What can we do to keep our schools open?


So what's preventing schools from successfully delivering teaching online?


Certainly, the government should have done more. A coordinated response and advice from DoE would have helped with this but instead they have concentrated on sharing learning resources over the internet rather than replicating the process of teaching actual lessons online.


The underlying problem is that there is a proliferation of different systems used in most schools (Google Classroom, Moodle, Edulink, Zoom etc.) They are designed to do a lot of different things which are part of a complete remote teaching solution;the problem arises in trying to tie these together when running a lesson. We have worked on ways of bridging these systems together to deliver a weekly timetable of lessons online. This enables teachers to deliver lessons, share resources and mark homework within a single system.


Are there any schools who are doing a great job of delivering learning online?


Emil Reisser-Weston Is a trained psychologist and one of the top educational technology designers in the UK specialising in work design and ergonomics. He has worked in education technology since 1993; during this time he has won several design awards and has been at the forefront of learning technologies from Artificial Intelligent to Virtual Reality. Here, we ask him for his insights on how to take teaching online.


Do you think UK schools were unprepared for the Coronavirus outbreak?


I certainly think the Department of Education was, although to be fair you have to say we were all caught out a bit. The problem was of course not unique to schools; many businesses have had to work fast to implement working from home and take meetings and conferences online. Universities have also been caught by surprise; my experience with some of the very top universities in the UK is that they were hit even worse than schools. In many cases, all lectures and exams have been cancelled for the whole of the next term.


The issue is more: ‘how do we respond?’. Schools are generally very technologically savvy with highly-qualified personnel - although this does vary, with some more technologically advanced than others. On paper, they should have no problem in switching to a virtual teaching environment.


How simple is it for a school to move their entire learning programme online?


Many industries have segued over to a virtual existence in a matter of days. I’d say my company has become more productive; since all meetings are now online, we no longer have to waste time travelling to clients’ offices.


But isn’t the business sector already set up to work online?


Most office-based businesses have been testing the waters, bringing presentations, conferences and conducting meetings online for years. Even the smallest businesses generally have a written continuity plan dealing with a disaster such as this.


It is being achieved in the UK - particularly in the independent sector - but we are talking about the tip of the iceberg in this country. Compare this with South Korea, for instance, where all schools are populated only by the teaching staff and pupils attend remotely. If they can achieve this in a short time period then so should we in the UK.


In South Korea online classes are the norm during the pandemic


Is it too late for schools to start implementing an online learning system?


I’d say to any educator out there - there is still plenty of time left in the school year. If you can’t envisage launching a full curriculum, it's still essential that an attempt is made to set-up some online lessons so that there is a contingency plan for the future. This would also introduce a cultural change, leading to an acceptance of the technology if another shutdown were to occur.


It would be a tragedy, particularly from a social equality perspective, if a selective cohort of pupils were to lose out in the event of a second lockdown later in the year.


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