One could look to the stars and think about the very birth of the universe, the Big Bang explosion explained by many scientists is the very birth of all time and space. The blended notion of knowledge and matter in it’s truest nature had created time and space. Time and space in the ridged form were found to function over a vast amount of centuries in the educational sector as well. The space of which how knowledge is dispersed onto the scholars, but the current pandemic had brought upon challenges upon this factor. Therefore the term space and the dynamics needed to be reviewed and restructured. As previous methods of teaching, the co-location of teaching is synchronous. And would allow for a traditional understanding of co-interaction with educator and student. Yet not all synchronised teaching methods are co-located, this would introduce the virtual component of education. While the other factor to note, is the element of time in the educational process. Again this can be presented in a synchronised manner of which is experienced at the very same moment. On the contrary asynchronous teaching would be the learning experience of the facilitator and learner are not interacting at the same time.
With the rather scientific terms of teaching process brought to attention, the birth of a Blended Learning experience takes form. This would result in the mixture of time and space in a synchronous as well as an asynchronnous nature develops the core nature of Blended teaching. Covid-19 had challenged one to motivate new mindsets in innovative thinking. In a matter of days, the basic co-location of teaching in the traditional form was to adapt to a remote learning experience. And even though the pandemic presented itself to many challenges within the educational sector, if one had to ponder upon the outcomes if the pandemic were to occur ten years before, maybe in the year 2010. The disruptions of the pandemic would have been so much greater, given to the lack of available technological advancements.
Thus in the development of time and space of the universe, the understanding factor to the big bang theory is that the universe was in a condensed and hot object that resulted to the overall explosion into the creation of the expansion of the universe. Similarly in the situation of the pandemic, the notion of education was found to be in a “hot” and “confined” space due to the social distancing implemented. This motion confinement resulted in the explosion to the technological era taking space within the educational timeline. It should be noted that prior the pandemic COIL had taken a shape withing the global network, yet the pandemic brought along sufficient amount of stress, uneasiness and innovative thinking to bring such a teaching method into the spotlight.
Within the zoom room, there is a fair of challenges: the lack of contact with students, the interaction of teacher and student are given negative connotations to virtual teaching, yet this isn’t entirely true. The basic holistic well-being of students are of the greatest concern. The lack of “interactions” with an educator and learner can be fully achieved on a virtual platform. The implementation of breakout rooms, presentations and discussions allows to an engaging and interactive lesson and therefore at time is more interactive activities conducted in a virtual platform rather than a traditional classroom. The issue is shifting the mind from the traditional outlook. There are many ways to maintain the educator and student relationships even on the virtual web. The new era of education is taking shape, and allowing for the world to become more accessible to a person, and so such a movement in educational developments should be embraced and welcome.
By Sumone Rajee
Masters Student at Durban University of Technology (RSA)
WFH international Intern for SCES
European Horizons Symbiosis Chapter 