Thoughts about the online world

I just finished reading a research paper on Youth inclusion, digital solutions and the global pandemic by Veronica Ștefan and Adina Marina Șerban and it made me think a bit about distance and/or online learning.

https://bit.ly/youthinclusion-research

The first thing I noticed was how communication changed between learners and teachers (not only in a school-related environment). While normally you could just talk to someone during or at the end of a course, it’s a lot more difficult to do that now. Sometimes you need to write emails and messages. I, personally, like this - writing is my strength - but I know many people who are so anxious when it comes to writing. They overthink it, they try to find the right-est words and many times they give up in the process. Other times, you need to wait until someone hears you or sees your raised hand in the video call and that’s discouraging. It happens to me in all online meetings more than it happened in face-to-face meetings (I always have this problem).

This was a very specific observation. I have two other general ones. First, digital literacy and basic troubleshooting. The number of adults and young people who can’t identify and solve very small issues (microphone or speakers/headphones not working, installing a program etc) is extremely high. It’s not even something you need to learn all the time, it’s usually a matter of asking Google, but often people don’t know how to search - small, but valuable skills for solving small, but important problems. Second, there are so many resources and tools out there, but they don’t reach people. The ‘search’ skills would come in useful here too, but we also need ways in which the resources ‘appear’ to us.

“[...]when it comes to the use of technology and the Internet, young people have shown a clear preference for entertainment activities - 93% and participation in social networks - 86%. On the other hand, only 60% of young people have used it for seeking health information, 31% searching or applying for a job, 25% to communicate with instructors or students through educational platforms and just 13% to take part in online consultations or voting.” Let’s think about this.