Education has left the school walls. It’s outside in the everyday moments of life, and more recently, at home online. If you’re not already convinced, these stories might just close the deal for you. A headmistress, teacher, and parent, share their thoughts on online teaching and learning.
As the coronavirus spreads across the country, states and localities are faced with mounting pressure to close school doors. Transitioning to online learning may be the fastest solution at this point of time to avoid affecting the learning curve.
We spoke to Puan Norsiah, Headmistress of SMK Air Molek, to understand from a headmistress’ perspective on why teachers should start utilising technology in their teaching.
“Teaching and learning through technology is very, very effective! Teachers should start utilising and optimising online learning platforms, such as Frog, so that students’ learning can be enhanced. In addition to that, when teachers and students have mastered the uses of education technology, there wouldn’t be a problem for learning to continue at home during a time like this when schools are closed due to the coronavirus outbreak,” said the Headmistress who has been fondly dubbed as “Headmistress of Frog”.
Puan Norsiah goes on to share that online learning actually helps students to be creative and encourages them to be innovative throughout their learning journey. “Online learning platforms are very interactive and provide various visual aids that support and enhance students’ learning.
For example, on Frog, learning Sites have videos to elaborate further on the lesson topic. When asked how she is helping and supporting teachers who have yet to get onboard with online learning, she said,
“I have shared various links of edtech websites and teacher blogs to all my teachers. They may struggle a little during this time, but it’s never too late to start. I hope the current situation serves as a wake up call to all teachers who have not been using online platforms for teaching and learning.”
We were able to also have a quick chat with Cikgu Eswaran, Maths teacher and Frog Admin in SJKT Ladang Elaeis. He shared how students have benefited and improved academically through online learning.
“My students love FrogPlay and they are always looking forward to learning since I started utilising the application for Maths revision. The concept of FrogPlay motivates repeated practice by answering quizzes until students have gotten a perfect score. Through this “practice makes perfect” method, my students have shown vast improvement in Maths,” said Cikgu Eswaran.
He went on to share that teaching and learning online has been a very effective way to keep his students engaged, compared to traditional “chalk and talk” methods..
“We all know Maths is not a very fun and interesting subject. But when I teach through Frog, my students are paying attention during lessons and the gamified-learning in FrogPlay definitely motivates them to complete assigned quizzes.”
Cikgu Eswaran also urged teachers to not be left behind. “I highly recommend and advise teachers to get onboard with online teaching and learning. We are moving forward so teachers, too, need to move forward. If teachers still want to be stuck in traditional classroom approaches, then they are what I call “expired teachers”. And the ones greatly affected will be the students.”
In our conversation with Mrs. Komala, a parent of a student from SJKT Ladang Elaeis, we found that all parents have similar concerns when it comes to allowing their children to learn online - cyber safety and security.
“As a parent, I was initially worried to let my son use my laptop or phone for his revision at home. It’s just normal for parents to be worried that their children will misuse the internet. So when the school introduced parents to Frog, my fear and concerns went away because. Frog allows me to check through my son’s lessons and quizzes. This assures me that he’s not doing something else other than completing his revision,” shared Mrs. Komala.
The proud parent went on to share how much her son has improved in his studies through online learning.
“Getting my son to pick up his revision books is like a chore, but when I ask him to go online to learn, he jumps right to it! And because he is more motivated to do his revision, he has improved so much in all his subjects. This is one of the main reasons why I support and will continue to support online learning, even at home.”
When asked how she would advise parents who want to get their children started with online learning, the mother of 3 said,
“My advice to parents would be to sit down with your children during the initial stages of getting them started with online learning. This is to also give yourself peace of mind if you’re worried with what they’re doing. Once trust is established, you’ll come to realise that online learning is really not so bad. So try it, and don’t be too quick to brush off learning online just because of a misconception.”
Together with YES and FrogAsia, YTL Foundation has launched an education initiative to support learning at home during this time. FREE 40GB data plan and learning resources will be provided to ALL national school students!
Visit ytlfoundation.org/learn to find out more and get your child started with online learning from home!
For further inquiries, give us a call at 018-7998787 or drop us an email at support@frogasia.com.
