In quarantine, online education provides an environment for interaction and learning

Online communication tools have been integrated into Cloe, the digital platform for Active Learning. Teachers guide students on projects and propose activities

The current scenario of suspension of face-to-face classes, due to the pandemic of the new
coronavirus, has encouraged schools to seek new alternatives for the
student learning. For Renato Dias, director of innovation and product at
Camino Education, the interruption of these activities presents two challenges
important.

The first, for early childhood education, is the challenge for parents who see their
possibilities of interaction with children in confinement and question themselves about
what to do and how to promote meaningful experiences at that moment. THE
second, for Elementary Education, it concerns the curriculum coverage to be
that is, how to provide a pedagogically valid interaction
between students and between student and teacher.

“Both questions point to the need for online interactions. For Early Childhood Education, in the sense of equipping parents and family members with an adequate repertoire for children from 0 to 6 years old, who find themselves in a completely different routine from the one they are used to ”, says the director. “For Elementary Education, it is necessary to offer spaces for online interaction and quality content so that teachers and students continue to teach and learn, develop skills and assimilate content in a different way”, he adds.

Dias points out that, with isolation, the possibilities of face-to-face interaction, of collective construction typical of more active approaches to learning, as well as the possibilities of face-to-face social engagement that favor socio-emotional development are reduced. In addition, teachers may find it difficult to prepare content that can cope with this new situation of distance interaction and homework. But the moment also brings challenges and learning.

The director says that, at Camino School, educators are adapting to this new reality through feedback and conversations with students and teachers from the school itself and others who are part of the network that uses Cloe, the digital platform of Active Learning developed by Camino.

“We made adaptations to the types of interaction suggested in our expeditions, as well as some content – projects that integrate several active methodologies and in which students are challenged to solve real life problems – to allow the maintenance of curricular coverage in Elementary School and preserve the educational quality of the expedition in the online environment ”. He explains that communication tools have also been integrated into the platform, with indications of how the teacher can translate into practice online the interventions and mediations suggested in the expeditions.

For students and relatives of Early Childhood Education, a set of activities was produced to be done at home by parents and students, in order to guarantee pedagogical intentionality, but without the interaction of teachers or colleagues. “They range from organizing spaces in the house, to building and winning circuits for exploring domestic space,” concludes the director.