The use of Google Classroom has become mainstream in 2020 with education at all levels, but while there is an abundance of support available for educators, have you stopped to consider how parents are feeling with the new responsibility? Balancing work commitments, additional childcare duties and the responsibility to ensure children are supported with completing assigned work on Google Classroom, along with all the other complications arising from the pandemic, Covid-19 has not provided an easy 2020 for parents, or of course anyone.

There is little literature on this subject, however combining this research with a survey of a small population of parents of primary school age children in North Wales, followed by a more detailed focus group, has given an insight into the true feelings of parents and the expectations put upon them. One major theme found was the concern parents had that they were letting their children down and that there is an assumption that all adults have a level of digital literacy, which in some cases is either limited, or even non-existent. The Office of National Statistics recorded in Wales in 2018, that 19% of the population had zero basic digital skills, the highest regional variation in the UK (Office for National Statistics, 2019).

Discussions with the school faculty to produce an independent website with carefully created digital material, specifically aimed at supporting parents with the use of Google Classroom, makes up the proposed solution to address the issues identified above.

In this presentation, you will be presented with further information from parents with themes found from direct research and opinions from wider networking, including Facebook groups involved in Education, Scoop.it curated topics and advice gained from Twitter.

You will be introduced to two personas who are heavily based on real parents who contributed to initial research, to paint a picture of the reasons behind the curation platform design.

The proposed solution to the issues, a digital curation platform, will be demonstrated with discussion of the source of the materials and the presentation will be concluded with future plans for further development.

Being a parent with a background in technology and a passion for online education, the choice for project context was an easy one. Supporting the local school which supports our children and those parents who struggle with digital literacy, is a rewarding endeavour and will hopefully provide interest to others.

References:

Office for National Statistics (2019), Exploring the UK’s digital divide [Online], Office for National Statistics Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/articles/exploringtheuksdigitaldivide/2019-03-04 (Accessed 18th December 2020).