Next Monday, March 30, remote education will begin throughout Lithuania, which may continue indefinitely - it is predicted that quarantine may continue until the end of the school year. The municipality of the capital is already ready for this challenge and offers a package of tools, using which students of various classes and their teachers can safely and productively continue the learning process from home. A group of volunteers is also ready to help educational institutions.
"Currently, kindergartens and schools are experiencing challenges that change the normal rhythm of life. The city of Vilnius reacts to them quickly, taking on often atypical tasks with due seriousness. For this, together with our colleagues from the Vilnius Education Progress Center and specialists from the municipality, we have created a whole package of measures that will help ensure continuous education even in such conditions that require a lot of strength and patience. I am sure that distance education can not only help everyone to master IT better, but also help the entire education system to become more focused on the individualized education of independent personalities. I invite every teacher not to postpone their development and to take an extra step so that education in Vilnius does not stop," said Deputy Mayor Vytautas Mitalas.
From March 30 real remote teaching must begin in all Vilnius schools. Educational institutions are recommended to start distance learning using already familiar instruments: electronic diaries, e. by mail, by gathering with students in social network groups or other usable channels. Students and teachers are invited to use all available means of communication - whether computers or laptops.
For those schools that do not have a commonly used interactive distance learning platform, the capital city municipality invites you to choose one of several main distance learning platforms. Vilnius was the first in Lithuania to create free connections to the Google learning platform for all interested educational institutions, and also prepared recommendations for distance education last week.
"In these difficult times, technology gives students the opportunity to learn and improve remotely. Teachers can choose from a variety of free tools to bring students together in virtual classrooms, create assignments, share feedback, or grade student work. To help schools prepare for virtual distance learning, we have prepared "G Suite for Education" instructions and visual training materials, we organize seminars and provide specialist consultations in Lithuanian. This educational material is available to all educators in the country," said Google's Head of Public Policy for the Baltic States, Paulius Vertelka.
On the website http://svietimas.vilnius.lt both teachers and parents can find all the necessary information and recommendations on how to properly continue the learning process from home. The page also divides lessons by grade and subject - separate sub-pages have been created for primary, basic and secondary education, and all relevant information about learning resources will be available on the website - from comprehensive tools to recommendations on how to create tools yourself. Recommendations and other additional learning tools are provided - virtual museum tours, movie channels, and the like.
The school is constantly consulted in this process by specialists from the Vilnius Educational Progress Center and volunteers from the Gediminas Legion. All consultations take place remotely: trainings, remote lectures on how to use platforms and work remotely, class schedule. The Center for Educational Progress is constantly updating the useful training calendar. Individual consultations from IT specialists are also provided to help answer questions for advanced distance learning users. In addition to all this, the Vilnius e-teacher platform is currently being developed, which will allow teachers to improve in the field of distance education and receive the Vilnius e-teacher certificate after attending a sufficient number of lectures and seminars.
Vilnius city municipality mobilizing a force of volunteers who can also help schools smoothly initiate distance learning. There are two groups on Facebook that are relevant for education specialists: Vilnius teachers is dedicated to the communication of the Vilnius education community with each other, the group Gediminas Legionas | Volunteers are a common group of volunteers from all fields to solve the situation in Vilnius.
