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| A reporter attends an online class demonstrated by a teacher at the Korea Biological Science High School in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. /Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
Students are set to begin the new school year with online classes next week, while schools remain physically closed amid growing fears that crowded classrooms could turn into breeding grounds for COVID-19.
As questions about whether students and schools are ready for the online classes are drawing public attention, Kim Soo-jeong, a teacher at the Korea Biological Science High School in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, demonstrated a real-time remote class during a press conference Thursday.
Kim conducted a demonstration with the press to show how teachers check attendance of students and the progress of classes by using a number of tools, such as Zoom, a video conferencing platform; Class 123, a classroom management tool; One Note, a digital note-taking app; Google Form, a survey administration app; and messenger Kakao Talk.
Zoom allowed teachers and students (reporters for today) to see each other's faces and hear their voices. Some students were struggling to set the screen and sound, but most of them appeared to manage in participating in the class without difficulty.
Kim checked the attendances of the students by calling their names. During the class, the sound function of the students were mostly muted on Zoom, but when the teacher asked questions or checked the participation of the classes, they were allowed to switch on the sound. One Note was used as tool to conduct the class ― Kim taught the concept of "tillage" while showing content from the textbook that were pre-loaded in One Note. She also drew a picture using the tool as a blackboard.
Kakao Talk, a messenger app, was used as a communication tool between teachers and students. Kim also checked attendance and gave directions during the class for students who had not set the sound function with Kakao Talk. Likewise, Kim did not seem to have any problems with the real-time class, and it was not so difficult for tech-savvy students familiar with computers or smartphones to attend the class and use the programs.
However, there was no way to check if the students were distracted or not listening to the class as she was not in the same place as them. During the classes, this reporter used other browsers and watched music videos on YouTube; the teacher was not able to notice any of this.
"In order to prevent such 'bad students,' I will confirm whether my students attend and listen carefully during my class by Google Form after class. Students have to take notes during a class and send a picture of the notes by Kakao Talk messenger. If they are distracted, they can't take notes, I think," Kim said.
Considering the concerns over the lack of experiences in distance learning and relevant IT infrastructure at schools and at homes, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) decided to cooperate in preparing learning devices and disinfecting schools.
The SMOE said Thursday that it will rent laptops and other digital devices for the online classes to students in Seoul including those in low-income group. The number of students in Seoul are estimated at 85,000, and among them, 52,000 are from low-income families.
"The shortage of digital devices for remote classes will be resolved if the SMOE and SMG work together to rent nearly 52,000 laptops to schools," said SMOE Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon during a press briefing at Seoul City Hall.
The SMOE also said it has allocated 1.5 billion won ($1.22 million) to install Wi-Fi in 1,000 schools, allowing teachers to use the Internet more conveniently.
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