UAE schools and universities are prepping their digital learning programmes for students, see our detailed video on this.
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Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/39EON0k
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
#education #distancelearning #coronavirus
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00:00Hello everyone, it's me Miss Poppy and today I'm going to be reading a story for you and today
00:06we're going to read the Gruffalo. So make sure you get yourself nice and cosy, set down, get your
00:12teddies, get your blankets, get your pillows and we'll start our story of the Gruffalo.
00:22UA university schools and nurseries have for some time been in the forefront of a digital
00:29revolution in the UAE and now it is time to put that to test. As the UAE government has announced
00:36an extended spring break, students will have to be at home and get their daily schedule
00:44through online platform. Parents have been concerned however. They are worried that
00:51their children may not be able to cope up with the schedule. Hence schools, universities and
00:56nurseries have come up with an e-distance learning program and we are here at Jumeirah
01:03International School which has actually kick-started the program already and one happy parent is Mark
01:10Hammond whose two-year-old daughter is super excited. Like everybody, last week we were quite
01:16anxious and were wondering how we were going to, when we heard the announcement they were going to
01:21close. What was amazing was how quick gyms were able to respond and get this online platform
01:27running because we literally had the Sunday where I was running around like headless trying to keep
01:32Luna happy and you know busy but then by the Monday there was a there was an already a plan
01:39on there and you know we started the morning with a wake and shake dance with her teacher so
01:45when Luna saw that on my phone she was absolutely you know she was really excited in touch with it
01:51It's called class. So it's an app that you click onto and when you click on the app
01:59the online it's all there. Each day it's just got better and better. How many hours was she
02:04like on the distance learning program? Basically at the moment for that first week it was there
02:10was about I think it was four videos during the week so I tried to spread them out and make them last
02:15but when we come back after spring break there's a real completely what they've done is sent out
02:21a timetable for two weeks so it's very structured so it starts with the wake up the dance then it
02:28gives you you know an idea to do breakfast fresh air lots of teacher-led activities so the whole
02:35day is really planned out. But it also requires a considerable amount of involvement from the
02:41parent as well so you have to be there you know with your child. Yeah yeah I mean at this age
02:48I've got two others in the school as well so it'll be interesting to see how the platform works for
02:52them but for for Luna I'm there with her you know showing her but then what we're encouraged to do
02:57is upload you know her doing things so I've done some drawing with her we've uploaded that
03:03and it's nice because you can show her the teachers looked at it as well. This is a fairly
03:08new concept for Luna because she's used to seeing her teachers like right in front of her so what
03:14what was her reaction when she was actually looking at them on the phone? Well she went and got her
03:18shoes and asked me to get in the car so when she saw Miss Emily she wanted she got her shoes and
03:23wanted to go so so she knew you know but yeah I mean they're very resilient aren't they kids so
03:29you know she just got on on with it and you know I think it's going to be fine. I'm more than happy
03:35with how it's gone so far. The sudden closure of the nurseries put us in an urgency to develop
03:40a online platform for parents to provide parent-tailored learning for their children
03:46which was though child-centered as well as had a bit of a differentiation where parents could engage
03:53with their children so our teachers went on being early as educators they created
04:00online interactive activities which were child-centered yet focused and child and teacher
04:06initiated they were geared solely to facilitate parent and help in co-viewing with their children
04:13and scaffold that learning at home and it provided the resources the parents had in their kitchen in
04:19in their households so the teachers were very creative in creating the interactive videos what
04:25was very important was we needed to educate and let parents know what each video was about so it
04:31all the videos have the objective related to the learning we cover the seven areas of the
04:38earliest foundation stage framework it's the curriculum that we follow we also have videos
04:43going about for the extra activities that we have with in the nursery for the children the yoga
04:48gymnastics arabic french music and movement so children are not actually missing the physical
04:54absence from the nursery and they get this in the comfort of their homes the child between 45 days
05:00to three years has to have a minimum exposure of one hour to the online tv screening so what our
05:07programs do is it splits that into three to six minute videos and which are well spaced so we've
05:13shared a timetable with the parents which gives them enough time so there is a morning program
05:17where the teachers do an interactive awake and shake silly's interactive video a welcome video
05:23hello song with the children and then there's an activity then they have time for breakfast
05:27and then there might be another activity which was again a teacher focused and initial and then
05:32there would be lunch and there might be a nap time and then it would extend with a yoga session a
05:37gymnastic session and a music and movement so there's it's well spaced so within a day they
05:42cover one hour of quality educating um you know videos we're sitting here at the zen garden of
05:51school in jumeirah village triangle with me is dr neil hopkin he's the principal of the school
05:58also there's adam norris who's a grade 12 student of the school and we're here to understand again
06:05from the school as to how they are coping up with the distance learning program we want to understand
06:11from you sir as to what is going to be rolled out the next week for students and how are they
06:18going to be in touch with the syllabus through the summer the spring break well i think that i
06:24think the first thing to say to to yourself and all listeners is that it's business as usual so
06:31we don't want learning to stop we don't know what the duration of this period is going to be
06:35so it's important to us that we make sure that we establish very quickly a normality
06:41so the easiest way to establish that normality is to use the mechanisms that actually we've
06:46been using for a long time so we use a microsoft teams platform that the students can operate
06:52within and so they're very familiar with that and adam will be able to talk you through some of the
06:58dynamics of that in a moment but what it means is that our students are able to collaborate easily
07:03with teachers and with one another all right and really what's been required is for the teachers
07:09just to shift slightly the way they deliver their instruction so normally obviously you'd be sat
07:15in front of a full classroom teaching students and we can't do that at the moment and so we've
07:21prepared a range of videos that the students will be able to see and then engage using the online
07:28platform in discussions with the teachers one another in response to the direct instruction
07:33that they've had really there's not a huge amount of change apart from where the students are what
07:39is different is that when the instruction comes then it is something which is delivered and the
07:46students respond afterwards and so there's that level of separation to the lesson now that has
07:53pros and cons so obviously if you had a completely interactive platform then you would be in a
08:02position where although you would get responses from students actually it's quite difficult for
08:07the students to keep a continuity of their understanding whereas here we have what's called
08:13a flipped learning model so that means the student spends quite a lot of time looking at the video
08:19beforehand and then is able to jump straight into the questions now many people argue that a flip
08:25learning model and we use this in our normal school life day to day that actually a flip
08:31learning model offers an extra advantage because what it means is the student can look at a video
08:37and maybe the first time that the teacher's explaining a new concept maybe they don't
08:42quite get it whereas in a classroom you would normally ask a question in a flip learning model
08:46you can go back and watch that video again you can get the teacher to reteach it exactly as they did
08:50the first time and so actually in an unusual way there's an advantage to being able to have these
08:57kind of videos. Adam are you ready for it? Yeah I am. Have you been briefed about it? Yeah no I have been briefed all my
09:03teachers have been telling me what to do every lesson we've been prepared for what may happen
09:09you know obviously if we're learning at home so we've there are many different things in place so
09:14for example OneNote on Teams a teacher can upload work and then you can see it and in order to check
09:22in at the allotted time you have to go on to the document you have to edit the document in order for
09:28the teacher to know that you have done the work or have participated in that particular time
09:34that you would be if you were in school at that time. Are you going to be a little like oh
09:39anyway it's online the teacher's not in front of me so I can take it easy? I mean I think
09:44I think that will happen a few times but I'm going to stick to it and when when it does come into
09:50place. Of course so that comes to my next question is there some sort of a tag that the teachers would
09:55be keeping to ensure that the child does log in and does follow the schedule? Yeah exactly as
10:02Adam described there so we can we can see that students are engaging and responding to the task
10:09a careful track so we can then connect with the student but also it's a sense we're a positive
10:15education school it's a it's a huge part of who we are so actually making sure that the students
10:20are able to navigate this challenging period it's not just about the epidemics it's about
10:25Adam's welfare it's making sure that he's happy and that he's being supportive and this transition
10:31to a slightly different way of learning which might present its own challenges and maybe being
10:35based at home all the time which might present its own particular challenges we need to support
10:41that as well so our school counsellors are supporting our year group leaders are supporting
10:47so we're connecting with students not just about have you done this task and have you handed your
10:51homework in and are you reading that text and looking at the video beforehand Adam come on
10:56it's also about how are you and and what else can we do to support you
11:00and make sure that this is an experience which is one which doesn't derail the children
11:11we're sitting here at the Regent International School in the Greens and we're talking to the
11:17principal of the school Dana Dale and Leo William Dale is a student here of the school
11:22to understand the concept that they will that the school is rolling out in the next two weeks tell
11:28us about the the concept what how have you come about this concept okay so so for us it's really
11:35really important that we align the platforms for learning online with what we will be doing
11:43ordinarily in the classrooms so we know that the teacher can't physically be there but we can use
11:49the resources and the apps and the online learning platforms that we would have been using anyway
11:55so we feel quite fortunate that our pupils are already very familiar with Microsoft Teams,
12:02OneNote and Seesaw because it just means that the parents or the adults helping at home
12:10can simply pass the the tasks onto the children and they actually know best how to utilize them
12:15so the children are well well rehearsed they know how to to access all of these various platforms
12:20and resources and it's for the teachers it's making sure that we are providing the children
12:26with progressive quality lessons that mean that the learning won't be compromised during this
12:32period. Can a student take it easy? We hope not but we will be setting activities which are
12:41progressive and systematically taught so we need to give a strong message to the families
12:47that if you miss a part of the learning journey it could impact on the child's understanding
12:54so we want to make sure that the parents understand that we are committed to making
12:58sure that we teach and learn as well as we ever would do if if the children were physically in
13:04the school yeah and so therefore we want their commitment back to help the children to engage
13:09with the learning. Are you ready to learn you know online? Yeah probably yes I have no idea
13:18yes and no. Okay cool so you do know that you have a schedule in place and that you'll have
13:25to do it from home it sounds kind of fun right? Out of the fun scale I would give it a 7 out of 10.
13:37I like that. At least I get to stroke my cats during the class. Exactly something that you've
13:43always wished right whenever you came to school? Yes. Okay so you get to do that so what's the
13:48three on ten that that is not meeting your requirement? Well you're going to miss school
13:53like probably that's like I probably won't be able to see my like friend in person
14:01and probably because well
14:06like at 12 o'clock we won't be on the pitch like playing around we probably will get a
14:12free time but I feel like running probably just gets the energy out of me. All right awesome that's
14:20so well said. If I don't get the energy out of myself I'll just become jumpy like this.
14:26And it's a wrap of our special feature on distance learning program in the UAE. If you want to know
14:33more do log on to www.gulfnews.com you will see our in-depth article on this.
14:39For now this is Anjana Kumar for Gulf News.