How to homeschool your child

Now that classes have been suspended to prevent the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19, many parents have had to take up the work that teachers do every day and homeschool their children. Here are some tips on how to get the best out of studying at home with your kids.

Education Otherwise, the primary English home-schooling organisation, describes two core approaches: structured or autonomous. Structured learning follows the school day and curriculum; and there is a solid argument that, since you intend for your children to go back to school and the school will give you materials (all primary and secondary schools are making plans to this effect), this is the way to go.

If you are of an autonomous bent, that is also legitimate. Your children are unlikely to get hopelessly behind.

Adopting a structured approach benefits the child immensely. Start every morning with a timetable and stick to your timings. Use language such as “now” and “next”. For younger children, you can build in very clear timings such as 10 minutes’ reading followed by 10 minutes’ Lego, role playing, chase games or exercises.

For ages five to eight, this is the hardest age to do yourself. Whether you have one, two or three under-fives, all those situations are uniquely challenging (loneliness, squabbling or constant squabbling).

On the plus side, a lot of the formal learning requirements are things you would do instinctively: communication and language development; fine motor movements; large movements and coordination; reading and writing; counting and adding; shape, space and measures; and expressive arts and design. There is a section on understanding – the world, people and communities, technology – and, sincerely, where would any of us start? The challenges in this age group will be around letting off steam, especially if you can’t leave the house, not being able to socialise, especially for a child without siblings, maintaining concentration, especially your own, and mess.

Keep your timetable realistic. You will not conclude a slime-making session in less than an hour; you will probably not spend more than 10 minutes at a go, reading. Make as much use of your garden as you can (for communication, all motor skills, understanding the world). In the pre- or only just-verbal age group, it’s hard to explain what’s going on in a reassuring way; you can download a really good, illustrated booklet here.

Go to https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/mar/21/try-to-minimise-stress-how-to-home-school-your-child to read more.

Tip on how to use Zoom

Zoom offers robust collaboration and engagement tools as part of its standard free license, including the ability to connect using VoIP or via traditional phone when internet is not available. Administrators, teachers, parents, and students also have access to:

• Unlimited meetings for up to 100 participants • HD audio and video • Screen sharing • Whiteboarding • Annotation • Breakout Rooms • Virtual backgrounds • In-meeting chat • Local recording • Nonverbal feedback

For organisations requiring a more robust feature set and administrative control, Zoom’s Education plan provides the above capabilities and more at a low cost, including:

• Unlimited meetings for up to to 300 participants • Single sign-on (SSO) • LTI integration to support most LMS platforms • Enhanced user management to add, delete, and assign add-on features • Advanced admin controls for enabling/disabling recording, chat, and notifications • 500 MB of cloud recording • Cloud recording transcription • Usage reports to track participation

Here are some additional online resources to help you most effectively use Zoom for virtual education:

Live Zoom training daily: These include sessions specifically highlighting Zoom Meetings for Education (Students & Educators), focusing on using Zoom Meetings as your classroom setting. Zoom Webinar training is also available.

Recorded Zoom training: Watch previously recorded sessions on demand and at your convenience. Several are in German, Japanese, and Korean, in addition to English.

Here are some additional online resources for educators:

Outschool, a marketplace for live online classes, has made available Free Remote Teacher Training Webinars demonstrating how to adapt teaching practices and curriculum to a live video chat classroom. These webinars are led by Outschool’s experienced teachers who have transitioned from in-person to online teaching.

Instructional platform Nearpod is temporarily offering free online learning access to schools impacted by closures. Access includes live weekly webinars, a guide to using Nearpod for distance learning, and lessons on the coronavirus to keep students, teachers, and parents informed.

For more details, go to https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/06/how-to-use-zoom-for-online-learning/

Students getting prepared for future jobs

Our workplaces will be vastly different because of ever-increasingly sophisticated technology driven by, amongst other things, artificial intelligence. This means traditional jobs may go to make way for new kinds of jobs. Post-secondary institutions across the country say they are working to prepare students for jobs that may not even exist yet.

Climate change, data science and cybersecurity are in the spotlight at Canadian universities as they adapt their offerings to address the needs not only of a changing marketplace but of a changing society.

A research paper released in 2018 showed half of Canadian jobs will be affected by automation in the next decade, and so-called “human skills” such as critical thinking and problem solving will be key to remaining competitive and resilient in an era of disruption and artificial intelligence.

The study conducted by RBC Economics found Canada’s education system is inadequately designed to help young people navigate the new skills economy. It recommended ensuring every undergrad has the opportunity for an apprenticeship, internship, co-op or other “experiential placement” before graduation.

Universities, however, say they are constantly working with faculty, experts and industry leaders to make sure students are prepared for the changing economic and labour landscape.

Susan McCahan, vice-provost of academic programs at the University of Toronto, says so-called “future-proofing” is a complex process that involves more than just creating new degrees and programs.

It also involves rethinking existing curricula around future career trends, particularly in fields with major exposure to artificial intelligence, she said, offering the example of pharmacies.

“They are imagining that within a fairly short time frame here, the work that pharmacists do will be really vastly different … than what we experience right now,” McCahan said.

While some traditional programs get an overhaul, a slew of new programs have also surfaced in recent years as institutions aim to address what they see as significant and emerging needs in society and the workforce.

Toronto’s York University, for example, recently unveiled a new disaster and emergency management program it says is the first of its kind in Canada, saying incidents like the 2016 wildfire evacuation in

Alberta demonstrate a pressing demand for qualified experts in the field.

Collaboration is also needed in coming up with new courses to prepare students for the issues they will face in the workplace, she said.

For more details, go to www.thesudburystar.com/news/national/automation-climate-change-ai-schools-prepping-students-for-jobs-of-the-future