DIGITAL MEDIA: FRIEND OR FOE? PRESCHOOL TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES ON LEARNING AND TEACHING ONLINE

Abstract

Teaching using a synchronous and an asynchronous online environment has become increasingly widespread across the education sector and now this process has been accelerated, temporarily or permanently, due to the Corona Virus (SARSCoV- 2) pandemic. The mass closure of nurseries, kindergartens, schools, high schools and universities has prompted the rethinking of the teaching and learning processes. Educators were forced to shift to an online mode of teaching overnight even if they did not properly feel capable to do so. Our study seeks to explore the experiences on teaching and learning online encountered by preschool teachers during their work in the context of COVID-19 physical school closure and explore the meaning of such practices in shaping in-service kindergarten educators’ perceptions of digital media and online delivery. The participants of the present study are kindergarten teachers (n=21) with a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years of teaching experience. They work with the same age group (three- to sixyear- old children), from 9 public inner-city kindergartens. By making use of a phenomenological qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews via ZOOM videotelephony software program in June 2020. After the data was recorded and transcribed, three main themes were distinguished. The key findings indicate that all the teachers experienced challenging moments while delivering online, but they were also able to identify advantages in such a stressful context. The results of the study show the need of a modernized approach to pedagogies on educational technologies and media that is driven by research informed analysis.

Keywords

• digital media
• ict
• in-service kindergarten teachers
• perceptions
• young children