Webinar on distance learning in pandemic times

What dilemmas and challenges do teachers and schools face during the pandemic in providing quality education for all and how can teacher education support this?
 

Time: April 15th (Thursday) at 15.00-17.00 CET / 16.00-18.00 EST

Place: Zoom

ZOOM

Audience: Teacher education institutions around Europe – TEPE network members, school principals, teachers, policy makers, student teachers, teacher educators etc

Epidemics have a long history, as does education. However, the current Covid-19 pandemic seems to present challenges and problems that education has not yet faced. The fact that it is a dangerous global threat, at a time when education is supposed to be living up to the principle of quality education for all, certainly contributes to this. With the outbreak of the pandemic, not only health and wellness standards but also educational standards were suddenly at high risk. 

Medical and pharmaceutical knowledge promised to manage the health aspects of the pandemic and has already achieved some success. In the area of educational knowledge, hope was placed, at least initially, primarily on the technological means of distance learning (ICT). However, the closure of schools and the move to 'learning from home' brought with it a whole range of issues to which educators and policy makers had no effective answers and which can’t be solved only by technological means. In the field of educational sciences as well as in educational practice, the central question today is how to defend vulnerable educational activities during a period of lockdown and maintain quality, inclusive education for all. 

The aim of the webinar is to introduce results of distance learning studies in different countries focusing on What dilemmas and challenges teachers and schools face in this context in providing quality education for all? Following questions are addressed: 

1. How do teachers manage in a distance learning situation?
2. How is teaching changed?
3. What kind of school level strategies are introduced to support teachers?

Presenters from three countries (each 15 minutes) will give input around raised questions introducing results of research on distance learning in three countries – Estonia, Portugal and Finland:

1. Tobias Ley, Tallinn University, Estonia 
2. Maria Assunção Flores, University of Minho, Portugal
3. Kirsi Wallinheimo and Anna Slotte, University of Helsinki, Finland

Discussion will follow, focusing on the question "What about the implications of distance teaching for (re)thinking teaching and learning and for teacher education?".

This webinar is one among the many today’s efforts in this direction worldwide. It is organized in cooperation with Tallinn University by TEPE network, which will hold an annual international online conference “Challenges of distance teaching in teacher education and education” 20-22 May 2021, organised by Ljubljana University dedicated to these issues.