The international webinar entitled “How to Help Children be Active Learners at Home during Educational Disruption” was held on March 27, 2020. The webinar was organized by the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University (SLIBNU), UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) and UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (INRULED). Director of UNESCO IITE Mr. Tao Zhan and Programme Assistant Ms. Galina Konyaeva presented UNESCO IITE’s Initiative “Combat COVID-19: Keep learning. Together we are on the move!” at the webinar.
According to UNESCO statistics, by March 26, 2020, more than 1.5 billion school students at all levels worldwide have been affected due to COVID-19 outbreak. This in turn requires actions from all stakeholders to ensure the education process continues despite the circumstances. The scholars, front-line teachers and students from different countries shared their active learning experience from the perspectives of current situation, measures, initiatives, resources, teaching methods and tools, etc.
At present, abundant online learning resources and diversified technological devices have offered students comprehensive materials and convenient approaches for online learning. However, they have also brought about many problems: in the process of home learning, students tend to have poor self-regulation, or even indulge in the entertainment on their terminal devices, which suggests that their self-monitoring ability should be improved. In view of these problems, Ronghuai Huang, Co-Dean of SLIBNU, put forward several suggestions, including scheduling learning and playing in balance, choosing learning resources on demand, nourishing learning ability with e-assessment, and hoped that more countries could share the experience and suggestions to improve students’ active learning.
More detailed information about the webinar is available on the Beijing Normal University website and on the page of the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University (SLIBNU).