Education Opinion


Integrating home schooling with traditional education


With reports of locked down school kids likely to fall behind their peers when schools return to normal, Bryan Denyer looks at integrated learning provision at home and in school. And at what the edtech pro- viders of classroom solutions doing to ease the transition?


In a recent AV News podcast, Promethean offered its support for parents and carers trying to support those learning at home: “Education constantly faces change. But never before have schools had to adapt to such rapidly evolving circumstances. With remote learning set to be- come the new norm for many, finding ways to support stu- dents and maintain some level of continuity will no doubt be a challenge. Now, we know that nothing can replace the teach- er at the front of the classroom. But right now, it’s simply not an option for many. So, what can we do instead? For start- ers, if you use ActivInspire in the classroom, you can also use it to deliver lessons remotely,” said a Promethean statement. Promethean explained how Access ActivInspire could be used to access resources and prepare lessons at home: “If you already have ActivInspire downloaded to your PC, you’re good to go. You can browse, edit and share flipcharts from home. If you are a teacher, you can Use the ActivInspire Screen Recorder to deliver and record your lesson at home. Re- cord your voice and actions on the screen to talk your students through the key learning points as if you were in the class- room with them. Then simply save the recorded flipchart as a video file to share with your students via Google Classroom, OneNote, your school’s LMS…


post the video to any of your school’s preferred platforms,” continued the statement. For teachers, Promethean explained there’s no need to spend time creating a com- pletely new suite of lesson re- sources, all your existing flip- charts can easily be converted into a video lesson. And the screen recording functionality is not limited to flipcharts… ActivInspire Screen Record- er will work with any desktop or computer application – so if your existing lessons are in PowerPoint or you want to discuss text in Word or calcu- lations in Excel… you can still create these video lessons with ActivInspire.”


For the student, the advan- tage is that of continuity in ed- ucation provision, minimising the disruption in teach style and content.


“Keeping the tribe learning” As another leading edtech provider, Clevertouch was also keen to step up to the plate: “We get it. Most of us, if not all of us have never expe- rienced a situation like this in our lifetimes. Some of us are parents who are faced with a new challenge - how to occupy and develop young minds while on lockdown.”


“Here at Clevertouch, we want to help! We have turned to our education specialists, all of whom are former teachers, and have created a brand-new feature, Learn at Home.”


“Gareth Middleton and Ryan Stapleton who switched careers to become Clevertouch


zes and games.” tech


ambassadors, have gone the extra mile, using their teaching experience to create short vid-


The content has been general- ly week received, even if some reviewers have been sceptical about the reliance on celebri- ties and their teaching capa-


“With schools across the UK closing amid new coronavirus measures, parents have been faced with the dilemma of how to maintain a routine, while keeping their kids’ brains ac-


giving disadvantaged children the literacy skills they need to succeed. • Tutorful can help you to find a tutor who can teach your chil- dren online if you want a struc- tured way for your kids to carry on learning. • Tassomai allows kids to take courses in science online and you can monitor their progress weekly. • Duolingo is available as an app and online, helping you to learn new languages whether you’re a beginner or have pre- vious experience.


Widening the gap?


eo lessons specifically suited to children aged 3 to 11.” “Featuring Gareth and Ryan themselves, these fun inter- active educational videos are there to provide parents with ways to keep kids busy and entertained and will provide a platform for learning that your tribe can get involved with be- yond the end of the sessions.” Every day, we will be releasing new educational videos to keep you and your tribe busy. Keep checking our web page for our latest content: Clevertouch. com/learnathome #Learnath- ome


From our tribe to yours, stay safe, and stay home,” said Clevertouch.


Other options


As leading providers of the ma- jority of classroom solutions it clearly makes sense for Pro- methean and Clevertouch to be involved in providing solutions for remote learning that provide continuity. But education is a discipline in which everybody with even a tangential link feels they have a right to make a con- tribution, with participants in- cluding broadcasters, national newspapers and innumerable independent software and con- tent publishers.


The BBC, for example, offers: “daily lessons for home school- ing in Maths and English for every year group, as well as reg- ular lessons in Science, Histo- ry, Geography and more.” “The Corporation explains that: The home schooling lessons have been created with teachers and other educational experts and feature a mix of videos, anima- tions, practice activities, quiz-


P12 AV News November 2019 P10 AV News May 2020


bilities: “Overall then, marks out of 10 for BBC Bitesize Daily, from the staff and pu- pils of OKT Primary? Well, we were very disappointed about Agüero not coming. Also Dyer, David Attenborough, Jodie Whitaker, Liam Payne, all the starry names being shouted at the launch. What’s wrong with these people, don’t they know that the first rule of teaching is to arrive on time?” commented reviewer Sam Wollaston “But, hey, maybe the class- room doesn’t need celebrities. The material is fab. If Sergio does show up, if he could just turn round, so everyone can see the number on his back … Yup, that’ll be a big fat diez,” he concluded.


The Nationals Almost


every during major the media


outlet and some local gov- ernment bodies have made a contribution to education pro- vision


lockdown.


Myriam Toua of express.co.uk commented: “Home schooling children can be tough, espe- cially for parents who are not teachers or education profes- sionals. Some head teachers have called for schools to make up for lost time by repeating the summer term and think this is the perfect opportunity for educational establishments to push for a “fresh start” for students. Express.co.uk has ev- erything you need to keep your children motivated and wanting to do their schoolwork.” Local authorities’ relationship with schools has given them an advisory role to parents in the lockdown. This is from Somer- set:


tive and learning from home. Parents are also now faced with the real possibility that they and their children will be spending a lot more time to- gether, with this isolation pos- sibly even lasting for several months.” Now, Studee, an education- al organisation helping to find international students universi- ty places, have put together a list of the best Online and App resources for kids of a variety of ages, who are staying home from school. Some are free while others require a paid sub- scription, so it’s up to you if you want to fork out.”


Independents


EdPlace is one of the indepen- dent providers of education resources. As is IXL. with its family memberships designed to help families and students stay engaged and keep learn- ing—whether in the classroom or out. You'll reveal a com- plete picture of what your child knows, and the best next steps for filling gaps and charging ahead!”


There are literally dozens of these things: • Twinkle is said to be great for parents who are going to be at home and want to help children with their learning through on- line resources.


• Activity Village offers free resource packs to help to keep children occupied - great for younger children.


• Maths Chase is said to make learning fun and helps children gain confidence in a fun and engaging way. • The Literacy Trust is an inde- pendent charity dedicated to


Some of these resources might be excellent, others les so. The problem is we are asking par- ents to curate their own com- bination of content resources, with limited knowledge or ex- perience of modern education- al methods. Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools, is concerned that home school- ing, because of the coronavirus crisis, will widen the gap in performance between low and high achievers, and between students from disadvantaged backgrounds and their more af- fluent peers.


Figures released by the De- partment for Education (DfE) last week showed less than 1 per cent of pupils in England were attending schools being run by skeleton staff. Only 5 per cent of pupils classified as “children in need” and used to getting special support were turning up. The Ofsted chief told the Commons Education Committee on Monday that var- ious learning gaps were going to be exacerbated as the vast majority of families keep their children at home.


Ofsted is collaborating with


the DfE to help local councils identify vulnerable pupils who may need extra help. Some 230 Ofsted staff are now work- ing with 40 of the poorest-per- forming


councils to contact


families and offer support for online learning. The DfE has also announced that £12m will be spent on projects to reduce the increased risk some chil- dren and young people are fac- ing as they stay at home. Hope- fully, some of this budget will be used to establish standards in the largely unregulated sec- tor of home schooling.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16