Education has been the recipient of the most adverse effects of the COVID Pandemic.
The lockdowns are being relaxed and the people are fighting back to return to a new normal. But it is education which still is on the back-foot. The amount of crisis-response alternatives is on the extreme high and new way-outs are coming each day. Each part of the world has got a major set-back in the regularity of education and learning. The teachers have moved online and schools have transitioned to e-learning. But there has been some distinct as well as crucial breakthroughs as well. This new wave of innovations and experiments in education through technology has highlighted the advantage we have with EdTech.
The Asian Journal of Distance Education, which is a research publication of the EdTechReview has brought a special issue on the Response to COVID impacted education across the globe. Researchers and experts from all parts of the world have come together to present their studies in this issue of the AsianJDE.
Uncertain times require prompt reflexes to survive and this study is a collaborative reflex to better understand uncertainty and navigate through it. The Coronavirus (COVID- 19) pandemic hit hard and interrupted many dimensions of our lives, particularly education.
As a response to interruption of education due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this study is a collaborative reaction that narrates the overall view, reflections from the K12 and higher educational landscape, lessons learned and suggestions from a total of 31 countries across the world with a representation of 62.7% of the whole world population. In addition to the value of each case by country, the synthesis of this research suggests that the current practices can be defined as emergency remote education. This practice is different from planned practices such as distance education, online learning or other derivations. Above all, this study points out how social injustice, inequity and the digital divide have been exacerbated during the pandemic and need unique and targeted measures if they are to be addressed. While there are support communities and mechanisms, parents are overburdened between regular daily/professional duties and emerging educational roles, and all parties are experiencing trauma, psychological pressure and anxiety to various degrees, which necessitates a pedagogy of care, affection and empathy.
In terms of educational processes, the interruption of education signifies the importance of openness in education and highlights issues that should be taken into consideration such as using alternative assessment and evaluation methods as well as concerns about surveillance, ethics, and data privacy resulting from nearly exclusive dependency on online solutions.
With the above aspects, you can learn a lot about a paradigm shift in the domain of e-learning and virtual teaching. Readers can access the editorial and the journal publications on this link.
