, made a student survey to get to know the reality of  our students. Some of them live in rural areas, where there is little internet signal, and others do not have any technological devices at all.
Based on that reality, I organice my lesson plans using different formats: copies left in at a shop, educational platforms, e-mails, whatsapp as a way of communication. The most important issue is not to lose contact with our students, and let them know that they are important for us. (Nancy Troncoso).