Teach Middle East Magazine Apr - Jun 2020 Issue 3 Volume 7 | Page 10

Sharing Good Practice
INDIVIDUALISE YOUR TEACHING
WITH THE HELP OF DIGITAL ASSESSMENT
BY: KATIA AL-KAISI
students cannot keep up with their
usual level of achievement.
K
atia Al-Kaisi spoke with Dr
Kirsi Wallinheimo an expert
in distance education to get
her thoughts on how we can
individualise teaching with the help of
digital assessment. friends and teachers, poses challenges
for children. Even though the first
reaction of many children towards
school closures may have been a
series of hurrahs, the reality is starting
to set in.
As children are learning new ways to
study, student assessment takes new
forms as well, and that has an impact
on teaching. This school term has
turned out to be wildly different from
what many of us – teachers, principals,
students or parents – ever expected.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we
are suddenly forced into adapting
digital learning and teaching with
speed totally unimagined. And it does
not help that this is happening in a
situation that is likely to be stressful for
many families. “Children are used to getting feedback,
encouragement and guidance from
a teacher who is physically present,”
explains Finnish education expert,
PhD Kirsi Wallinheimo. “In distance
learning, this is not always possible,
and it may have an effect, especially
on younger and more quiet students,
who gravitate towards constant
feedback.”
This, in turn, can mean that some
Luckily, we do have the technology,
which makes digital and remote
learning possible. But as isolation and
school closures are going to be in
place for the rest of the academic year,
the situation also has an influence
on how students’ learning should be
evaluated.
New Technology Brings
Possibilities
Studying at home, in isolation from
10
Term 3 Apr - Jun 2020
Class Time
But challenges can be overcome.
Teachers need to learn to give personal
attention to students, even in digital
environments. It might not always be
possible when the whole class has a
meeting in Zoom or Teams. But there
are digital assessment platforms, such
as Qridi, Edmodo and Socrative, which
may make it possible for a teacher
to keep track of students’ individual
progress. The information gathered
with such technology could prove
useful in group distance learning
situations too so that the teacher
can choose to pay more attention to
students who are in need of it.
Wellbeing First
Children’s motivation and capacity
to study is very much linked to their
wellbeing. As said before, we are
living in stressful times. Isolation
and uncertainty are hard on parents
too, and emotions might spill over
in families more easily than normal.
Some children go through the current
changes in their everyday life with a
laid-back attitude, but for some, the
burden might be almost unbearable.
Digital assessment platforms collect
learning analytics, and when the
teacher has no possibility to meet
with their students face-to-face, this