A parent homeschooling her children. Photo by Daily Nation.
Schools are likely to remain closed for the better part of the year, keeping children at home, if the global coronavirus pandemic persists. This may disrupt the school calendar and result in learners retaking lessons of the classes they are in when the pandemic is finally brought under control.
In her recent speech to the nation regarding the Ministry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister of Education advised parents and guardians to work together in the best interest of our children during this time when they are at home. The role of a homeschooling parent is to act as an academic teacher, teaching children a range of different topics. Homeschooling your children amid the Covid-19 pandemic can be a great challenge. Because of this challenge, many schools are publishing digital educational resources on eLearning sections of their websites. Several individuals and companies have also established online platforms for eLearning and resource sharing.
In this article I have compiled for you some of the popular eLearning and Educational resource sharing systems which can be used by parents and their children for homeschooling:
Public Educational Resource Sharing platforms like:
- Sharebility Uganda resource repositories (old and new).
- ITAU Resource Pool
Resourceful School Websites like :
- Gayaza High School e-tutoring Website,
- Kings College Budo Website (Academics Section) and
- Midfield Secondary School Website (E Learning Section).
- Standard High School Zzana (STAHIZA) e-resources.
- WHITE ANGELS HIGH SCHOOL KALAGALA – E-Learning.
- MOTHERCARE SCHOOLS WEB DOWNLOADS.
- Nabisunsa Girls Secondary School elearning.
- KAWEMPE MUSLIM SECONDARY SCHOOL Download Center.
- Light Academy Nursery and Primary School Website [Holiday Work]
- Light Academy Secondary School E-Light
- St Lawrence Schools and Colleges Website [Holiday Work]
- ST. ALOYSIUS SSS NABBINGO (STALOS) ONLINE LIBRARY
Educational Resource Repositories like
- NCDC Website Publications
- Online Kolibri for Uganda Schools
- The Digital Teachers Platform,
- TutorView Platform,
- WALKTRACK EDU Platform,
- Revise Now Platform,
- ExamUganda Platform,
- Mwalimu Learning Platform, and
- Passuneb.com.
Platforms with courses for students by Ugandan School teachers, e.g:
- Somesa Uganda,
- Yaaka Digital Learning Network,
- iLearn Africa Study Platform and
- the new Magezi Academy
Individual Ugandan Blogs with Educational resources and classwork such as:
- Mubula Resource Center of Excellence,
- Lucky Coders Uganda Blog…
- Fresh Teacher’s e-Learning Platform
- plus more Teacher WordPress blogs highlighted in this article on the ICT Teachers Website.
Many teachers are also using platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram and Google Classroom to interact and directly share digital learning materials with their learners:
- This is the most popular Telegram Channel for Teachers in Uganda with over 1770 subscribers
- And this is another telegram group ‘TEACHERS CONNECT‘ with over 500 teachers
- This one is for ICT Students with some teachers who guide them.
MTN Uganda is further supporting the fight against the spread of the Coronavirus by offering free access to select educational websites to enable parents home school their children. Here is a list of zero-rated educational websites that you can use to learn from home or access for your kids to keep tabs on their education.
- www.classroommagazines.scholastic.com
- www.allinonehomeschool.com
- www.starfall.com
- www.abcya.com
- www.funbrain.com
- www.splashlearn.com
- www.storylineonline.net
- www.pbskids.org
- www.highlightkids.com
- www.coolmath4kids.com
- www.mathgametime.com
- www.uniteforliteracy.com
- www.literactive.com
- www.sciencekids.co.nz
- www.switchzoo.com
- www.turtlediary.com
- www.e-learningforkids.org
Also checkout:
- The Top e-Learning Platforms Transforming Africa
- Top 20 Global Homeschool Resources
- Open Educational Resources (OERs)
- Digital Science For You (Cyber School Program)
Several Television Stations in town are also airing lessons to facilitate homeschooling in Uganda
SIGNIFICANCE OF EDUCATIONAL DIGITAL RESOURCE-SHARING AND E-LEARNING
Educational digital resource-sharing refers to the use of learning resources (course content, research, assessment materials, etc.) in digital format by different learners located in more than one educational institution. However, sharing educational digital resources efficiently and effectively is a challenge. One barrier is that currently available resources have not been described accurately and do not readily interoperate. In this context, collaborations can reduce costs associated with designing and implementing commonly used resources (i.e. sharing of reusable learning objects housed in a common repository). It is therefore important that frameworks are explored on how best the sharing of these educational resources may be made possible.
E-learning refers to the utilization of ICT tools, services and digital content in education. E-learning presents enormous opportunities to significantly facilitate the effectiveness of delivering the learning contents and gaining access to an immense pool of educational information if appropriately utilized, and it has also gained global recognition as a method to improve the teaching and learning processes aimed at creating an economy powered by technology and propelled by information and knowledge. E-learning in schools is used both by students and staff in the process of exchanging information and gaining knowledge, as well as for communication and easy access to educational information at a cheaper cost.
ICTs provide an array of powerful tools that may help in transforming the present isolated, teacher-centered and text-bound classrooms into rich, student-focused, interactive knowledge environments. Consequently, digital e-learning is increasingly being suggested as an alternative to, or a way to enhance, traditional educational approaches since it can overcome many of the challenges involved in reaching undeserved students.
Current trends in e-learning recognize that in order to support different teaching and learning paradigms, e-learning should deal with more than simply reading online lessons: – content as well as communication and collaboration have to be supported in a personalized manner by e-learning systems. Current trends also show that online learning will be increasingly diverse to respond to different learning cultures, styles, and motivations. Personalization and adaptability will continue to be key issues in modern e-learning environments as they improve the knowledge acquisition process.
To facilitate online learning, various e-learning systems have been developed and are being used to provide a medium by which course materials can be delivered and accessed in a web-based platform as well as to provide the technology medium for interaction among the learning community. In order to improve their design, there is need for regular evaluation to assess the extent to which they continue to meet the goals of learning and their impact.
However, the power of e-learning is more than technology; it includes the social dynamics of networking. The revolutionary impact of e-learning lies not simply in having a multimedia platform on a single desktop. It is the combined power of a worldwide network of such computers – that connects authors, instructors and learners globally – with the immediacy of text, graphics, audio and video, as well as interactivity and collaborative sharing. Therefore, as Uganda increasingly embraces ICT in education and e-Learning , it is essential to develop ways to encourage and facilitate collaboration and cooperation.
ICTs provide an array of powerful tools helping in transforming the present isolated, teacher-centered and text-bound classrooms into rich, student-focused, interactive knowledge environments. This enhances the traditional educational approaches since it can overcome many of the challenges involved in reaching undeserved students in Uganda. By pooling resources and taking advantage of each other’s expertise, learning providers can build adequate capacity, reduce redundancy in infrastructure and reduce costs.
The growing trend of distributed heterogeneous educational resource sharing and eLearning systems can realize the inter-connection, inter-communication and sharing, reduce the cost of educational resources and speed up the process of access to resources for teaching and learning. Consequently, the time and cost that would have been incurred by an institution is sharable amongst the partners through a give-and-take commitment. This is the reason why several countries have adopted the norm of being part of educational networks and associations.
Know of other Ugandan Educational digital resource sharing and E-learning systems not mentioned here? Let us know in the comments!