Education Review Issue 7 October-November 2021 | Page 30

Digital delay

Expert says all school children need access to a digital device , now .
By Conor Burke

Across the country , states and schools are in varying stages of emerging from lockdown learning , and as we are well into this second wave , what are the lessons we have learnt from Home-learning 2.0 ?

For starters , many parents still feel underprepared and unequipped to deal with the task .
Education expert Michelle Wright , who teaches primary school as well as lecturing at the University of Southern Queensland , has spent the past year investigating the impact of COVID-19 home learning on children and families .
Wright estimates that more than 20 per cent of parents are dissatisfied with home learning , while almost half of the respondents said they didn ’ t want to be more involved in their children ’ s learning .
The big lesson , according to Wright , is that education must focus on making it possible for all kids to learn digitally .
“ Our research shows that parents who didn ’ t have those digital learning platforms for their students , they ’ re the ones that struggled and felt higher levels of stress ,” she told Education Review .
A recent Queensland Audit Office report revealed almost one in 10 state school students did not have access to a device during last year ’ s lockdown .
Wright said the socio-economic divide that drives digital inequality is hurting children during the pandemic , with some of her most “ vulnerable students ” completing only one or two tasks per week . And while this year ’ s HSC students have been the focus of many , the effect that extended lockdown is having on primary age students may be felt in the years to come .
“ It ’ s hard to imagine that we ’ re living in a digital age , yet there are still thousands of students who cannot access online learning and have to rely on paper-based learning materials for remote learning ,” she said .
“ It needs to be digital . If we ’ re going to be learning from home , it needs to be schools embracing being very digitallyminded , because schools try to do it all with pen and paper , and try to send home lesson packs , and it just doesn ’ t work because kids can ’ t get feedback .”
Wright argues that , ultimately , every child in Australia should be given a digital device to learn on .
She points to the Rudd-era attempt to get kids in years 9-12 a personal laptop , even if it did not fully realise its promise , as the type of revolution needed to make sure no child is left behind .
“ It lasted till about 2013 , but that was what really made secondary schools embrace digital one-to-one , so every student has their own device . It ’ s now 2021 , and students in primary schools still don ’ t have their own device ,” she said .
Wright has seen first-hand the issues facing children without devices in her classroom .
“ I ’ ve got three children in my class whose parents don ’ t speak any English at home at all . It ’ s those children who are more vulnerable , so how can they then have their parents support them in home learning when it comes to English ?”
Kids with siblings but only one device in the household , or kids with parents who work full-time , or who are struggling with work from home / home learning balance , are also at a disadvantage , Wright says .
“ I felt my child went backwards with home learning , as I struggled , too . I didn ’ t feel qualified enough for assisting ,” one parent told Wright during her research . “ Due to limited social interaction , I can see that social skills have declined ,” said another .
“ My child naturally is an emotional child . They found it difficult to understand why they couldn ’ t attend school , see their friends or family , and why I was trying to teach him . It was a confusing time .” It hasn ’ t all been bad , however . Teachers around the world have embraced change and shown an enormous amount of flexibility , says Wright .
The renewed conversation around digital learning could eventually help kids who need time off because of illness to stay in touch with school work .
And a digital revolution could lead to more specialist teaching in schools , much like a university setting .
“ We ’ re looking at the primary school teacher being the GP , the general practitioner : because of Australia ’ s curriculum we ’ re trying to get the primary school teacher to be an expert in eight , nine different curriculum areas , you need to see more specialisation ,” Wright says .
“ There are schools , more independent schools , where teachers ... are now just teaching English , math , HASS , and science , and they ’ ve got specialists for every other subject .”
But more than anything , a new digital revolution will future proof our children , Wright says .
“ The main message is that teachers have done an amazing job with what they ’ ve got , but it ’ s policymakers , and schools , and governments that need to be ‘ COVID ’, and ‘ future ’, and ‘ now ’ -prepared . It ’ s no longer the future . It ’ s the now .” ■
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