Malaysian Mom Share: Do Our Children Learn Anything from e-Learning?

Understand the advantages of e-Learning so that we learn to love the new norm. While the pandemic is not giving any sign of leaving and the MOE is not giving any hint that school will be open soon, don’t be surprised if virtual school and e-learning is going to stay till the end of year. Being a mom, I wonder if it’s just me alone or any other moms are just as sceptical as I am about e-Learning. Yes, it has been nearly a month and a half that my kids have been on the e-learning program organized by the school, yet I don’t see the effectiveness of e-Learning. Perhaps it’s just me. I must admit, not just my children, but I myself am struggling adhering to the online classes, especially on those days when the Wi-Fi is not cooperating. How do working moms juggle with the kids’ online classes, assignments and their own work requirements? I could hardly breath! Like it or not, e-Learning is the ‘new’ future, and it is here to stay.The only option left for us is to accept and adapt. Yes mommies, it’s not easy - sending kids to school (physically) for knowledge gain is no longer a valid reason! It can now be done, remotely. Saying ‘Yes’ to e-Learning Besides justifying the difficulties in coping with the new norm, let’s look at the bright side. Learn to understand the beauty of e-Learning so that we can adapt with the change in the rate we should be. I learned that being optimistic about this new lifestyle, helps! Here are some positive observations I noticed when my children started to pick up the online classes. 1. Flexibility & Personalisation I must admit that the kids do have problems adhering to the set time by their teachers. Somehow, I noticed that they still managed to submit the tasks assigned timely and they do understand what the teachers were trying to teach. Yes, they might have missed some of the 8:30am classes, but they did make it up and it was a pleasant view to find them ‘Google-ing’ and trying to get information at 5pm so that they could submit before the next class. Having been able to learn at their own pace gives them more time to understand and definitely increases the knowledge retention. 2. Survivability & New Skills I am very proud to see how well my children adapt in this new environment just so they could ‘survive’. They learned how to get the correct and accurate info from the reliable websites, they figured out how to run the video conference apps and they even got hooked up editing photos, texts and all various skills that the internet has for them. 3. Cost- & Time-Efficient Being a struggling parent with instability with our own income especially during this MCO, I was totally wrong about e-Learning going to cost us an arm and a leg. Apparently, I was wrong. They were no rush sending them off to school in the hectic morning traffic (and we save on the fuel as well), no worries about the pocket money, no extra charges for the tuition, no additional activities books need to be purchased and many others. With proper planning, e-Learning is definitely cheaper and time-efficient. 4. Parents & Teachers Involvement Teacher scarcity has always been a concern and undoubtedly is difficult to solve. e-Learning has proved it that there’s a solution to this. With such vast resources and educational materials online, and having it more organised with e-Learning, I’m sure it helps ease some (if not all) of the educators’ jobs. While the traditional classroom would put the responsibility of teaching to the teachers, e-Learning will direct or indirectly get the parents to be involved with their children’s education. Some parents might think that this is an ‘extra’ work for them, but shouldn't education start from home? I am more comfortable with this arrangement as I have the opportunity to understand my children’s level in acquiring new knowledge. 5. Self-creativity & self-discipline Having three kids of my own, I couldn’t cope with each of their classes schedules religiously. With only one PC that we bought eight years ago, the children had to take turns using it while the other had to opt in using the phones. I couldn’t be more proud of them knowing the fact they managed it quite well to make the ends meet. They took turns, tolerated with each other and helped each other. Their ultimate aims were to complete the assignments (so that they could have the ‘game time’ right after) . I guess e-Learning is not bad at all. No doubt, some might find that e-Learning is easier said than done. I’m not saying that e-Learning is 100% great and there’s no flaws within it. There’s more than just letting our children be in front of the PC and learn. The content, the ‘real’ learning, the process and all must also be considered. My two cents, change is not a luxury - it’s a requirement. One can only improve when one wants to change. In order to change for the better, learn to adapt. Start with looking at the bright side. Understand the threats of e-Learning and manage them with proper planning and execution. Afterall, we learned to crawl before we knew how to run, didn't we? What is stopping from improving now?

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