In a concise period of time, thousands of families worldwide had to adjust their lives to the new reality brought on by the novel coronavirus. In a bid to slow the disease’s transmission, non-essential businesses and many schools were closed. Parents have to assume additional responsibility for their daily education and engagement with students unable to attend classes and confined to their homes.
For working parents who, until now, happily relied on professional educators’ services, the new experience can be disorienting. How to help your children keep up with their education milestones in a home setting? How to teach them to manage their time, right? And how to help them balance work with play?
Thankfully, modern technology has know-hows that can make this period easier for parents and children alike. The booming demand for remote education and engagement tools incentivized software developers to design a host of solutions tailored to the new learning realities. Many of those are mobile learning solutions that allow creators to leverage the unparalleled accessibility, versatility, and interactivity of present-day smartphones.
Enhance remote education with mobile
Schools and universities have overwhelmingly shifted to online learning, but this doesn’t mean your kids have to be glued to their seats all day long. Mobile learning (mLearning) solutions are being adopted across the board to diversify and enrich learning experiences.
mLearning apps offer an easy way to stay on schedule, with push notifications and other reminders to help students stay on track with assignments and never miss an online class.
Such apps integrate the authentication features available in smartphones (including biometric authentication) to streamline logging in, which saves time without compromising the security of teacher-student interactions.
Another important benefit of using mobile learning solutions is connectivity. While not every community might have high-speed internet access, mobile connectivity covers a far bigger area, making it possible for educators to reach even the kids in remote locations.
Gamify cognitive skill exercises
It’s not all about online classes and homework: parents of school students can’t underestimate the importance of working on cognitive skills. Various attention, short- and long-term memory, information processing, and creative problem-solving require constant stimulation to develop correctly.
This is another area where smartphones can be turned into amazing learning tools. To unlock the full benefits of this technology, opt for solutions created under professional teachers and cognitive ability experts’ guidance.
A good example here is MentalUP, an iOS-based app that streamlines the development of concentration and analytical thinking, visual intelligence, and other important cognitive skills in children and provides the functionality for tracking and encouraging performance. Apps like Elevate challenge highschoolers with sophisticated brain games tailored to their interests and abilities.
Engage your students with rich video content
Facts and concepts delivered in video format are easier to take in than dry academic text or even colorful pictures with captions. Educational video materials have penetrated the curriculums of even the most conservative teachers, but in lockdown conditions, video, and especially mobile video, becomes king.
Netflix has recently made dozens of videos from its library free to access on YouTube to help educators support their classes with high-quality video content. If your household already subscribes to a popular streaming platform like Netflix, Disney+, or Hulu, you can create a separate profile with fully customizable parental controls that will be just as effective for mobile watching.
Access professional tutoring on mobile
What if your child struggles with homework on a specific subject, or an important exam is coming up, and want to increase their confidence? Tutoring apps exist to cover just this kind of need.
One of the top benefits of tutoring apps is how much easier they make it for parents to evaluate tutors before making the pick. Hourly rates, user ratings, and reviews are there at your fingertips, and if after a couple of classes you decide to switch, app creators have already built the features that will help you do that as fast and hassle-free as possible.
From established leaders like Khan Academy and Chegg Tutors to promising startups like Snapask, there are plenty of options to choose from depending on your preferences and the student’s needs.
How are you using tech to help your students? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter or Facebook. You can also comment on our MeWe page by joining the MeWe social network.
About the Author
Irina Demianchuk is a Technology Copywriter at Oxagile, a mobile learning solutions development company. You can find her publications in online publications like TechNative, Young Upstarts, DEVOPSdigest, Learning Solutions, and Oxagile’s blog.
Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
