Surviving the Pandemic – Educating Kids (and Adults) Through eLearning and Online Courses

This week has been trying on many parents and kids alike. As we all try to find our new normal in the mist of the COVID-19 quarantine, many of us struggle to find new ways to both work, parent and teach our kids.

To keep my kids from spending entire days on the PS4 or just watching NetFlicks my husband and I have implemented a mandatory 1 hour of learning per day. As a former teacher and being in the eLearning field, I enjoyed today going through the Khan Academy courses (which look very similar to eLearning for adults. In addition, my daughter and I spent some time today exploring TVO’s learning games for elementary kids. I was struck by how much the games for children look like the learning games we have developed for many of our corporate clients (check out one of the many games we have developed by clicking here).

As part of our mandatory 1 hour of learning, I had my daughter write what she learned from our one hour together completing and eLearning math lesson.

Hi I’m Maddie and I really enjoyed eLearning today. There were so many things to do it was almost like I was sitting in class myself there were so many different challenges to do. I mainly liked the math online course, because it was a challenge and because even my mom messed up and that made me realize I’m probably doing ok because my mom is already finished grade 5. Well this is my opinion on eLearning and let me know what you think.

My daughter’s paragraph, got me thinking about my Masters of Education thesis (and the fact that I clearly need to brush up on my grade 5 math skills). Back in 1998, I wrote my Masters of Education thesis on how computer literacy in the 21st century, would be as important as reading literacy in previous generations. I was fortunate enough after grad school to receive a job with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), I remember being told by one administrator, that eLearning and online learning would never replace classroom training. I think this week has proved that maybe…maybe it just might could.