Category: Education

In this technologically advanced era, your child can learn anything from coding languages to editing photographs online. All you need to do is explore your kids’ interests and you are good to go. Once you find the subject your child wants to ace, all you need to do is go to your web browser and find the best online course that can help your kid in learning that skill.

In this article, we will list some top online courses available for kids.

What are Online Courses?

Online courses are interactive teaching sessions shared  in a video format. When you opt for a particular online course, you will be asked to attend either live classes or you’ll get access to pre-built videos and other information to learn that course.

Online courses can be both free and paid depending upon the platform that is offering that course. Most of these courses include regular quizzes, test sessions, and much more to assure users that they are learning something new through the courses.

What are the Benefits of Online Courses?

Online courses meant for kids have the following benefits.

• Online courses help kids in learn anything and everything within time flexible environment.

• Interactive sessions offered by online courses help in grasping the information easily.

• It’s possible to master any skill, including coding for kids with online courses from comfort zone of home.

• The availability of a number of online courses helps kids to choose one that suits them best.

• Online trial sessions offer an opportunity to try as many courses as your kid wants.

• Online courses are affordable and time-efficient solutions to learn new skills.

How to Choose an Online Course

There are plenty of courses available online. From hundreds of Edutech platforms to thousands of YouTube channels, the internet is flooded with several different types of online courses.

Choosing the online course that best suits your kid is indeed a difficult task. However, your task of selecting the online course can be made easy if you take care of a few points.

1. Trial Sessions: Every online course whether paid or unpaid offers trial sessions. Take the few trial sessions of the course provided by different platforms and then choose the one that suits your kids best.

2. Reviews: Most of the popular platforms allow students to write feedback about the course. You can go through reviews and feedback of various online courses before finally selecting one.

3. Reputation: The quality of online courses highly depends on the reputation of both the teacher and the platform. Research thoroughly about the teaching skills and style of that particular teacher before enrolling your kid in any online course.

4. Resources: Kids take time to grasp knowledge conveyed through online courses. Make sure the course you pick for your kid offers various resources like videos, worksheets, podcasts, and much more for a better experience for your kids.

5. Affordable: It is a myth that only expensive online courses offers best learning experience. Even the free and courses with nominal fees can offer the best teaching sessions. Make sure your online course is affordable and won’t burn your pockets unnecessarily.

Top Online Courses for Kids

Based on the reviews and recommendations, we have listed a few of the best online courses for kids.

1. No-Code Development Course

Mobile apps are the future of the digital industry. Mastering the skills required to create and publish apps at an early age can help your kid in the future.

Appy Pie Student Developer Certification Program can offer your kid a user-friendly environment to learn how to create an app without coding even a single line. This program consists of 4 interactive sessions (one-hour each)

The No-Code Development Course offered by Appy Pie helps your kid to turn their imaginations into reality. Your child need not learn heavy coding languages to create their app based on their ideas. This course is meant for any child from K-12 levels who have an entrepreneurial knack and a basic understanding of what mobile apps are. Joel Perez, the instructor of the Program offers a seamless and smooth onboarding experience for kids.

2. Piano Lessons for Absolute Beginner

If your kid is interested to learn any instrument, you can easily go with piano. Piano is one of the easiest instruments to learn that even kids would enjoy learning and playing it.

If your kid has a knack to learn the piano, then you need not spend a huge amount of money on piano classes. You just need to opt for Piano Lessons for Absolute Beginners offered by Udemy.

It offers a free 58 minutes online course in the form of video session. This online course will you’re your kid to know about every key and its correspondent note. Your kid can also learn about major and minor scales along from a highly dignified piano teacher. And the biggest advantage of this online course is that your kid will be awarded by completion certificate also.

3. Online Language Learning

Those who understand an additional language other than their mother tongue have a great advantage with they grow up to explore various industries. The best age for learning a new language is between 3-18 years. There are English courses for kids that cater to specific age groups, which is beneficial when learning in a group session.

Mastering a language is indeed a difficult task, but is a lot easier for children. There are also online options for children to learn individually. Little Prim is a recommended educational platform that offers several online courses for 12 languages.  Little Prim follows the technique of play while learning to engage kids.

4. Codakid

Codakid is not particularly an online course but a highly efficient platform that offers interactive courses for kids. It tries to unleash the potential of young minds with its various online courses involving real coding instructions.

Offering highly affordable courses for beginners with monthly and yearly subscriptions, Codakid provides a fun learning process.  A team of friendly teachers will be available in every session of an online course.

With free trials and instant access, Codakid offers private online coding courses also. It offers more than 60 courses with over 750 challenges to test if kids can grasp something from online sessions or not. CodaKid assures your kid to master any coding language within a few months.

5. Introduction to Graphic Design

Graphics are nothing but attractive images. In this digital age, visually appealing graphics play an important role.

The graphic designing course is meant for all who have a creative knack and love to play with colors on a digital dashboard. This graphic designing course can help your kid to learn about logo designing, image editing, card making, and much more.

Appy Pie offers an interactive course Introduction to Graphic Design that is specially designed for kids. It will help create highly effective images, marketing materials, business cards, certificate design, and much more. This course covers the complete knowledge of Canva Tool and various techniques to create impressive graphics.

Summing Up

We hope you have enjoyed exploring this list of selective online courses designed to equip and educate young minds and make them better students.  Free trials allow you to try the course you feel will work best for your child’s needs.  Happy Learning!

• Learn how teachers can school classroom supplies without personal cost.
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Being good citizens can mean connecting with others, exercising empathy, and forming friendships. The concept of digital citizenship is quite similar, but it involves using modern devices like computers to form those connections.

With the world spinning toward virtual gatherings and learning more than ever before, it’s never been more important to understand the concept of digital citizenship

Generally, this can be summed up with nine elements and there are a plethora of activities to teach digital citizenship. Here, we’re providing an overview of those nine tenets to ensure you — and your tech-savvy kids or students — are mindful of how you’re exercising digital citizenship.

Be sure to download the Digital Citizenship PDF
resources found at the end of this page.

1. Digital access

Not everyone can afford modern technology. We should strive to accommodate people with less digital access by providing alternatives to classroom assignments or making required technology available.

2. Digital etiquette

Those who aren’t used to computers may take online feedback personally. Anonymous online profiles can make people feel combative and negative. However, by teaching digital etiquette, we can learn to treat digital interactions the same as real ones.

3. Digital commerce

Digital commerce has become commonplace — people of all ages buy things online. Without knowledge of digital commerce, people’s personal information can be put at risk. Teaching online safety how to properly navigate the web can help us understand how to avoid putting our personal information at risk.

4. Digital rights and responsibilities

Using anonymity to bully people on the internet takes away their right to be safe online. Teaching digital rights and responsibilities means teaching that respecting people online is just as important as respecting them in real life.

5. Digital literacy

Digital literacy involves spreading awareness of these nine elements and helping others treat the internet responsibly. It also teaches people to recognize fake information. Since so many vital social interactions happen online, staying safe and productive now includes understanding the difference between genuine and harmful content.

6. Digital law

The internet may appear abstract, but it has its own laws that everyone must follow. You can break copyright law by uploading someone else’s content or steal someone’s identity by hacking their email. And these crimes are just as severe as their real-life counterparts. We need to know and respect digital law so we can follow it and keep ourselves safe.

7. Digital communication

Everyone with access to the internet has a digital voice that they can use to express themselves. This freedom can tempt people to express anger or spread misinformation. Respectful, productive digital communication requires thinking of these communications professionally, rather than emotionally.

8. Digital health and wellness

Knowing when to unplug from a device or the internet is another element of digital citizenship. Monitoring the amount of time we’re eying screens and also our ergonomic setups all play into our health and wellness.

9. Digital security

Viruses, scams, malware, and other cyber threats exist. Being a digital citizen means understanding best practices for how to avoid them, including how to protect our devices and respond to digital security issues when they do happen.

Downloadable Resources

The nine elements of digital citizenship teach us how to treat each other and how to stay safe online. The internet can be a productive, amazing place where people make new friends, find new jobs, and learn new things.  If we all exercise these nine elements of digital citizenship, that makes for a more positive digital world for everyone.

Here are some PDF downloads provided by Norton, who has created the following digital citizen resources for students.

Choose the resources that suit the age of your students.

• • The 9 D’s of Digital Citizenship
  • Examples of Digital Citizenship
  • Computer Basics Coloring Page
  • Digital Citizenship Jeopardy Game
  • Jeopardy Questions and Answer Key
  • Digital Citizenship Bingo Game
  • Bingo Game Questions

If you want to know more about already existing opportunities in education that you can take advantage now, join us as we look at the latest trends in EdTech.  Topics like eLearning, blockchain for education, gamification and AI are just a few sectors that are changing the education landscape.

The Next Level EdTech Trends for Your Education

Distance learning has already become just not another option but also a major rule for organizing the educational process. Recent challenges have pushed educators to adapt and respond to new opportunities and be proactive to stay ahead of the changes in education.  Many of these have become advantages not otherwise explored.

How Modern Technologies Are Used for Teaching and Learning

The main purpose of any technology recently applied in education should be for the purpose of facilitating the learning process and enhancing performance. This is achieved by applying technical means and Ed Tech tools. The use of new technologies for the most part was previously attributed to various courses and associated educational standards according to individual course activities. Now, it has become obvious that technologies can ensure the greater diversification of teaching methods. That is mainly related to arranging online classes and self-education.

The goal of applying advanced technical tools and arranging education online has been to bring at least the same results. Systems also need to be in place to ensure new types of learning can be measure results effectively. As we can now see that modern technologies can improve collaboration and performance, here are the main approaches to how this has been organized to the present.

EduTrends Enabling a Better Study Experience

Among all varieties of educational innovations, we have prepared for you a short overview of the latest ones and the most interesting, from our point of view. These are also widely-used technologies in modern education:

1. eLearning

Recent challenges that sent kids home from school have certainly opened our minds the idea that electronic learning can be effective.  For some students,  it can be even more effective than traditional classed.  This is only true if the process has been organized well.  When we speak about eLearning we usually mean any kind of education or learning process that is organized electronically.

Such courses enable the delivery of educational materials by using various computers, tablets, laptops, or even smartphones. The major advantage of this learning process is that students no longer need to have a passive role.  You may choose what course or material to take right at the moment. This may be through various podcasts, materials for reading, videos, and other materials. Delivery can be through Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or any other similar tools.

2. Blockchain for Education

The technology of distributed ledger has changed dramatically in many industries and it has also touched education. We can say even more – that is one of the most beneficial tech trends in education students may experience. It is used for arranging the so-called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that enable not only learning, but also the assessment of the gained knowledge and skills. Even more – the approach enables students to have extra benefits during the job-hunting process as they submit results of the completed courses to prospective employees.

3. Video-Assisted Education

Besides the fact that videos are more engaging, you can easily go back and review material or skip certain pieces to arrange your time more freely. Video assisted education is an ed-tech tool already common in school classrooms and not just select online learners. This approach can be very effective for distance learning. Videos, especially animated ones, can enrich any course or lesson dramatically. The resistance for online educators to use this teaching method if often due to a lack of knowledge of how to create or find educational videos for use in their online teaching.

4. Gamification

This current and possibly one of the most exciting trends in education enables learning to interact and be more engaging. This makes real fun of any educational process and can boost engagement and productivity. By striving to get higher scores in any game, the students strive to gain more knowledge and express such on time. And all these things are made in an atmosphere of fun. That can certainly sound amazing to any parent or educator, as long as they see positive results.

5. Artificial Intelligence

This is one of the primary trends in modern innovation in education that can help keep students from being left behind as other progress. It can make basic and other study activities automatic, for instance, in terms of grading. This tool is also effective for arranging the process of delivering study help by tutors. It is also possible to assess and monitor the performance that students have. It is predicted that the role of artificial intelligence in education will increase further, for obvious reasons.

The plagiarism checker is considered to be one of the manifestations of artificial intelligence. The plagiarism calculation algorithm finds non-unique lines in the text. This type of plagiarism check is constantly being improved. Many schools have already introduced plagiarism testing with artificial intelligence.

6. Social Media Networks in Education

Since the birth of social media networks, they have always been a way for students to connect with friends outside of the classroom.  When students are unable to get together in person, which is especially true for eLearners, they can use these same networks to create study groups.  Student to student connection away from school already becoming more widely used by many educational institutions and courses. There are also ways to integrate social media as a teaching tool.  This is more than reasonable as many students spend a lot of time there anyway. Such networks are also used at the moment as communication tools between the representatives of their educational institutions.

This approach enables the sharing of various educational materials, opinions by commenting on posts and arranging discussions. The success of using social media networks in education makes us believe it is possible to build a new culture of collaboration in the area of education and improve it dramatically.

7. Learning Analytics

The existing landscape for this type of tool has been expanded dramatically. Learning analytics has become even more relevant to higher education.  This tool enables the optimizing of the educational process and measuring the result of such by educators.

Learning analytics has been also used by various online tutors and similar services for obtaining relevant feedback on various matters. When teachers or tutors review the feedback for their students, this enables you to enhance the learning process and make it more productive. For instance, educators can see exactly what type of information (infographics, images, videos) work better. This technology can also identify students that are experiencing various challenges and assist them in overcoming learning difficulties.

Will Virtual Learning Remain Continue to Grow?

We presume that the trend will remain even after coping with the challenges the world is facing. There will also be the need for it in some form and this approach has presented many benefits for students and teachers alike. Virtual learning can save time, offer more freedom, and when done properly can produce the same results as a traditionally-organized education process. Only time will tell whether or not virtual learning will continue to grow or subside to previously normal levels.

What Does the Future with EdTech Look Like?

Regardless of the specifics, we believe the application of various online technologies will remain a trend and implement new aspects of developing technologies, including automation. Firstly, Edtech trends seek to bring better accessibility, more safety for online-learning, a focus on emphasizing the correctness of online-learning, enabling less but effective supervision, and ensuring other aspects crucial for effectiveness.

Last Words

Applying various online tools instead of traditional approaches has a good probability of gaining new benefits for managing time and performance. Independence and technical awareness are crucial aspects every student should explore for success in life.  Educators can help by also learning how to offer present new EdTech innovations in their classrooms to ensure no student is left behind.

Due to recent events and advancements in technology, parents have been opting for online speech therapy for their kids. Children can continue with their education and get help with their speech and language issues from the comfort and safety of their homes. However, learning via web access has both positives and downsides. Here are some factors to consider.

Understanding Speech Therapy and How It Works

So what, exactly, is speech therapy? Provided by a speech and language pathologist (SLP), speech therapy evaluates and treats children, identifying communication struggles and helping them speak and listen with greater proficiency. Most schools have a trained therapist on their staff to help children dealing with articulation and verbal comprehension. These professionals also help with developing proper fluency, understanding instructions and social cues, and expressing themselves clearly. Children may perform exercises under the therapist’s direction to tone their facial and throat muscles to form words clearly.

Teletherapy Can Prove Beneficial

Now that kids are attending digital classrooms using tools like Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet, speech therapy is also offered online. Parents can sign up their kids for teletherapy sessions with trained SLPs.

Most virtual sessions proceed much like personal one-on-one sessions. Therapists use cue cards, images, books, reading classes, and verbal exercises such as poems and rhymes to help kids with their speech challenges. This method of teaching has several advantages.

Most importantly, therapists can continue to treat their patients without having to meet them personally. Children need not miss out just because of stay-at-home orders. Considering that the key to successful therapy is repetition and practice, kids can continue to make progress even if they are at home. Therapists can connect with kids in real-time, having interactive practice lessons via the web access using audio and video applications.

Another essential of speech therapy is group classes. Kids learn best when watching their friends speak words, recite poems, and perform actions and exercises. Teletherapy allows SLPs to conduct sessions with multiple students, each mimicking the motions other kids make and learning quickly. Interacting with their friends and having fun while they work is essential to maintain interest.

Children Can Access Learning Programs Using their Android Tablet or iPad.

Recent speech therapy programs are easy to access and use. You won’t have to invest in special apps or download and install them for video conferencing. The sessions are brought to you via live streaming. Parents only need to permit screen access to the therapist. Complete confidentiality is maintained as the SLP designs classes around the child’s specific deficits and works on correcting them. For instance:

• They may take over the screens to make small adjustments and adapt images, so the child understands them better.
• Words are added and removed according to the student’s advancing capabilities.
• Visual tools make the entire session fun and interesting. Kids can tap on an image to see an animation that reveals more about the bird or animal. Or, perhaps, the letter and words that start with the letter.
• SLPs can watch and evaluate the child to make recommendations for additional classes accordingly.
• Parents can be present in the room when the class is in progress to understand how to conduct reading lessons

Is Online Speech Therapy Right for Your Family?

While adopting technology to continue with speech therapy sessions is a great idea, it can have some downsides also. Here are some factors you will want to keep in mind.

• Children need web access with a high-speed internet connection and devices like laptops, PCs, tablets, or phones to connect with their therapists. Students with unreliable internet access or a bustling home where they can’t concentrate may find it hard to acquire these essentials.
• Getting kids to sit still and attend classes can be challenging. Parents may have to supervise to ensure that the child maintains focus.
• Effective speech therapy is also about picking by facial expressions and subtle body language cues. Children learn best when they watch how facial muscles work and coordinate sounds with lip movement. With the quality limitations of video, they could miss out on these intricacies and nuances of speech therapy. This could result in slower progress.
• Equipment failure and breaks in internet connection could hamper real-time classes. Both students and therapists have to learn to navigate applications. Often, small errors like keying in the wrong password or students being unable to log in could lead to unwanted delays in getting the classes going.
• Considering that many kids also rely on the internet to keep up with their regular studies and curriculum, speech therapy could add to the total digital time and fatigue.

Using technology and web access to ensure that kids keep up their education and speech therapy is a great idea whether they are taking virtual school classes or not. However, parents, kids, and therapists have to work their way around the challenges so that the program achieves the desired results.

Learn More About Your Child’s Health

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