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The pandemic presented teachers and students around the world with unprecedented challenges. Yet, in the midst of this, there were examples of resilience, innovation, and dedication — all with technology at the core. Here are a few of the people who made a difference in the education sector since country lockdowns first began, and how they’re hoping to take it forward.
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Education
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students, as well as streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. There were also initiatives to support everyone outside of traditional lessons, such as virtual playtimes set up by the school when the children could get together with their friends to chat and exchange news. They also organized virtual assemblies. Johnson said all of this technology helped the school community grow stronger — and it’s something that he and his team are building on. “We're continuing our journey of discovery,” he said. “We’ve only just begun.”
Alistair Johnson, the deputy head of Mowden Infant School, in northeast England, knew he needed to quickly take his school online when the pandemic hit. So he turned to his local college, where a government-backed ed-tech program had been set up to help local schools. Using a collaborative technology platform, he was able to perform a serious technology feat: shift from at-home lessons on pen and paper during the first lockdown to 100% online by the second one. Through the platform, the school was able to simply and effectively create, distribute, and provide feedback to
emergency accommodation. Cisco again stepped in to help by offering mobile data packages. Hannach said adapting her program to work online has been a challenge, but that bringing digital lessons to life has given her new skills. "I also learned the importance of technology in developing a project," she said. "Without it, Abajad could not have flourished." Hannach is now focused on a new, hybrid approach to learning that could allow her to use language teachers from outside of Paris.
Dounia Hannach’s startup Abajad, designed to offer in-person French-language instruction to refugees to help them find jobs, officially launched in Paris just a month before lockdown. "I thought I would have to give up, because the teaching was supposed to be on-site," Hannach said, "but my hopes were raised when Cisco, which was already supporting me, offered to help me continue my lessons via Webex." Now back on track, Hannach was immediately struck by how few of her students had WiFi access, many of them living in
with Rohleder making use of everything from simple wooden mannequins to explain gymnastics movements to flashlights and bottles to demonstrate grip techniques. "I was able to limit the loss in the quality
of the education and create a new level of teaching, which is really motivating for upcoming challenges,"
he said. "To my colleagues I would say, 'Stay courageous, try new things, share your ideas, and you can always find solutions.’”
Unconvinced that videoconferencing with his students was the best way to go for their lockdown gymnastics classes, Jonas Rohleder took a deep dive into the creativity playbook to develop inspiring lessons. "I wanted to take the uncertainty of unstable internet connections into account," said Rohleder, a lecturer at the German Sport University Cologne. "So, I developed what I called a 'flipped classroom model' and used the time to create a variety of tutorial and instructional videos." The content was rich and varied (and didn’t require a huge production lift, which also saved time)
The library also ran a Senior Citizens Youth Digital Skills contest, where young people were encouraged to teach elderly relatives how to use apps, smartphones, and tablets — making technology an even a bigger part of their lives. These and other initiatives won the library an international award, and, Nyoka said, paved the way for a new website that is now being developed with local computer-science graduates. "I see modern library services playing a huge role in bridging the digital divide," he said. "They can really help to bring marginalized and underserved communities into the digital world."
Jeff Nyoka is the e-learning manager for libraries across Johannesburg, South Africa. Already adept at bringing digital content and learning into the lives of the local community, he ramped up his technology efforts significantly when the pandemic hit. The most accessible and widely used platform he could think of was Facebook, so Nyoka and his team got to work creating lockdown videos for the platform that rounded up the best free educational apps and online resources for academic studies, as well as a suite of digital storytelling videos submitted by librarians for younger age groups.
tips and practical techniques to inspire and guide home learning. "It was amazing to see thousands of parents not only sign up, but interact with each other on our platform, discussing their problems and what solutions they had put into practice," he said. Hady said the pandemic has catapulted online learning forward by at least five years, but he cautioned that it shouldn't begin and end with digital content. "True learning requires peer engagement, opportunities for reflection, and, most importantly, mentoring via personal feedback,"
he said.
Former teacher Leon Hady was already an expert in the digital-learning space when the pandemic hit. His company, Guide Education, has been supporting schools, teachers, and students with online learning since 2009. But during the first lockdown in the UK, Hady put his technology know-how to good use and launched a free online school — and he soon found himself fielding numerous inquiries from parents wanting help in their new roles as teacher. By the time the second lockdown came in January, he had set up a free online parent-support course that offered expert
"My goal was to teach learners what they were supposed to be taught at school while they are away," she said, "so that when they return it would be easier for them to keep up." Mngadi continues to conduct these virtual lessons, but post-pandemic she’d like
to expand this and is looking for "a good Samaritan" to help finance a building with a proper technology setup. The ultimate goal is to create an Ingosi Yabantwana academy that would enable her to
reach more disadvantaged communities in need
of assistance.
Award-winning poet and language coach Gloria Thandekile Mngadi is the founder of Ingosi Yabantwana, an academic foundation created during the pandemic to ensure that children in South Africa didn't miss out on important literacy skills. Determined to reach as wide an audience as possible — yet mindful of spotty internet access — she used WhatsApp to reach young people across the country with daily lessons in both English and isiZulu, a native language of the region that Mngadi is dedicated to preserving.
series of online lessons using Webex — including more than 180 breakout sessions. The goal was to master the skills needed for a grand finale, where they would virtually fight the “end boss” (Körner in a Batman suit). "It showed me that there are always opportunities to adapt," said Körner. The experiment was such a success that Körner has now enrolled in an innovative master's program in game-based media and education. "This way of teaching has also become a new research topic of mine, leading to several keynotes and research articles," he said.
When the pandemic hit, Professor Swen Körner at the German Sport University Cologne went to extraordinary lengths to deliver his mandatory self-defense class to students. Knowing they preferred to at least try the physical part of the course online, Körner developed a way to make the experience interactive, exciting, and memorable. He put his students into teams of four and “gamified” the course. Called Train2Fight the Virus, the online course saw students tackle daily and weekly challenges to score points, while improving their self-defense skills via a
Under normal circumstances, Costanza Corridori — a fourth-year law student at Luiss University in Rome — would be spending her time as a volunteer in the university's VolontariaMENTE program helping disabled children from Western Sahara come to Italy for medical treatment. When the pandemic put a temporary halt to this, Corridori and her fellow volunteers pivoted their activities online, embarking on a new fundraising campaign so they could send food packages to children living in refugee camps in the Sahara desert.
Costanza Corridori
The versatile volunteer
craving a relatable peer. “Many told us that they felt more inclined to learn from a university student than their parents, and the digital nature of the connections made everything easy to set up,” he said. For the university students, it was a way to keep active and stay connected at a time when they, too, were struggling. Now, Reiners' focus has shifted to socially disadvantaged children who have fallen behind. "I really hope there is no 'back to normal' mentality after the pandemic," he said. "Schools need to implement digital solutions into their classes."
Within seven hours of Germany's first lockdown in March 2020, Christopher Reiners, a recent university graduate in math and computer science, and a few friends created a new “Corona School” and launched a website overnight. Their goal was to have university students use digital technology to give free online one-on-one tutoring to younger students. "We had children in a new, unfamiliar situation, suddenly needing to study with parents and siblings, while on the other hand we had older students wanting to get involved socially," Reiners said. Within 10 days, more than 5,000 users had registered, showing how much these students were
Instead of the volunteers' world shrinking, Corridori said that online tools such as Webex helped to expand their reach, with an increase in students and other partners ready and willing to get involved. "I learned that even during difficult situations, we can do the impossible," she said. She now feels that tech will keep playing a fundamental role in her goals.
Christopher Reiners
The educational matchmaker
Swen Körner
The gamification professor
Gloria Thandekile Mngadi
The digital linguist
Leon Hady
The parents’ helper
Jeff Nyoka
The resourceful librarian
Jonas Rohleder
The gym-class innovator
Dounia Hannach
The flexible founder
Alistair Johnson
The tech transformer