[REVIEW] WHEN HOME BECOMES SCHOOL

When Home Becomes School by Mary Esposito

After reading this book you will become familiar with: • Grade level literacy standards and learning expectations for Prekindergarten to Grade One; • Strategies to help your child master the literacy tasks commonly presented in these primary grades; • Methods to guide your child to read and write on their own, with competency, proficiency, and joy; • How to create playful learning environments, that allow your child to demonstrate what he or she knows, and needs to learn (i.e., writing letters the alphabet); • Games and activities that can reinforce reading and writing development; • Fiction and nonfiction books that will motivate your child to read; • Various read aloud and questioning techniques when sharing a book with your child; • Digital websites and learning platforms that are appropriate for grades Prekindergarten to Grade One.

As we all can’t deny, 2020 hit us hard and many industries suffered by its presence. Many had to shut down their businesses and some even had to relocate just to manage it overhead spending. A pandemic that effected many lives and taken more than it should. However, there are also many others that used this time of great depression into something profitable and a place of tranquility. One of the biggest sectors to be affected is, the education industry. Students were forced to use online learning as platform to learn but in a more serious way. This meant that even kids were given a brief that online learning will be a new term to normalize.

Students can fit them around their existing responsibilities and commitments, and can engage with multimedia content and learning materials at whatever time is most convenient to them. Even better: they don’t have to travel anywhere to study, they can simply log in to the virtual campus from the comfort of their own home or office.

There’s a second reason why online learning has become so popular: it’s cheaper. Cost can often be a prohibitive factor in why individual students don’t enrol in courses they’re interested in. This is also an issue for corporations who wish to encourage their employees to undergo further training but don’t have much of a budget for conferences and training courses. Online courses are easily accessible on much smaller budgets.

In addition to the convenience and the cost, a large number of students are turning to online learning courses because they have become a better way to learn. Those students who are serious about improving their understanding, learning new skills and gaining valuable qualifications are keen to enrol in the type of course that will be the most effective.

Because online courses give students full control over their own learning, students are able to work at their own speed. Generally students work faster than they would do otherwise and take in more information. They are able to move faster through areas of the course they feel comfortable with, but slower through those that they need a little more time on.

Many offline courses struggle to retain students throughout the length of the course. The Research Institute of America have found that this is not the case with eLearning. Rather, online courses have increased student retention rates from anything from 25% to 60%.It’s been suggested that more engaging multimedia content, more control over how they take in the material and less likelihood of classes clashing with other commitments all contribute to this rise.

Many students are put off enrolling in a face to face course due to the time investment it will require. This generally involves the time to get back and forth to classes, plus the time spent waiting for tutors and other students. A Brandon Hall report on eLearning within corporations found that this style of learning typically requires 40-60% less employee time than learning in a traditional classroom setting.

It’s also key to note that eLearning options generally allow students to split the time they are investing in the course in whichever way works for them. They don’t need to be able to dedicate large chunks of time to the course: it’ll work just as well if they can set aside half an hour from their lunch break each day.

Online learning is certainly the more effective option for students, but it’s also better for the environment.The Open University in Britain have found that online courses equate to an average of 90% less energy and 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than traditional in person courses.

This certainly makes online learning and multimedia content a more effective method of education overall. Promoting and engaging in this kind of learning can help both individuals and corporations to do their bit for the environment and stick to their own personal environmental goals.

Interested in finding out more about the most effective way to learn languages? eLearning courses utilise high quality multimedia content to increase student understanding and provide an impressive virtually immersive experience.