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How Frustrating Is for Kids to Perform in a Virtual Classroom?

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

How much our kids ready to continue dealing with the online classes? How to motivate students to engage in studies virtually?

It has been six months since we confined to our homes due to the pandemic outbreak. Students are one of the victims of this pandemic where they forced to continue their studies on an online platform. On the other hand, educational institutes which were not ready and fully equipped to deal with this challenge bombarded the teachers to start planning for the virtual lessons.  Resulting in both educators and students embarked upon an ‘error and trial’ based journey where both the riders were soon faced many technological and infrastructural hurdles.

First of all, teaching in Zoom or Meet is a whole different game than the four-walled classroom teaching. Students sometimes get confused and need details elaborations of the class tasks and activities. According to 3plearning, following are some of the challenges that both teacher and students faced in a virtual platform. Continue reading “How Frustrating Is for Kids to Perform in a Virtual Classroom?” →

11 Interactive Tools for Teaching in Virtual Learning Environment

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

11 Interactive Tools for Teaching in Virtual Learning Environment

In the outbreak of a contagious pandemic, online teaching and learning become the significant educational need of the time. To reduce social contact and the spread of Covid-19, education facilities around the world are moving their instruction online. However, this drastic change also brings new challenges for academia and teaching at large. The teaching in a virtual environment is way different than a four-walled classroom teaching. Collaborative and kinaesthetic activities that teachers usually include in their lesson plans do not work in a virtual classroom. According to a survey made in March 2020 by UIO, about 74% of teachers finds that the overall transition from traditional teaching to digitization is difficult or tough due to several challenges. The top among the list is technological challenges that include digital overload, pedagogical insecurity and learning new educational technologies. Continue reading “11 Interactive Tools for Teaching in Virtual Learning Environment” →

COVID Break: Tips for Parents to Reduce Homework Frustration

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

COVID Break: Tips for Parents to Reduce Homework Frustration

Due to COVID 19, our lives are now confined to our homes except for security and healthcare workers who are front liners to keep us safe and sound. However, this new era of social distancing also redefines the concept of schooling and open up the limitless space and need for E-Learning. Recently, many students, as well as their parents, shared their frustration and the struggling, they have gone through with the home tasks they’re receiving on a daily basis. Being a teacher and part of that VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) setup, I would completely agree and understand their level of frustration. The schoolwork has now become homework and navigating being a parent, who also may have to teach, is difficult.

Recently, I attended a webinar arranged and hosted by Huntington Learning Centre (a franchise of educational learning centres in the United States offering in-centre and online tutoring services) discussing tips for parents and some basic strategies to cope with the hype of daily school work given by schools these days. Continue reading “COVID Break: Tips for Parents to Reduce Homework Frustration” →

Digital Well-being Guidelines for Parents during the Height of Pandemic

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

Digital Well-being Guidelines for Parents during the Height of Pandemic

Since the spread of Covid-19, technology is becoming the primary source of communication among people around the Globe. However, this sudden increase in technology usage, either in the form of a laptop or cellphone, also increases the need for the digital guidelines to provide a healthy and safe digital environment. Recently, Centre for Humane Technology (CHT) has provided a list of guidelines that will help parents who are feeling overwhelmed trying to navigate the amount of technology used in their children’s lives and their own.

In any circumstances, we should be aware that many of these products are actually not on your side. The social media platforms that many parents and children use everyday profit by keeping us scrolling, clicking, and watching. The result is a system that creates addiction, self-obsession, misinformation, and content that outrages and polarizes. Children are experiencing some of the worst effects of this broken attention economy. Continue reading “Digital Well-being Guidelines for Parents during the Height of Pandemic” →

The Best VLE Solution: Google Classroom – ‘How to Setup’ Guide for Teachers

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

The Best VLE Solution: Google Classroom – How to Setup Guide for Teachers

Recently, many teachers and colleagues asked me about the best Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) platforms that are presently available for us to connect with our students. Since the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic, many schools and educational institutes are shifted to distant learning and technology suddenly become the only source of connectivity between teachers and students. Likewise, considering the need of the time, many VLE provider starts making necessary changes in the online modular platform and making it more user friendly. However, not every VLE platform can provide 100% classroom Learning Management System (LMS) solution. I already wrote an article that discusses some of these platforms that can be used to teach students remotely.

Also, Read | The Online Discussion Boards – A Classroom Pedagogical Tool | How to Use Guide | Pros & Cons

However, in this article, I am going to discuss one of the VLE/LMS platforms, if planned and implemented cohesively, can provide maximum learning and teaching solutions to teachers.

Google Classroom is a free web service, developed by Google for schools, that aims to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments in a paperless way. Initially, the primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. However, Google for Education has included several new features in the Google Classroom platform, including the function of Google Meet to interact with students in real-time in web conference mode.

This makes Google Classroom a unique platform compares to other products available like Piazza, Canvas or blackboard etc. This following guide will show you how to set up a Google Classroom in a matter of minutes and perform the main tasks.

Let’s get started! Continue reading “The Best VLE Solution: Google Classroom – ‘How to Setup’ Guide for Teachers” →