With almost the year gone by, we realize that online learning is here to stay. It’s observed that with the increasing use of gadgets, reading, comprehending, tactile learning, motivation, and learner engagement has undergone a sea change.
ETV Bharat Sukhibhava spoke to Ms. Kajal U. Dave, Psychologist, and Play Therapist at Mindsight, Mindart, and Coffee Conversations Mumbaito understand the role of attention in online learning and how it can be improved upon.
Attention is an important aspect when it comes to learning and memory. Studies found that the shorter the attention span, the lesser the learning outcome. Before online schooling began, parents had concerns that their kids study properly at school but at home, they don’t. Now that online learning has become a norm, children are getting distracted by household chores going on in the side, family members talking, television going on or if no one is watching them, they like to do other things online. In midst of all this, they hardly pay attention to what is being taught. Fatigue also rises.
Sitting tolerance gets affected, children who are used to learning in the teacher’s presence are not able to cope up. Though teaching modules are designed in a way using a lot of modalities for online mode, it’s becoming difficult for children who can learn only by reading and understanding through kinaesthetic ways. There is restriction in terms of getting up and reading the text aloud for whole class. Motivating factors like teacher calling in front of the class and reading the text is also not possible. It also affects learner engagement as very little attention is paid to distracting factors and these cannot be substituted online. For children who are not used to multitasking, it becomes difficult for them to listen, copy the answers or make use of whiteboards and understanding what is taught at the same time. Few children are not comfortable with earphones placed and without earphones, there is background noise.
Tips for making online eLearning more effective:
- Try to give breaks in between the sessions so attention can be enhanced.
- Try to select a quiet place for child to study with minimum visual distractions.
- Try to adjust the screen in such a way that it’s not strenuous for the child as half of the time he is just going to adjust himself to read a particular text and it can hamper the vision.
- Try to take a small kind of quiz in terms of memory games to check what is been taught has been understood. At times children can say they have understood but it’s through some assessment one can understand what is taught.
- If possible, each lesson plan can involve videos, text prose, some fun facts and a home experiment to be given as a home assignment. The teacher can ask to get some home props or essential items to explain the concept in science or social studies subjects.
- For teaching English (as students are habituated to underline the text), the teacher can help them to highlight the texts so that important facts of the lesson plan can be comprehended easily.
- Give a summary to write on a whiteboard so whatever the students have remembered can be seen.
- Try to break each concept into small tasks, on one screen/slide keep only a few pictures or questions so with the minimum presentation the child can focus more.
- Praise the child for small achievements, it helps.
For your queries on how to deal with the impact of online learning on attention in children, contact Ms. Kajal. U. Dave atdavekajal26@gmail.com
