Online tools to support Learning at Home
Connect, Engage & Support
Digital platforms form a central role in supporting your child in continuing a high quality education at home. The way your child interacts with these tools will look different depending on your child's age, teacher and school. These platforms may differ depending on the age of your child and the school that they attend, but will all provide clear structure and support to continue teacher-led learning from home.
As a parent, your responsibility will be to provide the best learning environment for your child at home.
Regardless of strategies in use, schools and teachers will connect, engage and support with your child.
Connect
Relationships are integral to learning and wellbeing. In order to support this, schools and teachers will maintain connection and engage with your children throughout home learning in order to continue building positive teacher student relationships, and provide opportunities for school community interactions.
Engage
Continuing to engage students in focused learning outside the classroom can be a challenge. Schools and teachers will provide regular, curriculum driven learning materials to engage your child in learning at home.
Support
Providing support and feedback is an essential component of keeping students motivated and ensuring they continue growing as learners. Your child will receive support to get the most out of online materials, and will receive targeted meaningful feedback on their progress allowing them to identify areas for improvement.
What is my role as a parent?
Families control the environment in which their child learns.
Help your child establish a routine and ensure regular access to online resources
Talk to your child regularly about their learning
Communicate with your child's teacher about their learning
Support your child's well being, ensuring they have breaks, drink water and are feeling supported in their learning
Supervise your child's use of technology and put limitations on "screen-time"
G Suite for Education
Many students in the ACT will connect to online learning using G Suite. G Suite provides a selection of tools to enhance students engagement in learning and give them a powerful outlet to create content and share their ideas.
Google Classroom is the central management tool for assigning tasks, assignments and resources to students. It gives them a central location to access learning, and in many cases allows them to interactively respond using other tools such as Google Docs, Slides and Forms.
Teachers may use this platform to:
create an online classroom in which they can set assignments
post resources and links
encourage collaboration between classmates
communicate with students
provide feedback and email parents/carers.
Students can post questions, submit assignments and receive feedback from both classmates and their teacher.
Your child can access Google Classroom via the Digital Backpack portal which provides access to a range of online learning platforms for students and teachers. Your child will have been sent an invitation or code to join a Google Classroom.
Your child’s teacher may also add you to Google Classroom as a Guardian. You will receive a weekly summary about assigned and upcoming tasks, overdue work and teacher feedback to keep you informed about your child’s learning. You will be invited to join as a Guardian via the email address you have provided to your child’s school.
Google Meet
Teachers may connect and deliver instructions over video to students using Google Meet, an online video conferencing service. They may also record lessons and share them with students or live-stream lessons for the whole class.
Accessing digital learning platforms
To support your child in using online and digital resources, consider the following questions:
1. Does your child know how to access the student portal?
2. Does your child know how to log in to devices and websites?
3. Does your child know their username and password or know how to reset their passwords if necessary? Teachers can reset student passwords if your child forgets their password.
Accessing digital devices and the internet
Families need to be aware of the ACT Education Directorate’s policy regarding technology, devices and the internet. It is also a good idea to familiarise yourself with the eSafety Guide.
