Unleashing the power of AI for education

Continuing Education

Article | November 15, 2022

Teacher burnout has become a massive challenge for many educational institutions. According to the National Education Association, 55% of the teachers surveyed are considering quitting their profession much earlier than planned. Over 600,000 teachers have already quit in the span of 2020 and 2021. Educational institutions must prepare to identify burnout and ensure teachers successfully create an inclusive, engaging learning experience. Recognizing the Signs of Teacher Burnout Laurie Santos, a professor at Yale University and a cognitive scientist, says that burnout has three major symptoms. Being Emotionally Exhausted Emotional exhaustion is when a person feels exhausted and burned out even after a full night’s sleep. Depersonalizing Santos equates depersonalizing with feeling high levels of cynicism towards others. Individuals who are depersonalizing often feel annoyed at people requesting them to doing something that is part of their regular role. This frustration signals burnout. Reduced Personal Efficacy When an individual feels like she isn’t making a difference or she isn’t doing her job well, a sort of disenchantment sets in. To the individual, it may feel like they aren’t being effective at their work, and this is a sign of burnout. How Teachers Can Reduce Burnout Teacher burnout must be treated as a serious issue. Educational institutions and teachers should team up to ensure they don’t undergo burnout. Here are some ways to do that: Don’t Ignore It Organizations must have a system in place so teachers can seek the help they need to treat their burnout symptoms. A lot of teachers tend to ignore negative emotions in order to keep working, but this is the wrong approach. Just as screen time must be regulated for children, teachers need to regulate their workloads. Instead of sweeping it under the rug, acknowledge it and treat it so you can bounce back higher. Don’t Attach Your Identity to Your Job Santos says that burnout is sometimes a result of being unable to separate your identity from your job. This is something that happens a lot with educators. A way to treat it is to spend off time with friends, engage in hobbies unrelated to your profession, or invest more energy in other life roles, like being a parent. To Conclude In the age of remote learning, teachers and educators must be careful not to let their love of teaching hurt their physical and mental health. As a profession, teaching tends to take its toll. When you combine that with teacher shortages and cases of overwork, education becomes a high risk, high turnover industry.

Education Technology

Article | August 4, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting unique challenges for colleges and universities, and finding ways for international students to return to school amid travel bans or other pandemic-related restrictions will be one of the most complex. Many international students finished the previous semester via remote connection after colleges and universities encouraged students to return home in March, but doing so hasn’t been simple. Students living in alternate time zones from their professors are forced to stay awake all night to complete online seminars, and some are contending with a poor internet connection as well as social isolation. There will be additional challenges for students abroad who hope to return to school in the fall, from travel restrictions to securing visas with closed consulate offices.

Education Technology

Article | July 20, 2022

Virtual learning is a great way to ensure accessibility and continuity of education. With schools and higher education enthusiastically adopting hybrid forms of online and classroom learning, measuring the outcomes has become crucial. Monitoring facilitates the ability to gain insight into the effectiveness of learning programs. It provides educators the insight and feedback they need to design better educational programs, engage students on a deeper level, build a collaborative classroom, and boost smart classroom management. This is especially essential when a virtual learning component is involved. With learners scattered geographically, the importance of monitoring students becomes a pressing challenge. While it has been traditionally done through a variety of approaches like assignments, quizzes, practical exams, and so on, with digitalization in classrooms, educators must now incorporate new monitoring techniques and assessment protocols to ensure they have a solid insight into overall student progress. Here are ways to monitor students with classroom management. Interactivity in the Classroom Interactive lessons are one of the best teaching devices. Not only do they engage learners, but they also ensure longer retention of information. In addition, they enable teachers to monitor the benefit of classroom management software. Many classroom management software solutions offer the ability to integrate interactivity within remote learning classes. Some of these include: Chat boxes that let teachers and students interact with each other. Some tools offer the virtual equivalent of raising a hand in class, allowing students to take part in conversations just like in a physical classroom. Polls that allow teachers and professors to maintain the attention of the whole class by encouraging them to answer questions, provide feedback, or responses to enrich classroom conversations. Whiteboard tools give learners and educators the ability to draw, write, or point to images so they can evoke interaction with the classroom while leading a discussion. Breakout rooms enable students to form smaller groups, which lets teachers assign group projects and activities in real-time. Seamless Collaboration Communication and collaboration are the bedrock of effective learning. In a virtual environment, both can take a hit. However, with the right approach and the tools to support it, it’s possible for educators to enhance classroom collaboration and monitor the learning progress of their students. Here are some tools that can help educators ensure collaboration in the classroom: Video discussion that enables teachers to create video rooms within the classroom to facilitate face-to-face discussion for different topics. Learners can choose to either record videos or communicate in real time. Portfolio creation tools that let students work on a project and use images, text, gifs, and videos to enrich discussions and improve collaboration among groups Gamification in online learning combines the best of entertainment and education. For trivia and quiz-based assessments, Peer-to-peer Feedback Peer-to-peer feedback in the classroom is often neglected, but it is an important form of collaborative learning. Additionally, it provides a great way to track progress, compare teacher feedback, and monitor collaboration. In higher education, this is an especially vital resource. A significant challenge that educators face in encouraging peer feedback is getting learners to be more specific. This can be achieved through A study by Springer revealed that students give better peer feedback when it is anonymous. It allows learners to provide more in-depth and specific input. With online tools, this is made easier and faster. With anonymous feedback, it is easy to get carried away. This is why some tools allow students to flag particular feedback for a teacher’s review as well as add their response, making the process truly democratic. Receiving feedback is an impactful way to learn, and by learning to give the right feedback, learners get to form a new perspective on a subject, ensuring smart classroom management. Final Thoughts Remote learning classroom management software has made it simpler to reach learners and create a thriving educational environment. However, remote learning poses challenges in monitoring student progress. And yet, with so many new tools and classroom management platforms, monitoring in education is easier than ever. Educators can monitor students with classroom management and contribute to building more efficient learning approaches. They can also keep a close eye on the progress of individual students and introduce new lesson plans and tasks based on the insights they receive

Article | August 20, 2020

In today’s learning environment, students need more than academic knowledge to thrive in college, careers and beyond. As a result, educators are dually tasked with increasing core subject comprehension and developing 21st-century skills, especially in STEM. Project-based learning (PBL) is designed to do both. By inviting students to solve real-world challenges in their own community, we can draw the connection between these modern skills and the changing world around us.