Estonia
In Estonia, supportive guidelines and information on how to organise distance learning are provided by different institutions to different target groups:
- The Ministry of Education and Research is providing and regularly updating information, including guidelines to parents, teachers and school managers, on COVID-19 measures in education system on a special website, also available in English.
- The Information Technology Foundation for Education HITSA provides information and advice on learning platforms, tools and learning materials that can be used in remote learning (some information is also available in English). HITSA is also organising webinars for parents, teachers and school leaders on remote learning issues.
- A Facebook group “Homeschooling with technology” has been set up to support teachers. Additionally, a Facebook group for Russian speaking teachers on remote learning has been created. All teachers are welcome to join the groups to seek advice from educational technologists if needed.
- Education Nation is a new initiative launched by the Estonian Government to share its digital education solutions, services and best practices worldwide. Currently, Education Nation is hosting weekly free remote learning webinars in English on different aspects of organizing distance learning:
“How Estonia organized distance learning on a national level?”
“Estonian best practices of remote learning for students with SEN”
“Vocational education and remote learning: Estonian example”
“The FinEst way of learning at home”
More information about the webinars from the Education Nation Facebook group on remote learning and Education Nation Facebook page. - Foundation Innove provides information and advice on distance learning and examinations during the COVID-19 outbreak (in Estonian and in English). Foundation Innove also offers remote educational counselling services through the nationwide Rajaleidja (Pathfinder) network.
Currently, companies like 99math.com, Lingvist.com, Clanbeat.com, Speakly.me, ALPA Kids, and DreamApply.com have joined the initiative to offer their solutions for free.
The list of free learning tools and platforms is available here.