MASSILLON – The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission is expected to contribute $15 million to help Massillon City Schools construct two new elementary schools.
The OFCC meet last week and approved the state’s share of $15,219,211 for the project, Superintendent Paul Salvino said. The state Controlling Board is expected to approve the release of the funds next month.
The agreement with the OFCC is the result of many back and forth meetings with the commission.
For some time, district officials have been working with the OFCC to secure funding to build new schools to replace the district’s aging elementary schools.
Under the plan, the district will contribute $29,807,375 to construct two pre-kindergarten through third grades schools — one on the city’s west side and the other on the east side of town.
‘We have the money in hand for the project.’
District officials have long wanted to address the aging elementary schools.
Whittier Elementary is 82 years old. Franklin is 66 years old and Gorrell was built 65 years ago.
The buildings have space issues, are not energy efficient, and are not equipped to handle growing technology, officials say.
The district has sunk millions into maintenance, from replacing boilers to repairing the plumbing and heating systems.
Salvino and his team have had numerous conversations with the OFCC during the past three years. When the pandemic hit, those talks were put on hold.
This year, talks picked back up.
Even before Salvino took the helm at his alma mater, district officials have been working with the OFCC to address district facilities.
In 2014, the state approved funding for the construction of new schools, but voters rejected the plan twice. Both of those plans included bond issues. This time around, the district isn’t asking taxpayers to foot the bill.
“We have the money in hand for the project,” Salvino said.
Last year, the Board of Education created a capital project fund with $25 million the district had set aside during the past few years to pay for building new elementary schools or renovating the existing elementary buildings and Washington High School. If these funds are not spent by October 2029, they will need to be returned to the district’s general fund.
Salvino said the funding was the result of tough decisions made by former board members who decided to close district elementary schools and consolidate them into three schools reducing operational costs and energy consumption.
“I know the community was upset but it didn’t pay to operate all of the school buildings with the way enrollment was,” he said. “There was a savings the district started to see just as we anticipate we will see when we go from three (elementary) schools to two,” he said.
Salvino also credits the district’s transparent spending and “superb management” of district dollars.
What are the next steps?
State funding is based on a number of factors set by the OFCC. They consider the district’s existing facilities and enrollment.
During the past three years, the funding the state was willing to put up for the project fluctuated.
Officials considered renovating the district’s elementary schools, but the costs were too high.
When the state funding was lower than anticipated, Salvino asked if the district could resubmit enrollment figures. The new evaluation showed the district was seeing a slight increase in student population prompting a review of the funding.
Finally, the two sides came to a financial agreement.
“We had a great ongoing collaborative relationship with the OFCC,” Salvino said. “We are excited to be able to finally right-size the district and set the tone for the future of the school district.”
Under the plan, the district will fund about 67{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} — or $29,807,375 — of the $45,807,375 project costs, but Salvino said the total cost will likely grow with locally funded initiatives, items the state will not fund.
For instance, the district might decide to widen hallways within the new schools, add classrooms, and make the entrance and parking lots larger. Those costs are not supported by the state’s formula.
“Due to how the OFCC calculates these school district projects, according to the OFCC figures the square footage of Washington High School would justify moving sixth, seventh and eighth grade into the current high school,” Salvino said. “We are not going to do that.”
Where will the new schools be located?
A location for the new schools has not been determined, but Salvino said the schools will be built on existing district-owned property. Land is available at the middle school, high school and the former Bowers Elementary site. They have also considered the site of Smith Elementary School, which houses the district administrative offices and the pre-school, as well as the existing elementary school grounds.
Each of the potential sites have been evaluated and core samples have been taken to determine if the land is suitable, Salvino said. They are awaiting the results of the tests. He hopes to be able to provide the location of the new schools, as well as a timeline for construction, after the start of the new year.
If the funding clears the state board, the district also will begin looking for a project architect. The process will include the OFCC, he said.
‘It really is an exciting time.’
Officials will have to work closely with teachers and staff to ensure the buildings are equipped to meet Massillon students’ needs. He also anticipates working closely with the district’s three unions to blend the staffs of the three elementary schools.
Salvino does not foresee a reduction in force. Until the new schools are ready to welcome new students, officials will closely watch staffing. For instance, if someone retires do they need to replace them.
“In the end, we have the same amount of kids to feed, transport and teach,” he said.
He estimates each school will have around 650 students.
While they forge ahead on the plan, Salvino said they will take their time to ensure they get things right.
“It really is an exciting time,” he said. “When you can do things that will directly impact our district for the next 50 to 80 years, it’s exciting. We won’t take it for granted. We know it is going to be a lot of work but this is good work. This is future planning. These are the things we need to focus on.”
Members of the Remote Learning Assistant Program Team (top, l to r): Maggie Lattuca, Sandrine Hoindo-Donkpegan, Linda Webb and Darlene Hnatchuk. (Bottom, l to r): Amelia Stone, Nancy St-Pierre and Cara Piperni
When the world was hit with the initial surge of COVID-19 back in early 2020, educational institutions around the world scrambled in order not to lose the year. While the McGill community transitioned admirably to complete the 2019-2020 academic year by adopting alternative methods of teaching, it was clear that a lot more support would be necessary to sustain alternative teaching methods over the course of a full year.
Enter the Remote Learning Assistant Program Team.
Assembled in July 2020, the Team was given the mandate to design, implement, and support a program in which some 300 students were hired, trained, and deployed to support instructors with the technical aspects of remote teaching over the course of the 2020-2021 academic year. The project was so successful that the Team has been named winner of the Principal’s Awards for Administrative and Support Staff in the Team category.
The eight-person Team was comprised of the following members from Teaching and Learning Services; Career Planning Service; and the Scholarships & Student Aid Office:
Maggie Lattuca (Teaching and Learning Services)
Nancy St-Pierre (Teaching and Learning Services)
Sandrine Hoindo-Donkpegan (Teaching and Learning Services)
Sydnee Goodrich (Teaching and Learning Services)
Darlene Hnatchuk (Student Services)
Cara Piperni (Student Services)
Amelia Slone (Student Services)
Linda Webb (Office of Student Life and Learning)
Seamless collaboration
It is impressive, some would say remarkable, that this relatively small team could spearhead such an ambitious and impactful initiative in such a short period of time – and with such resounding success.
“Simply, each member of the team brought their expertise and was driven by the goal to improve the teaching and learning experience in a remote context,” says Maggie Lattuca, Manager – Online Programs Portfolio, Teaching and Learning Services. “The collaboration between units was seamless. Team members put in extra hours to get the initiative in place.”
It was a classic win-win situation, in which instructors received much-needed technical help and students, many of whom were without a job because of COVID-19 lockdowns, were gainfully employed again.
“As a team we applied for and received over a half-million dollars in federal wage subsidies by way of the TECHNATION Career Ready Program,” says Lattuca. “This, combined with McGill’s need-based Work Study Program, significantly reduced the cost of hiring remote learning assistants (RLAs).”
Not only were the student RLAs provided with much-welcomed income, the work experience gave them transferable skills. The program was designed to provide both domestic and international students employment and co-curricular work integrated learning opportunities.
“A Community of Practice group was created for the RLAs and TLS Teaching Technology Consultants within the myCourses platform to allow them to share best practices and resources, pose questions, and ask for guidance,” says Lattuca. “RLAs were also required to complete weekly reflections on their work experience. One of the most common reflections was that they found satisfaction in assisting instructors and students, and appreciated learning about what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ in planning course lectures and materials.”
Resounding buy-in across McGill
As demanding as the initiative was, Lattuca says it was inspiring to see how the McGill community responded.
“The Faculties were on board immediately,” she says. “Everyone saw the value of assisting instructors who had pivot their teaching style, often using technology they had never had opportunity to use.”
“The positive feedback we received from instructors and Faculties was gratifying,” she says. “We learned about the commitment of McGill instructors to provide students with the best possible learning experiences given the constraints of the COVID context. We learned about multiple creative strategies instructors used to create opportunities for student engagement. We learned about the value to students of gaining insights into the process of teaching and learning. And we learned about the power of collaboration when everyone is focused on the same goal – helping instructors and students.”
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters here: ckbe.at/newsletters.
Originally published Nov 19, 2021, 6:00am EST
There was no warning, just a knock on the door of Melissa Keaton’s Flatbush, Brooklyn, apartment. She opened it to find a caseworker with the Administration for Children’s Services, or ACS, the New York City agency tasked with investigating suspected child neglect and abuse.
Still shaken by the sudden death of her father to COVID-19, Keaton hadn’t sent her 9-year-old daughter to school since classes started mid-September. It was now the end of October, and the caseworker explained to Keaton, a former PTA president at her daughter’s school, that someone had reported the family for educational neglect.
When New York City opened its schools this fall for in-person learning, with no option for virtual instruction, families across the five boroughs opted to keep their children home. They worried about the health of their children and vulnerable loved ones, and remained unconvinced it was safe to return to full buildings.
“The only time ACS will intervene is if there is a clear intent to keep a child from being educated, period,” schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said at a press conference shortly before the new school year began. “We want to work with our families because we recognize what families have been through.”
Now, more than two months into the school year, some parents say they have been reported for neglect. The impact of child welfare investigations on already traumatized families can be severe: charges may stay on records for decades, future job prospects can be affected, and, most alarmingly, parents could be separated from children.
Education department staff made 207 reports of educational neglect through Oct. 31, according to ACS data. The numbers tripled in the last two weeks of October, compared to the total reported during the first month of school.
Still, the overall number of reports dropped from last year, when there were 346 cases in the same time period. But some parents and advocates say this year’s numbers are cause for concern since some of the parents getting wrapped up in the child welfare system are making efforts to educate their children as they hold out for a remote option.
Options for wary families, who are disproportionately families of color, are limited. Parents can apply for medically necessary instruction, which offers few teaching hours at home or virtually — but only for children who meet certain medical conditions. They can home-school, but that removes the student from their public school and puts the onus on families to educate their children at home, without help. In New York, homeschooling also involves completing and filing a plan and quarterly reports.
Experts have stressed that children learn best in school. The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned about the dire consequences of keeping students home.
“Remote learning — which exacerbated existing educational inequities — was detrimental to the educational attainment of students of all ages and worsened the growing mental health crisis among children and adolescents,” the academy wrote.
City leaders have worked to reassure families that steps are being taken to make buildings safe. Staff must be vaccinated, masks are required for everyone, and officials said they’ve upgraded ventilation across the city’s 1,600 schools. Weekly on-campus COVID testing for unvaccinated students (the only group who is swabbed) has revealed a positivity rate of .39{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} over a seven-day average, according to city data through Nov. 17.
“Our priority is the safety of our students, and the first two months of this school year showed that our schools are the safest place for them to be during this pandemic,” said education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer.
For Keaton, whose father died alone at a hospital soon after developing a cough in April 2020, that isn’t enough. After attending virtual town halls and talking to school and district leaders, she remained unconvinced that it was safe to send her daughter back to a school building.
“Families who are grieving and traumatized should not have to go through this,” she said.
‘Caught in the crosshairs’
It’s unclear how many families are refusing to send their children to school buildings this year. But attendance has lagged in some places, and last month the chancellor recorded a round of robocalls to families urging them to send their children to class.
Tajh Sutton is a mom in Brooklyn who, through the advocacy group PRESS, Parents for Responsive Equitable Safe Schools, has been providing resources and support to families boycotting classrooms because of health concerns.
The group has been advocating for a remote option as well as legislation that would require parents to be informed of their rights if they’re ever reported to ACS. Group members have also asked for an attendance code to track families who are staying home because of safety concerns.
After receiving roughly 20 calls from parents who recently received visits from ACS caseworkers, PRESS members created toolkits to help families understand their rights when it comes to child welfare and is partnering with the advocacy group JMacForFamilies and others on a Nov. 26 workshop on the topic.
The education department last week sent new guidance to principals with specific suggestions for how to engage with families who aren’t sending their children to school because of health concerns.
The guidance calls for offering families a virtual tour of the school to see the safety measures in place, making adjustments to respond to parents’ concerns, and offering application information for the city’s medically necessary instruction program. It also notes that schools should not report families for educational neglect if there is a pending application for medically necessary instruction or homeschooling.
“A report of suspected educational neglect is not a remedy for excessive absences, and is an option of last resort,” the guidance says.
Styer, the education department spokesman, said that educators “exhaust all options to support families in making sure every student attends school safely every day,” but also that, “our staff take their responsibility as mandated reporters for child welfare very seriously.”
“One of the striking things to me about placing teachers in the role of mandated reporters is just the extreme damage and lack of trust that creates in the relationship between parents and teachers,” said Anna Arons, an acting assistant professor at New York University.”
Despite the detailed guidance, many schools appear to be responding in their own ways, according to Amy Leipziger, a senior staff attorney who deals with education issues for Queens Legal Services. The move to call ACS on families, who are “trying to do the best they can,” ends up feeling very “retaliatory” by their schools, she said.
Now you’ve got parents — and more importantly, you’ve got kids — getting caught in the crosshairs,” she said.
A spokesperson for ACS, Nicholas Aguilar, said that the agency’s top priority is the safety and well-being of the city’s children. “Our work is focused on ensuring families have the services and supports that they need for their children to thrive, including educational services,” he said.
Educators are considered “mandated reporters,” which means they’re obligated to report suspected abuse or neglect. Prior to COVID, educators made about a quarter of ACS reports, said Anna Arons, an acting assistant professor at the New York University law school who has studied the city’s child welfare agency.
Arons pointed out research nationwide shows reports from educators are the least likely to be substantiated.
“One of the striking things to me about placing teachers in the role of mandated reporters is just the extreme damage and lack of trust that creates in the relationship between parents and teachers,” she said.
In terms of who is being reported, Black and Latino children tend to be overrepresented. While about 60{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of the city’s children are Black and Latino, they are 90{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of those involved in investigations or placed in foster care, Arons said.
In response to the harshness of how long ACS charges stay on one’s record, a new state rule will take effect in January reducing the number of years to eight. Until then, any ACS charges could remain on someone’s record until the child turns 28.
‘Concerned for our children’s safety’
After spending last year fully remote, Viviana Echavarria’s two teenagers were excited to return to Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy and even went back-to-school shopping. But then the Bronx mom and her husband decided to keep their two high schoolers home until their 11-year-old could get vaccinated.
Still, Echavarria was stunned when her husband called late last month while she was at work, as a director of operations for a nursing home, letting her know that an ACS caseworker was at their door. He hasn’t returned to work yet to stay home with their three school-aged children and 6-month-old baby. The caseworker was investigating allegations of educational neglect and checked the children for bruises on their bodies. Because the family includes an infant, the caseworker said she would be visiting weekly, Echavarria said.
Before the school year started, Echavarria had contacted the school to let them know her children would be home and asked for support. The principal told her that the only option was to sign up to home-school her children. The principal, in a Sept. 8 email, wrote that the education department was not providing curriculum, materials, or support.
The full-time working mom of four didn’t feel equipped to home-school and asked the city’s home-school office for help, but got no response. Though she’s been taking her children to the library on occasion, they’ve had no formal schooling yet this year.
“They’re putting you in a position where you have to choose between your kids’ health and their education,” Echavarria said. “If they think they’re helping the children, they’re making it worse. Now they’re adding fear.”
Her two older children’s geometry teachers had reached out to find out why they were missing class, and ended up giving them access to assignments in Google classroom. But when the children asked the other teachers if they could do the same, the principal clamped down, Echavarria said.
In a Sept. 24 email the principal said: “The children must come to school. We have programs and are expecting them.”
The principal declined to comment, referring questions to the education department, which didn’t address specific cases.
After getting her 11-year-old son vaccinated this week, Echavarria now plans to send all three children back to school on Thursday, hoping that will put an end to the ACS investigation. The agency, however, would not tell her whether that would close the case, she said.
“We feel like we can’t wait for the second dose. We feel like we don’t have a choice,” she said. “It still leaves us: Where do we go from here? We’re sending them to school, but we’re still being investigated.”
Home schooling wasn’t an option for Keaton either. She felt she could manage online learning after having done so for more than a year. She wasn’t prepared, however, to be her daughter’s teacher. Like Echavarria, Keaton also sent emails to school leaders asking them to provide virtual work for her daughter to complete.
“I was told no, there wasn’t any work. That was only for students who are quarantining, and there is no remote option,” she said.
With the help of the nonprofit organization Brooklyn Defenders, Keaton is now navigating the application for medically necessary home-based instruction while the ACS case looms. She has found support through a local group called Parents Supporting Parents NY. She has worried about whether the investigation will affect her ability to work in schools, as she has in the past, and wondered how long it would take to get her daughter back if they were ever separated.
“It’s rough to fathom the thought that I could end up in front of a judge who could remove my child because I want to maintain her safety and our health,” Keaton said. “I can provide a safe environment for her at home. There is no exposure.”
‘It’s policing’
Another member of PRESS, Paullette Healy has been keeping both of her children home because of health concerns while providing resources and support to families who are also boycotting schools because of health concerns. Healy knew that getting a visit from ACS was a real threat — she had been working on the toolkits for parents in that situation.
Still, the Brooklyn mom was shocked when she received a knock on her door from an ACS caseworker while in the middle of an online training session last week for her role on her local Community Education Council, which is essentially a school board for her district.
She was shaken by the visit, especially since both of her children’s schools unofficially supported her choice by allowing them access to work on Google classroom.
Healy refused to let the caseworker inside, nor did she provide the requested pictures of her children’s asthma medications, her husband’s medications, and their smoke alarms.
Healy had applied on Sept. 1 for medically necessary instruction for her children, citing asthma and anxiety as reasons to keep them home. She never heard back, and just last week learned from one of her children’s schools that school officials could not find her application.
“They’re putting you in a position where you have to choose between your kids’ health and their education,” Echavarria said. “If they think they’re helping the children, they’re making it worse. Now they’re adding fear.”
Some parents and legal advocates told Chalkbeat that applications for medically necessary instruction are taking about four weeks to process. Roughly 500 children are enrolled in medically necessary instruction, with about 750 having submitted applications this year so far, according to education department data as of Nov. 9.
Healy worries she’ll likely have to spend the next year working to get the ACS investigation off her record for background checks.
Even though Healy understands how to navigate the system, the visit has her family on edge.
“It’s harassment. It’s surveillance. It’s policing… It’s so stressful,” said Healy. “My child has been having trouble sleeping since the ACS visit: nightmares about being taken away from her home.
Arons, the NYU researcher, said that during the shutdown and its aftermath in New York City, sharp drops in the number of reports made, cases heard, and families separated has not led to increased risk to children as measured in a variety of ways, from youth fatalities to emergency room usage. Her findings are detailed in a forth-coming paper.
She hopes the fallout from these neglect complaints can be an open conversation about the role of agencies like ACS moving forward.
“I think there’s much more appetite and willingness to engage around the idea of do we need this level of surveillance? And do we need teachers to be in this role,” she said.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The presence and strength of state physical education (P.E.) laws positively affected P.E. attendance and the frequency and duration of physical activity throughout the day, suggests a new analysis from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
An also wrote an editorial on policy and physical activity published in the issue.
Physical activity among children and adolescents has been an indispensable way to prevent childhood obesity and mental illnesses, An said. Currently, over three-quarters of children and adolescents in the U.S. don’t meet the guidelines-recommended daily physical activity level — at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day of the week, he said.
“In the meantime, nearly half of children and adolescents exceed two hours per day of sedentary behavior,” An said. “The gender disparity is also prominent — 28{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of boys meet the guidelines-recommended level of physical activity, whereas only 20{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of girls do.”
Despite the promising policy effect, state laws mandating P.E. participation have seen a sharp decline by school grade level — only 15{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, 9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} and 6{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of students in elementary, middle and high schools in the U.S., respectively, are required to take P.E. classes on three or more days a week during the entire academic year, An said.
“Our analysis shows that state P.E. laws affected girls’ physical activity more than boys’,” he said, “It is possible that girls are less likely to take P.E. as an elective course so that mandating P.E. increases girls’ P.E. time more substantially than boys.”
“Not all laws are born equal,” An said. “Different aspects of state P.E. laws tended to affect students’ P.E. attendance differently. Certain parts of the laws could be counterproductive — reducing rather than increasing students’ P.E. attendance.”
Based on An’s earlier work published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, state laws governing P.E. class time, staffing for P.E., joint use agreement for physical activity, assessment of health-related fitness and P.E. curriculum all were associated with increased weekly P.E. attendance.
In contrast, state laws governing physical activity time in P.E., P.E. proficiency and recess time were associated with reduced P.E. attendance. “For example, mandating fitness tests could raise concerns and anxiety and reinforce peer pressure and a competitive atmosphere among students. Consequently, some students may choose to skip P.E. to avoid performance assessment,” An explained.
An conducts research to assess environmental influences and population-level interventions on weight-related behaviors and outcomes throughout the life course. He is an expert on physical activity and the sedentary lifestyle.
A total of 17 studies were included in the review, and five contributed to the meta-analyses. Eight used nationally representative school- or student-level data; three focused on multiple states; and the remaining six examined the P.E. laws of a single state.
An and his co-authors, Jianxiu Liu and Ruidong Liu of Tsinghua University in China, found that some states have policy waivers that may exempt children from P.E. attendance in school.
“Some of those policy waivers could compromise students’ participation in P.E. and their physical activity levels at school,” An said. “Based on the available evidence, states should implement strong evidence-based P.E. laws to increase P.E. attendance and promote physical activity engagement among school students.”
It has been more than a year that Covid-19 began its impact on our lives. Most aspects of our day-to-day life are still dictated and subject to changes due to the wreck Covid-19 continues to unleash upon this world.
It is not an unknown fact about how this perilous virus has drastically changed the face of education in India. The education sector hardly had any time to adjust to the changing times.
From teaching in real physical classrooms, learning in India, along with the rest of the world, suddenly shifted to online ‘classrooms’.
Impact on practical-based subjects
Despite the adoption of online education gaining momentum, this mode of learning cannot compensate for classroom learning.
This form of education is inherently flawed and lacks the basic elements of quality education such as the formation of a teacher-student relationship and the facility to carry out practical.
A new academic year will begin again, and students will again be at crossroads, in terms of which course to pursue. Covid-19 and the restrictions made it difficult for the students to choose a course of their choice.
While theory-based subjects such as English, sociology, or other humanities courses have accommodated well in this environment of online education, practical-based courses such as BSc, bachelor’s in biotechnology, or engineering, among others, have faced severe downside.
For example, a laboratory experiment that involves electrical/mechanical heavy equipment cannot be performed by students in an online setting. Lack of practical knowledge has been a burning issue ever since the initiation of online education.
Should students then enroll to practical-based subjects?
In spite of all the hurdles and troubles that will ensure if students opt for practical-based subjects in these months, academic life dominated by online education shouldn’t serve as the sole reason for not choosing a course the student genuinely likes.
While it is an undeniable fact that the absence of access to labs means that the theoretical knowledge of students wouldn’t have the opportunity to translate to practical knowledge.
Vaccination and opening up of higher education institutions
One positive side that should help students make the right decision is the ongoing vaccination drives and at the pace that these are being conducted.
Several states have opened educational institutes, especially higher education for those fully vaccinated. it is also true that their entire academic career in higher education won’t be held captive by online education.
Even during the first half of 2021, various authorities of different colleges and universities had decided to call back their final year students or students enrolled in practical-based courses.
Thus, the authorities concerned are aware of the need for practical education in a student’s life; therefore, they fight tooth and nail to ensure their arrival to the campus.
(Photo: PTI)
New approach to online education
The faculty of various colleges and universities have put their heart and soul into ensuring that they continue to deliver the best quality education to the students, despite the constraints put on them.
They usually save their practical’s for when the students will be physically brought back to campus. They also look for alternatives through which they can disseminate a resemblance, if not a replica, of the quality education they have been previously credited for, before Corona changed our lives forever.
In tandem with this thought, professors are resorting to using AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AR (Augmented Reality) to compensate for the lack of practical.
Remote practical
This concept is quickly gaining ground in this remote learning era. Though not a feasible replacement of actual practice, the induction of such technology-based practicals should encourage students to not swerve from their decision of enrolling in a practical-oriented subject.
As an example, there are companies that support many institutions across India by providing them with applications that help educators create virtual laboratories and home lab kits. These are providing an actual practical knowledge.
Desirability toward a course
Another important criterion that should push the students in the right direction is their level of likeability for the subject.
If a student holds a level of affection towards a subject, even if it is practical based, no virus should have the upper hand and compel them to make wrong decisions.
Future move
Therefore, with the right level of dedication and patience, students can manage their way through online education and anticipate their arrival in their respective campuses, sooner or later.
Students must have the ability to straighten up these few bumps’ life has thrown that way and try to make the most of their time.
Thus, no restraint, let alone a virus like Covid-19 should be bestowed with so much power that it will stop a student from following their heart.
If willing to accommodate for a few months, the prevailing situation would never be considered to serve as a reason for opting out of a practical based course. With optimism, students should march ahead and await a bright future, no matter the prevailing situation.
– Article by Vivek Jain, Chief Business Officer, Shiksha.com and Naukri Fastforward
Read: Covid-19 impact: 4 major challenges faced by students of rural India
Read: Covid-19: 4 negative impacts and 4 opportunities created for education
A decade from now, it’s expected that sports media will surpass both sports and movies in terms of market size due to its rapid expansion over the last few decades. Free gaming consoles like Fortnite, which have exploded in popularity, have also contributed to the rise of gaming as popular leisure for children.
There have been a number of games released throughout the years that are specifically designed to educate youngsters while also entertaining them. There are a number of educational video games on our list that strike a decent balance between enjoyment and educational content and may provide you with assignment help you need from experts.
1. BIG BRAIN ACADEMY
Big Brain Academy’s instructional material isn’t hidden under pleasant news and amusing characters but is instead presented as a task to be overcome. The development of logical skills, math, analysis, and memory is achieved through engaging in activities and games on a regular basis. Practicing makes you better, and the more you practice, the more difficult your brain gets!
Think, memorize, evaluate, combine, and point are just some skills you’ll learn while playing Big Brain Games. Taking a test to find out how much your brain weighs is the most difficult part of exercising. Are you dissatisfied with your current educational establishment? Then, keep working out and give it another go! Compete against the greatest schools in your area, or challenge your friends and family to discover who has the most brains to go head-to-head.
Big Brain Academy is a Nintendo DS game that is appropriate for children ages 3 and above, although adults can enjoy it as well.
2. CULTURE 6
That Civilization 6 is more about entertainment than knowledge should be made clear from the start. As a result, it is an excellent game for teaching children to learn in a method that doesn’t feel like instruction.
For the 6th Civilization, players are taken back in time to 4000 BC, where they are tasked with establishing a civilization from scratch until the year 2050AD. During this period, gamers will establish towns, conduct research, and more. Players will learn a historical tone in each game through learning about themes, surprises, international leaders, and historically accurate city names through research.
3. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY CHALLENGE
There is a place for everyone in the classic game format in the National Geographic Challenge. To evaluate their knowledge of the area, players are given a variety of questions, such as a photograph or a video clip.
If you’re looking for a challenge that will take you throughout the world and test your knowledge on a wide range of topics, the National Geographic Challenge is for you.
4. THE LAST SEA
Find out about aquatic life and marine life by exploring the world’s oceans and waterways! The L&L Diving Service offers a unique opportunity for your children to become scuba divers on a self-sacrificing journey that allows them to interact with a wide variety of marine flora and animals. Incorporate a salty guide, a clever scientist, and a young, hard-core diver who will lead to evil into the ocean’s depths. You’ll be exploring the Manaurai Sea in search of wealth, exploring underwater caverns, canals, and even shipwrecks, discovering a lost civilization, and learning about more than 300 types of sea creatures.
Nintendo Wii owners can play Endless Ocean and Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep. For youngsters ages 10 and up, these games feature two-player modes that allow you to explore the ocean together.
5. WORDSCAPES
Playing Wordscapes with your kids is a terrific option. Many words can be used as clues in the game; participants must solve a problem based on these words.
To fill in the blanks, players are given a selection of personalities from which to choose. A built-in dictionary in Wordscapes is a terrific tool to help players learn new words and improve their vocabulary.
6. MAGIC SCHOOL BUSES
Originally aired in the 1990s, the Magic School Bus returned in 2017 as The Magic School Bus Rides Anew.
Though it’s most known for its presence on television, the Magic School Bus franchise has had an impact on the gaming industry since the 1990s and early 2000s with titles like The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System and Magic School Bus Explores the Rain Forests. An excellent balance between pleasure and learning has made the series a classic in the genre, as the titles suggest, with each game focusing on what it teaches on various themes.
7. DORA INSPECTOR
Even if you’re not a parent, you’re certain to hear about Dora the Inspector at some point in your life. Popular television shows, toys, novels, and video games, as well as a live-action film version of Dora’s adventures, have made her one of the most popular characters in children’s entertainment.
Children are asked to join Dora and her companions on a voyage with a large aim in mind in video games, such as the TV show. Learn new vocabulary and facts while having a lot of fun with the maps. Learn shapes, colors, numbers, and words while helping Dora achieve tasks and adventures (Spanish and English). Children can engage directly with characters in the game, taking the presentation to a new level.
For children aged three to six, this is an easy game to pick up and play thanks to the clear, basic instructions. The best thing about Dora games is that they can be played on a variety of platforms. Games for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and Gameboy Advance are available for PlayStation and PC.
Dora and Dora’s Birthday Adventure Saves the Snow Queen wins Parent
A Final Word
In this article, we discussed 7 amazing video games that offer good learning for children. In addition to entertaining kids, these games will help them learn the language, math, and even critical thinking.
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