The times we are in mean that we need to quickly adapt. Although we teach technology skills to girls and women at W.TEC, all our trainings have been in-person with an emphasis on hands-on projects. For a while, I have been thinking through ways to move our trainings online. With some of our target beneficiaries who have limited or no access to the internet at home, this just won’t be possible. However, for some of the others, this is a new frontier to cross and the FutureLearn online course I’m taking on “How to teach online” 🙂 is giving me lots to think about.
On March 19, The Nation newspaper published an article exploring if Nigeria is ready for e-learning. Much of the thoughts shared by the people interviewed for the article (including myself) was that there is a lot of work to be done in putting the needed infrastructure (including stable electricity and broadband internet) in place. Other challenges expressed included many teachers’ inability to use technology in a skilled way to support learning (with the exception of some top-tier private schools) .
We are in week 1 of the official lock-down, though week 2 for many students across the country and learning must go on in one way or the other. In the article, I suggested that less-equipped schools can explore adapting the platforms that most students and parents are using already is a good starting point. After the shutdown is lifted, there’s no going back to the way we used to do things.
Now the importance of embracing technology can no longer be disputed.
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