Hosted by , contributed by Kyriaki_Vakkou on 13 December 2022
During the global pandemic and school closure, both teacher and students were facing significant difficulties in communicating and collaborating from a distance. In Cyprus, the official digital environment that was used in the pandemic was the Microsoft TEAMS. Teachers and students needed to acquire the skills to interact, share and collaborate on learning material (docs) through MO365 and TEAMS. At the same time, a main problem was the limited availability of student personal devices and the lack of the internet connection in their homes.
To overcome these problems, a Cypriot school, in collaboration with the local community and the Ministry of education, provided tablets and internet access to students who needed them. Specifically, the parents association and the local authorities contributed by providing financial support for the purchase of additional devices. A teacher of the school, who received online training provided by the Ministry of Education, supported and trained both students and their parents on basic digital skills and on using the aforementioned technologies. In addition, the teacher was required to adopt distance teaching and learning by using TEAMS and O365 (Word + PPT) applications, as recommended by the Ministry of Education.
In facing this challenge, the students’ digital competence developed in such a way that they were able to communicate and collaborate from a distance. They were able to meet online (TEAMS MEETINGS/DISCUSSIONS in real time) and collaborate (teacher ‐ students) on learning materials (study, assessments, content creation) within their TEAM Classes. By implementing the above, a novel way of learning was offered to both the students and the teacher because of the insights (learning analytics, personalized learning) provided to the teacher by the learning environment. In addition, students were able to use the internet for leisure and entertainment improving their psychological state after school hours, while utilizing the available technology and acquired skills enable them to be creative in the classroom and beyond. Both the student families and the local community were satisfied by the continuity of the learning process and the teacher, as well as inspectors, observed an improvement in the students' learning ability and wellbeing.