COVID -19 has hugely impacted lives across the globe. The dawn of the pandemic has brought life to a standstill. Fear and anxiety gripped people across the world as everyone was in the run to protect their lives.
A few months down the line, the new normal started becoming a part of life wherein work from home, shopping and even online school started becoming a regular norm. It became an arduous task for students to adjust to online school as the concept was very new.
Not only students but parents of younger children were finding the online school out of place as there was a big shift from physical school learning to online learning. The rapid transition of the education system has left the children and educators with many risks pertaining to online schooling.
Children and youngsters as such are vulnerable to experiencing or witnessing cyber-bullying, cyber-crimes, watching age-inappropriate content and being blackmailed by people to bring them down emotionally, financially and sexually.
There are various safety measures that are already adopted by many schools to conduct their online school, and can still follow or take up stringent safety measures for the security of the children.
Here are the 8 best safety measures that can accelerate the safety of students in online learning:
- Check on the safety of the tools to conduct the classes
Different schools use different teaching portals to teach online. Every school should assess the safety and the risk factors involved in the tools used and make the necessary changes. There are various safety resources to enhance safety and these resources make the process faster and easier.
Check on your school’s readiness to assess specific risks and improvise your policies and procedures accordingly. Frame and implement learning and teaching plans to protect the safety of children.
- Student information not to be shared
Never share the personal information of students like name, telephone numbers, address, photos, payment information, etc. for online learning. When submitting assignments or sharing them blur if the names are visible. Create policies and tools that can support such activities and be cautious while sharing personal information and chats during online school.
- Rules and regulations for an online school to be made clear to staff
It is crucial for the staff of the school to be aware of the rules and regulations, procedures and policies of online school. Staff must be trained to be tech-savvy to understand and help students with problems and should report to higher authorities if any harm is caused online to the children. Teachers should be aware of helplines and jurisdictions to be contacted to help out students in times of need.
- Sharing information with students
Be very careful while sharing information with the students. No information shared should breach the privacy of the students. All the information should have a backup in the school mail or servers. Email ids, passwords, conference links, and meeting ids should be maintained within the safety of the school and its students. Educate the students on the protection of their and the school related passwords. Never use the personal ids of students to share information. Use school provided email ids for sharing information or assigning work to the students.
With several login ids and passwords, it might become difficult for students to remember, hence encourage them to use the email id provided by the school. A single sign-on the platform is the best way schools can create kids for students.
- Good Internet Practices
With various cybercrimes and frauds happening on the net and social media, educate students on good internet practices like not to open unnecessary ads and emails with unknown addresses as this may spread viruses and leak your information. Also, the students should be told not to download files and install software unnecessarily.
- Use of the right technology and apps
There are umpteen numbers of different technologies and apps available. Tell students the importance of technology and how it should be used effectively for an online school. Also, it is not necessary to download all the apps in the play store as they come with their own risks. Educators though cannot control what the students will download or do, but should guide them in choosing the right one.
- The balance between online class time and other activities
As online school is a new concept for students, it is very important to teach them how to balance their class and other activities. Make the class interesting so that the students are not stressed and start the class on-time and finish it on time the way it happens in physical schools so that students have time to play and spend time with family and other activities.
- Update online school safety measures from time to time
There are various platforms today that offer resources pertaining to safety measures for online schools. Analyse the problems faced by the students, take their feedback on the online classes, assess the risk factors and take appropriate measures on a timely basis.
Online learning is here to stay and digital technology will become an integral part of the education system. To have a smooth and efficient online school it is very important and mandatory to take necessary measures to protect the safety of students and the school. Let us know if you have any suggestions for the safety of students during online learning.
