What teachers need for remote teaching?

This is a trying time for all of us during this Pandemic time and the Corona Virus spreading all over the World. So many of us are locked down in our houses and unable to do our jobs properly, be it studying, learning, teaching, or doing business. 

In the educational industry, regular Teachers, Tuition Teachers, Institutions are away from classroom teaching. Although the teachers cannot continue teaching in this time in real classrooms, the best they can do is use a virtual classroom. Despite this being new for many Teachers/ Coaches and may find it difficult to cope up with the present situation, the virtual classroom is the best solution for the Educational Industry. 

This is why Remote teaching is very much required during this pandemic time and beyond.

"Remote teaching is the teaching done by a teacher in one place to students listening in any other part of the world."

In the real classroom, the teachers used to enter the noisy classroom, restore silence and teach their subject. There used to be much fun-filled and enjoyable interaction between the teachers and students. But in the virtual classroom, is not as interactive as the normal classroom. But they don't call humans social, adaptive animals for nothing. We have a knack for adapting to our present conditions which of course is helped along by Technology. 

For remote teaching Teachers and Coaches need so many perfect things to keep the online class up and running. These are few of them-

• A stable power connection and power backup in the locality.

• A very stable and a high-speed network quality (very essential !! )

• A quiet room without any sort of distraction.

• A comfortable seated position ( A table & a chair)

• A good quality laptop or a desktop computer.

In addition to Infrastructure for teachers, teachers need a variety of software tools. The various software tools for doing an online class are as follows:

An Operating System for the computer

For teachers and Tuition coaches during the pandemic season, they need a good operating system for the performance of the computer or desktop computer. Typically, this comes with the laptop/desktop in-built.

• Windows

• iOS

• Ubuntu etc

A Browser to explore the Internet

This again comes with the laptop/desktop in-built. Or it is too simple to download and install in your computer. The teacher and students need one of the following

• Chrome, 

• Edge, 

• Firefox etc

A good Meeting App for interacting with students and other teachers

For user-friendly interaction with students, the teachers need to connect with students and be able to see them, hear them, talk to them, present the lessons/ materials, etc to make the teaching and learning more effective. The teachers and students need at least one of the following

• Microsoft Skype

• Google Meet

• Zoom etc

They also need a good chatting app either in the meeting or in another app. This chatting facility is very important to share all the views of the attendees and also share files etc. 

A good online Storage and sharing mechanism

Teaching will be very effective if teachers use a variety of materials (presentations, videos, etc) in their act.  School teachers really need to store their materials/ files and share those easily with students. One of the following can be used for this purpose.

• Google Drive

• Microsoft OneDrive

• Dropbox etc

Calendar application to schedule the classes at the appropriate time

All most all people need a good calendar app to schedule the meeting. Teachers should be able to schedule the classes in advance so that students are aware of the schedule and join the meeting on time. Popular calendar applications are

• Google Calendar

• Microsoft Calendar

Cooperation and readiness from students and parents are equally important for the success of remote teaching. Students need to have a similar infrastructure and the ability to consume software tools used by the teacher.

Teachers can check with Students on their preparedness and help them with the usage of any software if they need help. Today's kids are smarter and can pick things on their own quickly with the teachers' and parents' guidance.

This article covered the basic needs for conducting remote teaching. Teachers, educational institutions, students need to up-skill themselves and continuously look for the best possible setup that can help them in teaching and learning online. 

Happy remote teaching and learning 😀