online learning

Online Education in India : A Subterfuge of Socratic Knowledge

“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge” (Nicolaus Copernicus). Socratic knowledge in its true essence is neither any teaching in the conventional sense of world nor about filling the empty minds of largely passive students with facts and figures acquired through mugging[Read More...]

Covid-induced online education hurts poor families

Written by B.Sivaraman & Kumudini Pati Online classes have become the main mode of learning for millions of school students across India due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with its repeated lockdowns and social distancing measures. The shift however is proving to be extremely painful for families in small towns and rural areas for many reasons, especially high costs of purchasing[Read More...]

My Covid-19 Teaching Year

It seems appropriate that the 2020-2021 school year in Portland, Oregon, began amid toxic smoke from the catastrophic wildfires that blanketed many parts of the state for almost two weeks. The night before the first day of school, the smoke alarm in my bedroom went off. Looking back, I see it as a clarion call, a shrieking, beeping warning of all the[Read More...]

Role of Psychological Capital in Fostering Well-Being among Students in the Age of COVID-19

Health is a precious asset. The World Health Organization identifies health as a state of total physical, mental, and social well-being, rather than simply the absence of disease. It also claims that there can be no true physical health without mental health. A person with good mental health is aware of their abilities, can cope with life’s normal stresses, can[Read More...]

Transformation of Higher Education post COVID-19 in India

Written by Dr. Sudhamshi Beeram, Dr. Arathi P Rao and Prof. K Rajasekharan Nayar The disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic has been drastic and perhaps one of the most dramatic transitions witnessed in the education sector. The massive and unexpected closures have forced educational institutions to seek quick fixes in different digital learning platforms (Jandrić, 2020). More than a semester[Read More...]

Coronavirus Education: Learning and Teaching from the Margins

The coronavirus student, a species brought forth in the world of education by a pandemic that has killed over 400,000 people in the United States and 100,000 in the United Kingdom, is a troubled creature.  When universities and schools across the globe were given varying and often contradictory messages on the safety of continuing in class teaching and participation, the[Read More...]

Paradigm shift in pedagogy for school teachers in 2020: A call for mental health literacy?

Co-Written by Dr. Arathi P Rao, Dr. Sudhamshi Beeram, Dr. Parul Malik and Dr. Urvashi Priyadarshini The fight against the threats of COVID -19 pandemic has profoundly impacted almost all sectors of mankind. The field of education is a deeply affected strata, with closures of educational institutions and emergency distance-learning plans turning the teachers’ routines and student interactions totally upside down.[Read More...]

Learning In Times Of COVID-19: Busting myths about the success of e-schooling

“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” – Charles Dederich The above quote, used to describe a child’s first day at school, has been prolifically used in the past to impress upon its reader, the value attached to the act of ‘going to school’. It is associated with a certain sentiment, rooted in substantial individual experiences[Read More...]

Can the Social Sciences choose to be Reflexive in times of Crisis? 

by Chandreyee Goswami & Dhriti Sonowal As students of social sciences, we often harbour a sense of enlightenment in knowing that the subject matter we engage with has been historically instituted to identify the varieties of social realities that individuals might find them in. The legacy of social sciences has been its deep inspection and understanding of the social world which[Read More...]