As schools around the world deal with the uncertainty of COVID-19 now and into the future, blended learning environments are crucial for maintaining productive classrooms. With the right mix of electronic and traditional face-to-face teaching, schools can ensure they’re agile and able to adapt to unexpected events at a moment’s notice for uninterrupted education.
Here in Australia, we’ve seen blended learning driving technology investments in schools nationwide, particularly in the face of disruptions resulting from lockdowns and quarantine. And let’s not forget, a global pandemic isn’t the only thing that causes interruptions.
Unpredictable weather events including floods and fires, and the prevalence of seasonal illnesses, are also variables that may contribute to a student’s absence from your physical campus. Facilitating blended learning environments means that when students and teachers are forced to stay at home, learning can keep moving forward.
To overcome the uncertainties of today and tomorrow, it’s important that you’re leveraging technology to bring modern classrooms to students regardless of where they are. If your classrooms are equipped for blended learning, any students that can’t make it to school can still be part of class.
What goes into a blended learning environment?
We’ve helped many schools implement the necessary technologies to deliver blended learning. If you can, try and visualise this.
- A classroom with 22 students in groups of four desk blocks located throughout the middle of the room.
- There are two more students dialing in from home because they are currently awaiting COVID-19 test results.
- The teacher is standing at the front of the class with an all-in-one digital whiteboard.
- At the back of the class sits another interactive panel that also has an intuitive facial tracking camera attached to it. This camera follows the teacher as they move freely between the digital whiteboard and the wider classroom.
- The two students at home are logged on to the devices they purchased through the school’s Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program brought to you by HP and Intel®, following the teacher’s every word as if they were in the classroom.
This is what a classroom equipped for blended learning looks like, and how you can bring the classroom to your students regardless of whether or not they’re at school. Is your school set up to handle the uncertainties of today and into the future?
If you would like more information about setting up your classrooms for blended learning, speak to one of our Education Specialists today.
Speak with an Education Specialist
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