Schools leverage technology to begin the new academic session amidst Coronavirus lockdown

The Coronavirus lockdown has forced offices and schools to shut down. A lot of office goers have turned to online collaboration tools to help them work from home. The same tools are now enabling schools to begin the new academic session as well.

Dhirubhai Ambani International School recently began conducting online classes for its students using Microsoft Teams. Apeejay Schools in Faridabad are using Zoom to facilitate online classes for their students. Elsewhere in the country too, schools are following suit in order to minimize the loss of studies and keeping the students gainfully engaged.

Attendance is marked

Using video conferencing tools, teachers and students meet online. Teachers use presentations to explain the concept to the students. They also mark the attendance of the students present. This attendance counts towards their overall classroom attendance for the academic session.

Time table to accommodate all subjects

Much like a physical classroom, online classes are conducted according to a time table, which is shared with the students in advance. Students have a full schedule with time allocated for all subjects. Once the online class is over, teachers share their presentations, learning materials and YouTube links via WhatsApp broadcast groups. They also send out the homework that the students must complete before attending the class next day.

Dance, paint, draw and sing

Apart from study-related material, teachers also send out clippings from newspapers for students to read. Schools are also ensuring that their students continue to engage in arts, drawing, painting, music, dance and so forth. They are conducting online dance classes, which the students (as well as parents or anyone interested) can register for using the registration link shared via the WhatsApp broadcast groups. Drawing and painting teachers share pictures of the painting along with the step-by-step procedure.

Schools are even conducting online parent-teacher meeting (PTMs) to facilitate interactions between the parents and teachers, so parents can keep a tab on their wards' progress.

Overcoming the challenges

Schools are efficiently leveraging technology and using collaboration tools to ensure students continue to learn while staying safe at home.

Schools are making enormous efforts to mirror the offline classes on to the virtual world. In this quest, they are also facing many challenges - the biggest being training the teachers to use technology.

Much before the start of the new session, schools organized training sessions for the teachers to help them familiarize themselves with the chosen online collaboration tools and making online presentations.

Technology now child's play

Now that students, as young as those in class 1, have begun using technology for learning, it is probably safe to say, technology is now child's play.

The article has been written by Neetu Katyal, Content and Marketing Consultant

She can be reached on LinkedIn.