Education news roundup – May 2020

Here are 3 of the latest UK education and edtech news stories from May 2020.

1. Why we can’t abandon tech-based teaching after lockdown

Larisa Curran, a teacher in Hong Kong, explains that her students have become more responsive and proactive during lockdown, communicating more effectively and telling her what they need. They are gaining independence, finding ways to solve problems, collaborate and support each other. And this, she says, is thanks to the adoption of technology.

The adoption of technology that we have seen in schools during the lockdown was well overdue. In pursuit of our goal of maintaining high-quality teaching and learning experiences in this new virtual environment, we’re also finding playful and innovative ways to engage and motivate our learners. This shouldn’t be lost when the world returns to normal.

Read the full article here.

2. Is it possible to social distance in schools?

“I don’t think we have even begun to consider as a society how profoundly this is going to change education,” says Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, in a Tes article.
Tes has polled more than 17,000 UK school staff to find out what safety measures they see as practical when schools reopen. Increased cleaning of classroom surfaces, including desks and handles, was seen as most practical and was backed by 70% of school staff.

Read more survey results here.

This year, our State of Technology in Education Survey is also exploring the impact that COVID-19 has had on teaching, learning and school processes in the UK and Ireland. We hope to discover which technologies educators most relied on during this year’s school closures, the strategies used to keep students engaged, and the key challenges educators have faced.

3. Lockdown has exacerbated inequalities, according to data

According to data analysed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, more financially secure families are spending 30% more time each day on educational activities during lockdown.

Survey data from more than 4,000 families in England identified advantages enjoyed by children from affluent families at both state or independent schools, including easier access to computers and the internet at home, more private or family tuition and the use of their own study space.

“These differences will likely widen pre-existing gaps in test scores between children from different backgrounds,” Lucy Kraftman explains, a research economist at the IFS and one of the report’s authors.

The survey was conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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