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Now that classes will be online, I won’t be able to hang out with the few new friends I’ve made since being able to go to campus in April. It’s tough for me to focus during online lectures. I feel lonely... like I don’t belong anywhere.

15 Comments

A male sophomore at Meiji University.

© Yomiuri Shimbun

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15 Comments
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One of the biggest problems I've seen since going online at a university is that the vast majority of Japanese teachers simply have no idea how to effectively make use of the new teaching environment. Many teachers simply upload text documents, or PDFs to 'teach' their classes. Furthermore, there hasn't been any attempt to get teachers together to workshop ways to improve interactivity, or utilize the countless new technologies available to them.

The infrastructure used to host the LMS looks like it was built for Windows 95, and teachers MUST provide all lesson material and homework via the LMS.

It's no wonder students are having issues with learning in what is already extremely testing circumstances. These kids are used to doing everything with their smart devices, and then they have to read dozens of PDFs and submit reports as text files.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Some panel expert on TV estimated it’ll take 3 years from now for things to return to the way it was pre-COVID. Meanwhile the class of ‘23 will need to get used to making friends online.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Kids have short attention spans and have so many potential distractions these days. And they desperately need social interaction with peers.

If you are talking about elementary kids, maybe so, but this is a student from Meiji University, and he is hardly a "child".!

In fact, I personally know 10 of these, whom you refer to as "kids" who last year, from April until the end of January, managed to get through 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, of online classes! They had a couple of one week breaks between courses and testing, but otherwise sat on their butts, in their homes and successfully completed their courses of study, with ZERO absentees!

I sure as hell couldnt have done it! And I will bet that you wouldnt or couldnt have either!

So just who are the "kids" here?

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Covid is the final and timely nail in the coffin for so many educators who got away with absolute drab, behind closed doors, until now. Forcing teachers, students and content online means that it is all finally out there. If anyone ( parents とか)bothers to take the time and have a look at what’s on offer from those charged with educating the young hungry minds and and next generation, try sitting through some idiot speaking to a camera in monotone in front of a blackboard. Dry, listless, dead. It was bareable if you had your classmates to entertain you, but take that away and its just bleak. We wonder where all the competent leaders of the nation are? And now we can see why. The deinspiration machine of j education. RIP.

Those that can actually engage the students will be doing quite well online or off, and don’t worry students it won’t last forever and hopefully education 2.0 will be a healthier place post covid. Enjoy making your content. Chuck in some visuals, sounds and real talk. Use the plethora of tools at hand. Tell the story of why your chosen subject is so awesome ,make it engaging, small group chats, connection etc, you know; the stuff that should’ve been happening behind those closed doors.

If for some strange reason you can’t ( and it’s fairly obvious) please have the grace to step aside. Bad teachers don’t even realize the damage they do. Ok, sorry folks. Bring on the EduRevolution. Rant over! Have a toppa golden week!!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Weird how schools and universities haven't been major sources of infections but many are being shut...

Your evidence?

Daily infections show that many reported Covid cases are young: e.g. on JT yesterday May 2 , in Osaka, of 1057 reported cases, 233 were in their 20s and 114 under 20. That's 32% of reported cases. Factor in all the unreported asymptomatic, presymptomatic infections, and all those symptomatic cases who either don't bother trying to get tested, or are refused because they haven't fit the deliberately exclusionary criteria, and you have a lot of transmission going on in this age group.

I know of one national university that was reopened until the actual SoE was declared, so it's not as if they've all been online for the past year.

But I totally agree that those educators who haven't upped their game to learn to teach online if they didn't before last year are now being shown up for as lazy, stubborn or incompetent. Teaching and learning online is not rocket science, and while it's different to f2f learning, there are pros and cons to both.

And on the subject of whining about online learning, the problem in f2f classes is sometimes getting those students to put away their phones, as they live on them socially - you only have to watch young couples out on dates in a restaurant to see (well maybe not right now). They often need to be shown how to use the online world for learning - apps, YouTube, document sharing and co-editing, even things like online dictionaries, never mind using Word to create documents. Many first year undergrads arrive at uni without knowing these things. So educators need to step up and give them the keys to this world.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Ask your PM why haven't they prioritized the vaccines the last 5 months then...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Weird how schools and universities haven't been major sources of infections but many are being shut, seems more for show"

Well, I would also like to know your source for this.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

If he hasn’t got the academic and mental discipline to concentrate he shouldn’t waste his time doing a degree.

Agree the universities have dropped the ball, they needed to provide the training to the lecturers to enable them to use and maximise the new online tools.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Schools should be required to give the majority of the tuitions back, and dormitories paid for 100% by the universities, and any rent students incurred while not living there to attend school as well. They are still receiving lectures, so they shouldn't get all their tuition back, but they should most certainly receive some -- as well as that ridiculous down payment of 200,000 or so they have to pay just to choose it as a school they are interested in applying to, if first-year students.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This is a university student, not a child. Man up. The Japanese SoE lasts just a couple of weeks. We've had 30 weeks of much tougher restrictions.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

If working from home has shown workplaces to be largely meaningless it's not a surprise that schools are as well. Change won't be revolutionary merely evolutionary to meet the new needs.

Back in the before times, Sal Khan of Khan Academy had proposed and based on extensive research put into successful practice that classrooms be flipped. So the student does their learning offline but then the class time is for overview, TA's, tutorals, teacher hours, and help with the material.

Thus the student is engaged in their learning not suffering through it

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Ricky Kaminski13

If anyone ( parents とか)bothers to take the time and have a look at what’s on offer from those 

I love this “とか” ^_^

The link below shows the Latin/English version of とか.

https://youtu.be/XSOmR5ratfc

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They should just take a year or two off and go learn something of their own interest, come back when the vaccines are done in 2023

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There is a stark difference between virtual work meetings and virtual classes for students.

For work, people endure it because they have to.

Kids have short attention spans and have so many potential distractions these days. And they desperately need social interaction with peers.

Online schooling has been devastating for child development.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

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