As many educational institutions around the globe are undergoing, extending, or planning closures due to COVID-19, half of the world’s student population is unable to attend school.
Educators face the challenge of teaching remotely at an unprecedented scale, and in some cases, for the first time. Last week Google rolled out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers globally and in the Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, KSA, and the UAE, until 1 July.
“Today, we’re announcing two new resources to help teachers and students stay connected,” Google said.
Teach From Home is a central hub of information, tips, training and tools from across Google for Education to help teachers keep teaching, even when they aren’t in the classroom. The hub provides an overview of how to get started with distance learning—for example how to teach online, make lessons accessible to students, engage with students, and collaborate with other educators. Teach from Home is now available in Arabic, with downloadable toolkits available in many languages including Arabic.
On the hub, teachers can learn how to create a ”Class”, set up a video call using ”Meet”, invite students to join their first online class, create online tests and presentations, set assignments in “Classroom”, collaborate with students using ”Jamboard” and live stream sessions on YouTube.
Teach from Home was built with the support and cooperation of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, who is also working with other education partners to respond to this emergency. This resource will continue to evolve and improve as we hear feedback from teachers and partners on what’s most helpful.
The YouTube Learning destination is a new hub on YouTube designed to help students with high-quality learning content in Arabic. The destination features content ranging from grade 7 mathematics for example to grade 12 chemistry and shares tips for learners about how to study at home. The playlists on the hub will cover multiple subjects with more to be included in the coming days such as Arabic, English, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, and Chemistry.
“We’ll continue to improve our products and find more opportunities to help educators and students benefit from technology and continue learning remotely,” the company pledged.
