Some Thoughts on the Feasibility of Remote Work & Remote Learning
I wanted to share a few thoughts on working from home/learning from home, diving a little deeper beyond our Facebook comfort zones.
These observations are informed by our discussions on extending learning at Fundi Bots and our work-from-home experiments with our team members across the country.
[There is a stronger bias towards remote learning within the content].
Let’s break this down into access levels.
Level 1: Electricity.
The primary foundation necessary for remote work or remote learning is inaccessible to a lot of people.
Our teams in Mbale and Gulu especially suffer with this; these regions are notorious for day-long power cuts.
Level 2: Fast, affordable internet connectivity. Video calls and conference calls consume A LOT of data. I saw estimates that a 1 hour zoom call uses about 500MB to 1GB. Factor in about 3 calls a week, across X number of employees and you’re heading for above-normal expenses.
(PS: The more people you have on the call, the more data you use).
Data aside (we’re not going to survive on current bundles), stable internet is limited to urban areas and even those regions are sometimes spotty. A child trying to study online even just a couple of miles outside a small town will struggle with connectivity.
Level 3: Personal hardware.
Computers and internet-ready smartphones are not exactly accessible to the majority of people. Just the other day, the Ministry of Education said radio penetration was too low for remote learning.
Radio. Guys, not even TVs, but radio.
[ As an aside, it would it would be interesting to see data on fully-internet-capable device penetration in Uganda as a measure of workforce readiness for remote work. Maybe those exploring gig economy projects can advise on this. ]
Level 4: Broader socio-economic comforts.
If you have the previous three levels in place, can you competently work or learn from home? Various issues come to mind: Cramped living spaces, security concerns for expensive (company) equipment, peace-of-mind in the house/home, etc.
An interesting observation for home learning is that many parents offload learning to school time. When the child is home, it’s time for work around the house. In one of our education groups, there are concerns that many children may not return to school after the lockdowns end.
This is especially devastating for female children in rural communities who are suffering from domestic violence, sexual abuse and are at high risk of being married off earlier than usual as parents grapple with the financial implications of COVID.
Level 5: Technical skills.
We would need to rapidly improve ICT skills for workers, students, teachers and parents. While the government touts progress with basic ICT skills, I think the reality on the ground tells a different story.
For teachers, pedagogical transformation is absolutely necessary. For many, their idea of remote learning is basically a teacher being filmed as they (once again) talk at the audience.
There has to be a fundamental re-calibration of content delivery and performance evaluation.
For parents, I believe that anyone seriously considering remote learning should have a parent-training program embedded within their e-learning solution to help parents adapt to the technology.
The support structure at home is the primarily the parent or guardian. If they cannot understand what the child is doing, then learning is crippled.
We have a lot of digital content available online, but:
i) the good content has no local context
ii) the local content is poor quality, most of it is a direct copy & paste of textbooks and pamphlets with no attempt to re-factor for digital learning pathways.
I believe we can chip away at these layers systematically (and many organizations already are), but we need to chip away with the awareness that technology, while being a potential catalyst for learning transformation can also become an enabler of inequality across a country, and sometimes even within the same town.
A lot of my thoughts and ideas for intervention start with the most vulnerable beneficiary: the child, deep in the village, in a hut, without electricity, internet, hardware and technical skills.
What does remote learning look like for THAT child?