CAPE Communication Studies IA

Topic: The Impact of Technology on the education system of Trinidad &Tobago during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Theme: The effects of online learning on students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Candidate Name: Gloria Samaroo

Candidate Number: 1601680683

School: El Dorado East Secondary

Subject: Communication Studies

Year of Examination: 2021

Teacher: Miss. Raphael

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 Table of Contents

Contents Page Numbers

Preface………………………………………………………………………………………….….4

Reflection…………………………………………………………………………………….….5-7

Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………8

Bibliography...…………………………………………………………………………………9-11

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 General Introduction

This portfolio focuses on the theme” The impact of technology on the education system in
Trinidad and Tobago during the COVID-19 pandemic”. This portfolio aims to investigate the
impact of technology during the pandemic on the education system.
In the Exposition segment of this portfolio, the researcher will address the problems and
challenges faced by students as a result of online learning. In addition, the researcher will include
more information on the subject in the reflection section.
The researcher chose to do this topic for many factors, one of which is the topic concerns the
academic interest of the researcher, as the researcher is currently studying Information
Technology. This would be valuable, as prior knowledge of this subject can help to complete this
study. Another factor for choosing this theme is that the researcher saw a close friend affected by
school closures and transitioning to online learning, firmly believes that this problem should be
taken into account, as there is no guarantee that the pandemic will soon end. Lastly, the
researcher aspires to be an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) business analyst
and has chosen this particular topic as it is relevant to the desired field of work.

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 Preface

The reflective piece takes the form of a play which is entitled “Withstanding the virus”, the
purpose of the play is to give an insight through students to understand how the pandemic has
affected them. The play will exhibit the thoughts, plots and emotions, so anyone reading can
relate to the characters. This piece will demonstrate effects of online learning through the
perspectives of three students when the pandemic emerged. This piece is intended for a specific
targeted audience of students, teachers and members of the education sector since it depicts how
the pandemic has affected students learning abilities as a result of the recent shift to an online
learning platform, allowing fellow students to connect to the characters and teachers to gain
insight into how online classes affect students.

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 Reflection

Title: “Withstanding the virus”

Script:
It was a bright afternoon, and three girls were walking to Mario’s from school down a long and
narrow road to celebrate the end of exams. The three girls arrived at Mario's pizzeria and took a
seat.
Kai: (sigh of relief) Oh lawd, I tired that walk was rell long boi but at least Mock exams finally
finish yes I could go home and sleep in meh bed.
Tanisha: yea girl fuh real eh, hear nah alyuh I going in the wash room and come back okay
meanwhile yall order nah I just want ah loaded fries.
Tanisha walks towards the bathroom.
Gabriella: I will go and order since kai tired, haha. What you want?
Kai: True eh that walk bun mi out and well I want ah small pizza.
Gabriella: Okay well I’ll be back
Kai: Okies, well I going to watch the tv in here in the meantime
Gabriella walks away from the table to the counter.
On Television
Breaking news, the honorable prime minister announced that the country now has five active
cases of the novel coronavirus and is ordering the closure of schools for a week.
Tanisha and Gabriella returned to the table after a few minutes.
Kai: Yall won’t believe this what I just saw on the news, the government closing schools for ah
week as covid cases rising.
Gabriella: (Shocked) Waysss, I doh believe inno
Tanisha: (Smiling) Oh lawd, you for real that’s rell good boi we goh get to rest after all this
work we get in school to do and more time to study fuh exams.

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Kai: I know right, and we could get to sleep in to.
Gabriella: (Shakes head) well yes girl, best we go home yes as them cases spreading to be safe.
Tanisha: (Stands up) For real eh.
The girls collected their food, walked out of the restaurant and travelled home.
After a week passed, the closure of schools was extended as the cases of the virus was
continuously rising, a lockdown was initiated in an effort to curb the spread. Following the
extension of school closures, the education system concluded that it would be better for students
to move from schooling in classrooms to online learning.
Meanwhile on a WhatsApp group chat, the three girls continued to converse during their
quarantine.
Gabriella: Omg yall, I can’t believe we have to do online school ugh.
Kai: When I heard that I wanted to cry. I fed up of being home dawg.
Tanisha: I don’t really have ah laptop and thing for that nah.
Gabriella: Well I don’t even know what zoom and thing is so. I don’t know what I going to do.
Kai: Well we goh see what goh happen yes yall.
Gabriella: Okay yes, we going to push through this.
Kai: Well yea, we goh talk later.
Tanisha: Ight, later.
Gabriella: Bye.
Two weeks later…
Tanisha: Dawg I hate online school thing boi, ugh I want to go back normal school yes
Gabriella: Yes, it is too confusing and difficult.
Kai: I could relate yes I can’t keep up with the amount ah assignments these teacher’s giving we
boi nah.
Gabriella: and not much teachers having online classes. Some of them ain’t even reach out to
us.
Kai: Facts, only two teacher’s message me about online classes. I doh know wat going with
them in school nah.
Tanisha: Same dawg.
Gabriella: True and this is really stressing me out.
Kai: Oh god girl, same I fed up.

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Tanisha: Yall want to do zoom sessions for math and English as that is two subjects the three of
us studying together and well as csec exams coming up.
Kai: Yea I doh mind.
Gabriella: Yes, cause I ain’t really learning much.
Tanisha: Okay well I guess it is settled then. We could plan out days to do it.
Gabriella: Yes, I agree.
Kai: Same yes, that way at least we goh be able to properly plan for exams.
Gabriella: Yes, and also is the fact that cxc say how they are going to give us paper 1’s instead
of the paper 2. When since form four we were preparing for paper 2’s.
Kai: when I had hear that I was happy inno, I thought ways boi we get through as them paper 1’s
is multiple choice but then them could ask you all kinda questions in that multiple choice to.
Tanisha: Same but we goh have the zoom sessions and use the mcq’s in the textbook and do
topics that a bit difficult. We goh get through it man.
Kai: I hope so.
Gabriella: Same yes.
On September 18th, 2020, The day results were released.
Gabriella: OMG YALL, I got 7 passes.
Tanisha: Me too, I am so happy.
Kai: OML same, I rell happy for yall as well.
Tanisha: See, look we got through this and succeeded.
Gabriella: Yes, we did it.

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 Analysis

The reflective piece is a play titled, “Withstanding the virus”, " depicts three girls' perspectives
on the covid-19 virus and some of the implications they have encountered as a result of the virus
and online learning. In order for the play to resonate with the other students and for members of
the education system to see how online learning effects students, the writer uses a language
register and dialectal variations.
There is one language register used in the play that is casual, which depicts language used
between friends that is mostly very relaxed and concentrated on simply getting the information
out and the use of Slang is often used by the characters in the play.
Within the play also contains different variations of dialect used by the three girls. Acrolect (this
is purely standard English), which was portrayed when Gabriella was talking to her friends and
she said: “Yes girl, it is too confusing and difficult.” and another is Mesolect (which is
substandard English or a combination of standard English and creole) this was evident in this
sentence where Tanisha said “Oh lawd, you for real that’s rell good boi we goh get to rest after
all this work we get in school to do and more time to study fuh exams.”.
To conclude, the researcher has effectively completed their investigation into the effects of
technology on the education system in Trinidad and Tobago during the COVID-19 pandemic,
which was seen in the context of E-Learning and the transition from a classroom to online
learning platforms, as well as how it impacted students, as depicted in the reflective piece
through the use of language registers and dialectal variation. The researcher gained a deeper
understanding and insight into online learning, the different platforms used for online learning
and the impact of this type of learning on students through this investigation.

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 Bibliography

Articles
I. COVID-19 and Trinidad and Tobago education’s digital divide, 8th May 2020, Amilcar
Sanatan https://globalvoices.org/2020/05/08/covid-19-and-trinidad-and-tobago-
educations-digital-divide/

II. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever, 29th April 2020, Cathy Li &
Farah Lalani https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-
covid19-online-digital-learning/

Questionnaire
This questionnaire was put together to aid a lower six student with their Communication Studies
Internal Assessment (IA). The information gathered from this questionnaire would be
confidential and only used for the sole purpose of this IA. It would be of great help if you answer
the questions truthfully and to the best of your ability.
Thank you for your assistance.

1. What is your age?

2. What is your gender?

3. What Form/ Std are you in?

4. Do you have a computer/Laptop?

5. Do you have Internet/ Wifi connection at Home?

6. What online platform do you used to access classes?

☐Zoom

☐Google Classroom

☐Microsoft Teams

☐Discord

☐Edmodo

7. Are you familiar with these tools in online learning?

8. How has the pandemic affected you as a student?

9. Is learning online as effective as compared to face-to-face classes?

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☐No

10. Do you have sufficient equipment and facilities (computer/laptop/Internet) to participate for
online lectures.
☐Yes
☐ No

11. Do you have computer knowledge and IT skills to manage your online learning.

☐Yes

☐ No

12. Did you get any guidelines (e.g. how to use relevant online tools) before starting online
lectures by your teacher?

☐Yes

☐ No

13. Do you find online tools are easy to use?

☐Yes

☐ No

14. Are you frustrated and lack of interest in learning while being in lockdown?

☐Yes

☐ No

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