The Firefly remote learning platform

COVID-19危机对全国各地的学校产生了重大影响，这些学校正面临前所未有的关闭时间，这显然需要创新，灵活性和技术驱动的解决方案，以有效适应各种不同的教学和学习方式。鉴于关闭时间表的不确定性和可能延长，这对于确保学生不处于不利地位或落后，以及家长和教师拥有必要的工具来提供学习连续性至关重要。作为全球领先的教育技术提供商，Firefly Learning在这段时间内非常适合帮助学校，我们现有的虚拟学习平台提供关键的技术工具来帮助学校，教师和学生，因为他们过渡到全新的远程混合学习方法，以及这需要的截然不同的教学方法。除了支持我们现有的客户群，我们目前正在为新学校提供免费的学习平台。Firefly平台已经代表了连接学校和家庭的最前沿技术。然而，鉴于当前形势的前所未有的性质，需要进一步的开发和创新来定制和调整平台和服务生态系统，以有效地支持完全远程的混合学习环境，同时也开始解决扩展平台使用所固有的基础设施和资源挑战，以应对前所未有的需求，并最终将覆盖范围扩大到目前需要的所有学校。我们将与多达30所新学校合作，免费提供我们的学习连续性平台，并在整合和定制方面提供帮助。此外，我们将为教师提供有关教学法和最佳做法的培训和咨询意见，以实现有效的远程学习。与此同时，我们将通过为期3个月的迭代敏捷开发计划（在下一个学期）与他们合作，寻求调整和定制平台，以最好地促进远程学习-提供核心功能增强，以实现有效的学习连续性，家长支持和可见性，学校洞察力和关键的教学工具。在完全远程教育从未被纳入主流的环境中，这些要求尚未得到充分理解。因此，我们的项目在优先考虑快速交付和在这段时间的需要，我们的项目将进一步确定长期发展的优先事项，先进的远程教育，和基础设施的改善，为所有学生实现稳定，负担得起的和可访问的技术解决方案。我们的前教师和领导者团队将扩大他们与学校的接触计划，以支持他们适应混合学习，在任何时候，他们的一些学生和工作人员可能在教室里，其他人自我隔离，但在线保持学习的连续性。在项目的第一阶段，网络研讨会被证明是分享客户学校建立的良好实践的非常成功的方法，因此我们将为新的受众重复经过验证的方法，并扩展内容基础和渠道，更加关注与家长的互动（家庭学习的重要合作伙伴），并增加点播播客，以帮助那些面对面教学时间表可能无法参加现场活动的人。我们还将通过探索新技术来提高规划和培训课程的有效性和满意度，以对抗虚拟课程的疲劳，并帮助教师按照自己的节奏学习。通过专注于帮助学校在危机时刻充分利用我们新适应的平台，我们不仅会改善学生的成绩，而且我们相信更多的学校将看到这项技术的长期价值。

The COVID-19 crisis has had a significant impact on schools nationally, which are facing unprecedented lengths of shutdown, creating a clear need for innovation, agility and technology-driven solutions to enable effective adaptation to vastly different ways of delivering teaching and learning. Given uncertain and potentially extended closure timescales, this is critical to ensure students are not disadvantaged or left behind, and parents and teachers are empowered with the tools necessary to deliver learning continuity.As a globally leading educational technology provider, Firefly Learning is extremely well placed to assist schools during this time, with our existing virtual learning platform providing critical technological tools to assist schools, teachers, and students as they transition to entirely new methods of remote, blended learning, and the vastly different teaching pedagogies this requires. In addition to supporting our current customer base, we are currently providing our existing learning platform to new schools for free during this time of crisis.The Firefly platform already represents the forefront of current technology with respect to connecting schools and homes. However, given the unprecedented nature of the current situation, further development and innovation is needed to tailor and adapt the platform and service ecosystem to effectively support a fully remote, blended learning environment, whilst also beginning to address the infrastructure and resource challenges inherent in scaling platform use to handle unprecedented demand, and ultimately extending reach to all schools currently in need.Through this project, we will collaborate with up to 30 new schools, delivering free supply of our learning continuity platform, and providing assistance with integration and customisation. Additionally, we will provide training and consultancy advice for teachers on pedagogy and best-practice for enabling effective distance learning. In parallel, we will collaborate with them through a 3-month programme of iterative, agile development (over the coming term), seeking to adapt and tailor the platform to best facilitate distance learning - providing core functionality enhancements to enable effective learning continuity, parental support and visibility, school insight and critical teaching tools. In an environment where fully remote education has never been mainstreamed, these requirements are not yet fully understood. Therefore, whilst prioritising rapid delivery and enhancement during this time of need, our project will further identify longer-term development priorities for advanced facilitation of distance learning, and infrastructure improvements necessary to achieve stable, affordable and accessible technology solutions for all students.EXTENSION FOR IMPACT: Our team of former teachers and leaders will extend their programme of engagement with schools to support them as they adapt to hybrid learning, where at any one time some of their students and staff may be physically in the classroom and others self-isolating but maintaining learning continuity online. Webinars proved highly successful means of sharing established good practice from client schools during the first phase of the project, so we will both repeat proven approaches for new audiences and extend both the content base and channel, increasing focus on engaging parents (a crucial partner in home-based learning) and adding on-demand podcasts to help those whose face-to-face teaching schedules may other preclude attendance at live events. We will also improve the effectiveness and satisfaction from our planning and training sessions by exploring new techniques to combat fatigue with virtual sessions and help teachers learn at their own pace. By focusing on helping schools make the most of our newly-adapted platform at a time of crisis we will not only improve outcomes for students, but we believe more schools will see the long-term value of the technology.