In the developed world we have become used to the benefits that internet access provides and the relative ease of being able to continue education from home while schools in most parts of the world have been closed since March. However, according to the UNICEF-ITU report “How Many Children and Youth Have Internet Access at…
Home schooling for many has been difficult, and certainly added much more pressure on parents to support their children as well as policing school hours and internet access, and ensuring that activities, such as home work, was being completed. But very occasionally one finds children (and parents) who are not egging for a return to…
Edtech has revolutionised teaching as well as learning for the last two decades, with huge advances made in the last few years as AI and gamification have been added to the variety of learning tools. The pandemic has inevitably proved the value of Edtech – without which schools would have been unable to deliver classes…
On these regular posts we have highlighted many of the obvious problems caused by Covid, effects on children, and a few positive signs for learning and teaching that have been kick-started by the pandemic. Few articles, though, have focused on the well-being of teachers, who are the most important part of the learning ecosystem. TES…
Sadly, the pandemic has taken a great toll health-wise on minorities. This has also been reflected on the educational front. In the US there have been large investments to bridge some of the digital divide (91% of US households with K–12 students have access to a device and internet access) that exists in other parts…
The only benefit from the pandemic is that education has truly taken on a digital transformation. The EC’s Digital Education Action Plan 2021–2027 has many take-aways learnt from this period. It demands that a high-performing digital education ecosystem require suitable digital equipment, infrastructure and connectivity; effective digital capacity planning and development; educators who are digitally-competent;…
We have unearthed an article from Wired 2 years ago, as the context now is even more compelling. Google had just come up with their Well-being concept. Basically, “new Android features designed to make your phone a little less addictive, even while it’s still in your pocket”. It made Google look good, but did not…
An inevitability of the pandemic is that no, or few classes, in an academic year leads to lower grades. The US is one of few countries where many schools continue to be closed since March. Despite evidence (propounded in these posts) that allowing schools to open does not impact negatively on the rate of infection,…
As an alternative to state schools – many of which are still closed due to high levels of infections with Covid – a relatively new form, Charter schools, which originated in 1974, are thriving. These are schools that are publicly funded but operated by independent groups, meaning that they don’t have to follow the same…
In the US there has been a rule of thumb governing whether schools open or close: “All schools are required to close when at least 5% of staff and students test positive for Covid-19 within a 14-day period. School districts must close if one-quarter of schools in the districts are closed due to Covid-19 cases”,…