Online learning post-pandemic

There seems to be much discussion about ‘adaptive teaching’ in education as we look towards 2024.  Av Srivastava in ‘Learning Light,’ explains the meaning as ‘...to use technology to improve education and training by providing individualised programmes to students based on data that is gathered both before and throughout the learning process.’

Online learning has been a hot topic for the last few years.  Many employees are being encouraged back into the office after the sudden need for remote/home working during the COVID pandemic era.  Some companies are suggesting a 2 day at home/3 day in the office working routine.  Like anything, remote work has had its advantages and disadvantages in most cases and there has been much discussion in the media about increased or decreased work productivity.  In education, remote or distance learning was a huge change in 2020, especially to primary and secondary school settings.  University courses were mainly taught online and schools and colleges were closed to most learners during the lockdowns, so virtual learning was vital.  Now that the world is largely back to ‘normal’, is there still a place for online learning in education and training?

ChatGPT has featured heavily in the media, both in terms of educational literature and social media.  It is an artificial (AI) chatbot, developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022.  Amongst its skills are: writing texts of varying length, explaining topics or translating text.  You can ‘train it’ to improve its effectiveness, based on your own preferences and likes/dislikes.

Meningitis is an infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. It can affect anyone but more usually infants, children, teenagers and young adults. The key to the condition is to spot the symptoms early and get the casualty to hospital as quickly as possible. 

It seems that whenever you ask what the age groups of paediatric first aid are, a whole mixture of different answers comes back to you! The truth is that there isn't actually one set answer but some important guidelines to follow, which by their nature could help save a child or infant's life.

You may have read this title and thought, what does this mean? Is it literally about games? You would be right! The idea behind ‘gamifying’ a classroom is to reflect the best aspects of gaming and bring them in to education. We all know that many young people (and adults!) love to game. Online/digital gaming is an enormous industry, with approximately 3 billion active gamers in the world. That figure has increased by 1 billion in 7 years, due to massive advances in technology and social media.

Behaviour management is one of the hardest challenges for any teacher or trainer to master and unfortunately many practitioners decide to leave the teaching profession early. The difficult reality is behaviour management has no quick-fix, your classroom experiences will shape your confidence as a teacher and improve your decision making when behaviour issues occur. My advice for any new teacher or trainer is to read up on articles surrounding maintaining classroom discipline, this will give you a solid grounding before you enter the classroom environment.

The roles of a teacher/trainer extend much wider than presenting in front of a classroom of learners. Behind every lesson there is a considerable amount of planning and preparation in order to cater for every learner’s individual need and inspire them to achieve their goals. There are a number of roles of a teacher/trainer which they will demonstrate on a daily basis.  Below are the most prominent roles within the education/training sector: 

Teaching is not a career that people choose for an easy life – the workload seems never ending at times. Alas, we can’t turn up at 9.00 and finish at 3.00 – no matter what some people may think! Itis most definitely a job in which you can never ‘be finished’, tidy your desk and smile smugly to yourself at a job well done. So how can we realistically improve our workloads when we are trying to: plan, mark, assess, present data, prepare presentations/resources, sort displays, call parents/carers, design seating plans, write reports, set targets.....oh...and teach?

One popular workplace assessment is a vehicle safety check. This is a daily task for the estimated 275,000 lorry drivers employed in the UK, and extends to all other types of vehicular drivers. Any candidate or fully qualified assessor may be involved in assessing the competence of a person carrying out a daily vehicle check.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) defines a lone worker as “Someone who works by themselves without close or direct supervision”. It is estimated that there are 8 million lone workers in the UK alone. Working on your own carries specific risks related to accidents and illness. Employers and employees need to be prepared for what actions to take during an emergency situation.

Jellyfish are freeswimming marine animals with trailing tentacles, used as a method of defence, and to trap their prey. Humans through their marine activities can sometimes make contact with the jellyfish’s tentacles and receive a nasty sting. This can range from an itch to a life threatening allergic reaction. Ignoring first aid myths and applying a simple treatment protocol could help alleviate the symptoms of a sting.

Workplace assessments take place in real time and must be conducted during a real life working task. This differs from a vocational assessment which is conducted during any training based activity when a person is not actively working in their role.

Anaphylaxis causes 20-30 deaths per annum within the UK; however this figure is thought to be underestimated. Many deaths occur from life threatening reactions to different food groups and insect bites. In some cases but not always, these are preventable through prompt first aid treatment.

When somebody suffers a cut or graze there is always a risk that the associated wound can become infected. Cleaning the wound is a very good preventative measure, but if the wound was not cleaned and is already infected then hindsight will not be of any use. 

15% of people in the UK are neurodivergent; they have brains that differ significantly from society’s expected norms…fascinating brains!  This implies that you are very likely to encounter one or more neurodivergent learners during your teaching career.  You may have already done so and would like to learn more and develop or refine your strategies; every single one of those 15% of people is, of course, an individual and will respond to different things.

There is a higher prevalence of insect bites during the warm summer months within the UK. Luckily most of our insects are harmless and will only cause mild symptoms. They can however be extremely painful and may cause infection if left untreated. It is also important to recognise the symptoms of anaphylaxis, which is a life threatening form of an allergic reaction affecting small numbers of the population.