Technology and learning: how skills change in the time of COVID-19

Alone, no longer surrounded by classmates.

At our house, no longer sitting at the classroom benches, or in a laboratory.

In front of a computer, no longer in front of the teacher's eyes.

The isolation imposed by the directives to combat COVID-19 has changed university teaching, distorting study habits and learning methods; a necessary challenge, not chosen, which can stimulate us to find new solutions to achieve our goals, enhancing some skills. We talked about it with Dr. Valentina Tobia, School and Education Psychologist, researcher in developmental psychology at UniSR.

Let's think about executive functions, those cognitive processes that guide the implementation of complex behaviors aimed at a purpose: inhibition, which allows us to keep at bay the interference of information not relevant to the achievement of our objectives; planning, which consists of the ability to organize the steps to achieve a goal; cognitive flexibility, which leads us to change the scheme of action based on feedback received or contextual changes. Following lessons from home means having to inhibit as many distractions as possible. In addition, the rhythms of study are generally imposed from the "outside", having to fit time to move from one place to another, lesson time, time of leisure activities, while now we have to plan the time of full day mostly on our own, creating new routines, setting study goals and organizing to achieve them, coordinating remote work with solitary study. All this, flexibly adapting to the new requests that come to us from this unprecedented context of life.

Even the most refractory people are forced to download new apps and learn how to use them, try sharing tools, take lessons on their computer screen. Again, communication changes. Even with video support, non-verbal communication channels, such as posture, gestures, facial expressions that accompany speech, are less accessible than in person; think of the recorded lessons, where the communication is deferred and sometimes only in audio format. We learn to communicate in a new way, and to learn from new channels.

All those tools that were once an option are now a necessity, and we find ourselves acquiring new skills to achieve the study objectives. Some of these may remain in our future habits, becoming part of a new study method.