With schools and other places of education having already experienced closing all around the world for a matter of months, it is now time to get back into the swing of things and catch up on all missed learning. Schools have reopened again with measures put in place to keep teachers and students safe while learning but, the spread of Covid-19 continues in the broader community, nonetheless.
With cases rising since schools and other establishments have opened, there may be a new approach to education until things begin to settle down again. In this article, we are going to discuss if remote learning will become the norm in 2020/21 and what we can expect from this.
What is Remote Learning?
Remote learning has already been carried out amidst the pandemic where school pupils have been sent work over emails and other platforms to get on with at home to keep up with learning. Things have changed slightly, and students have now been joining group calls on platforms to interact with their teacher and classmates. These platforms allow teachers and students to speak to each other as well as watch tutorials and discuss work given to give the best learning environment possible under these current circumstances.
How it is Improving?
The further we go into this pandemic; the more tools and platforms are being used and becoming essential in everyday learning. With all of these resources available it can provide the student and the teacher with a safe and supportive learning environment without being in the same room as one another. This means that learning can continue and catch up with work that has been missed already this year.
Although platforms are available now, school teachers and leaders need to work together to make remote learning better- the only way it can become the norm is with better tech like this EdTech. This technology is helping to improve remote teaching and learning as not only is it easy to use for both teachers and students but, it allows more interaction in a virtual classroom setting.
Will we See More?
With the way things are currently going and outbreaks becoming a lot more common, you can expect remote learning to become more and more likely for at least the rest of this academic year. Remote learning could increasingly become the norm, given the continued rise of Covid cases and as more tools are being put in place and there is more structure around remote learning thanks to the latest technology. Since everything happened so suddenly, no-one was able to prepare for these challenges or know the best way to deal with them but, now educators are adapting and solutions are becoming embedded in schools. If remote learning is going to become more common, there are still a lot of things that need to be developed and embedded so learning can continue from anywhere.
Benefits of Remote Learning
Due to the current situation, everyone has been advised to stay at home when possible and avoid big crowds. This of course, is almost impossible in a school environment because there are so many people in a school building at the one time. Although measures have been put in place to provide distancing “Bubbles”, it is never going to prevent 100% of cases, something we are seeing on the rise. With the spread, it is making it a lot harder to carry out school based teaching and learning because if one person in a classroom has tested positive, the full class have to isolate. If the teacher tests positive, every pupil they have been in contact with will also have to isolate and this naturally causes a lot of disruption.
With the right tools in place and a blend of interactive remote teaching, technology can help to mitigate the impact on children who are unable to attend school. This is, of course, as long as they have the right resources for self-study and technology at home. EdTech has the capability to make remote learning much more effective but this needs to be provided by the school in order to reduce the risk of the digital divide.
Keep This in Mind
With everyone focused on providing flexibility and “covid” resilience in schools, some small steps are being taken to improve education and how it is going to be carried out this year. It is hard to predict what the rest of the academic year will look like but with the right tools in place, education doesn’t have to take a big hit. We have already seen school teachers, students and leaders adapt with help from the EdTech industry. We must be prepared for any additional challenges we may face.
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