Several educational institutions in Lucknow have switched to virtual classrooms amid the lockdown over rising novel coronavirus (Covid-19) cases.
For instance, City Montessori School (CMS) has adopted e-learning for its students to compensate for days missed due to the lockdown.
CMS is using the Google Classroom platform, a free web service that aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way.
“Google Classroom is an easy platform for students to access lessons, study materials and submit assignments shared by their teachers. It is a versatile application that can be used on a desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile phone. It is convenient for both students and teachers,” said Geeta Kingdon, president of CMS.
Each teacher and student has been provided with a unique email id to log in to Google Classroom and access study materials. The school’s information technology department carried out a Google Classroom refresher course for all the teachers after Holi as the authorities anticipated closure over the Covid-19 scare.
Hemant Kumar, father of Annanya Verma, a grade three student of CMS’s Gomti Nagar Campus, said that her daughter was getting regular lessons and assignments from her teachers. “Annanya has learnt how to use Google Classroom well,” he said.
Shilpa Arora, mother of Anwita, a class five student of the CMS’s Gomti Nagar campus, expressed satisfaction as her daughter’s time was being productively utilised, despite the lockdown. “Anwita learns her lessons and completes her daily assignments. Initially, she found it a little difficult to access online resources, but she got a lot of support from her teacher. Now, she can do it easily,” Arora said.
City International School’s students are following a daily timetable of two to five hours of home study. “The timetable includes brushing up of spoken English in front of a mirror, experiential learning and doing worksheets designed as self-learning lessons, Google Hangout webinars and assignments posted on Google Classroom,” said Sunita Gandhi, director, City International School.
Online learning is the best way to educate children, who otherwise would have suffered immensely because of the mandatory closure of schools to maintain social distancing because of the Covid-19 outbreak, Gandhi said.
Study Hall School teachers are sharing assignments and complementary videos online daily to students between grades one and eight. “We are sending worksheets and projects to students. We are also sharing some self-explanatory videos to make them understand the concept,” said Shalini Sinha, principal of Study Hall.
“Study from home is a good initiative. Students need to prepare the topics assigned by their teachers and repost the videos,” she added.