Following a local COVID-19 outbreak in May, schools nationwide adopted the approach of “suspending classes without suspending learning,” offering synchronous or asynchronous online instruction. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” theory, after a person’s material needs are fulfilled, spiritual needs can be pursued, and the theory is applicable to online instruction, too. Without additional staff for backup support, a slew of problems could affect online teaching, and more seriously, online teaching could threaten the effectiveness of offline teaching. While providing the hardware to students, they should also improve the quality of online instruction. Otherwise, despite the good intentions of the free tablet policy, no one would benefit from it, and this is not something that the public would want to happen.

Source: Taipei Times December 17, 2021 16:53 UTC