Some examples of how the pandemic is affecting education and ways forward

Some examples of
how the pandemic is
affecting education
and ways forward
Katerina Zourou, Ph.D.
Web2Learn, Greece
Web2Learn.eu @web2learn_eu
Webinar on online teaching, 27th April, 4th & 7th May 2020, organized
by Prof. Konstantinos Petridis, Hellenic Mediterranean University
http://petridischania.hmu.gr/webinar/

Katerina Zourou, Web2Learn
Researcher in open, social and
digital learning
Advocate of open access, open
science and citizen science
Webinar on online teaching, 27th April, 4th & 7th May 2020 2

Talk outline
• The pandemic: a snapshot of the global impact on education
• Impact on ordinary teaching activities
• Initiatives taken by educators in response to the new reality
• The pandemic as a learning opportunity – example of the EUvsVirus
hackathon
3

COVID-19 Educational Disruption
N° of learners enrolled at pre-primary, primary, lower-secondary, upper-secondary levels & tertiary education levels. Based on latest
data from UNESCO Institute for Statistics 4

Webinar on online teaching, 27th April, 4th & 7th May 2020
Data and
resources
aggregated
for Europe
5

An overview of the current situation
Source: UNESCO Chair in Community-based Research and Social Responsibility of Higher Education (2020),
https://twitter.com/UNESCOchairCBR
6

Impact on ordinary teaching activities
Teaching and learning routines severely disrupted
Efforts to mitigate the immediate impact of school closures and to
facilitate the continuity of education for all through remote learning.
Governments are now setting up virtual classrooms and collaboration
platforms at incredible speed.
• Which learning platforms to use?
• How to aid teachers in implementing online learning?
• How to reach those with little or no internet access at home?
7

Some advice from the EU’s Eurydice service
Some answers to questions such as:
• What are the advantages of 100 % online
synchronous learning? And the disadvantages?
• Are students able to develop a sense of community
through online synchronous communication?
• How do you keep students’ motivation?
• How do you set the stage for successful interaction?
• How do you organise your lessons from a practical
point of view?
• Etc.
8

New roles and skills for educators?
Agility, resilience…
• Ability to cope with unknown technologies within a short timeframe
(videoconference systems, LMS, etc.)
[Disadvantage: digital literacy; agility not natural for everyone]
• Ability to cope with learners
• Ability to act as teachers/mentors to new target groups
=> The pandemic as a learning opportunity?
9

…can educators be engaged in social action by
bringing more value with their skills and background?
(civic engagement can also take the form of donations (example: WHO) or
crowdfunding (example: world’s largest open-source library of Coronavirus
tools and data)
10

Initiatives taken by educators in response to the
new reality
UNESCO learning
cities’ response
to COVID-19
Examples of how
some cities
managed to
ensure that
learning does not
stop during the
pandemic
11

Webinar in online teaching, 27th April, 4th & 7th of May 2020
Example of the pandemic as a learning opportunity
EUvsVirus hackathon
12

Some statistics
• 21,000 participants
• 140 nationalities
• 27 countries
• 23 languages
• 600+ corporate partners
• 1,400 mentors
• 400 jury members
Responsible for finding over 2,000 solutions to address
coronavirus-related challenges
13

Why should educators be interested?
“Remote working and Education” among the 6 categories of
Challenges to be addressed
14

Category “Remote working and education”
Solutions targeting several subcategories:
• E-Learning methods & tools
• Efficient remote working
• Primary and secondary school specific challenges
• University specific challenges
• Student challenges
• Family life during remote working & education
15
https://euvsvirus.org/results/ for results (platforms,
applications, blended solutions) by subcategory

Acting as a mentor to the hackathon-
Some reflections to share on educators’ roles
16

Added value for an educator?
• Getting involved in collective action for a social purpose
(fighting coronavirus) with expertise in how educational
solutions can be best shaped (domain expert)
• Getting involved with expertise in tutoring/coaching, helping
someone to achieve learning goals: e.g. the pedagogical
dimension of the educator’s job (methodology expert)
=>A double asset for educators
17

Disadvantage
• Number of hackathons including education-related Challenges
relatively small (the majority focus on health, business continuity
and digital finance)
BUT perhaps this is an opportunity to push for bigger
representation of education related issues in policy debates
about coronavirus
See also parallel claims from stakeholders in the Cultural domain
(often excluded from discussions about the pandemic in daily life)
18

Links
• European Union, April 29, 2020. What has the covid-19 crisis taught us about online teaching?
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/what-has-covid-19-crisis-taught-us-about-online-
teaching_en
• EUvsVirus hackathon https://euvsvirus.org/
• EUvsVirus statistics https://euvsvirus.org/statistics/
• UNESCO Learning Cities https://en.unesco.org/news/covid-19-learning-cities-front-line and YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLivu_GCiL2mjYQOp64hcvzGNsC75QKSLw
• UNESCO’s COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/
• European Union April 21, 2020: Impact of Covid-19 on closure of education systems in Europe
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/news/impact-covid-19-closure-education-systems-in-europe_en
• WHO donation : COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-
coronavirus-2019/donate
• The world’s largest open-source library of Coronavirus tools and data
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/coronavirustechhandbook
19

Some examples of how the pandemic is affecting education and ways forward

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