The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted life throughout the whole country, including schools. Spaces where a large number of children of various ages gather daily present a high risk in regard to hygienic measures. The ban on physical gatherings of students and teachers on the school’s premises has given rise to a new challenge – the necessity to ensure distance learning. There is a whole score of technical platforms and ways to educate students in their homes. However, school directors and teachers often struggle with the complexity and financial cost of such solutions. Several basic schools were faced with the same task this spring in Říčany.“
“When the school closed, we began to search intensively for a way to provide our pupils with distance learning. For us, the main priority was simplicity. We needed a system that students and teachers could get used to in the shortest amount of time possible,” said Dalibor Dudek, director of the 3rd Basic School in Říčany. “In addition to interactive platforms that are sometimes difficult for our youngest students to use, we’ve found an interesting method of remote frontal instruction from the NetRex company, local reseller of CamStreamer apps.”
“Distance teaching is becoming widespread in education, and it’s good to be prepared,” says Dalibor Dudek. This, however, doesn’t just concern the epidemic alone. Distance teaching can also be used for “regular” flu epidemics, and recorded material in electronic form can be used by students who can’t attend school for health or other reasons.
Schools that use the CamStreamer solution for distance teaching are satisfied with the results. “In the first weeks of distance teaching, we all had to get used to things and change the way in which we teach our students. No one had ever been in this situation before. Now I can say, however, that the CamStreamer system basically solved all of our problems,” says Jan Šindelář. Dalibor Dudek shared this sentiment: “Feedback from teachers has been highly positive, and the solution is intuitive and easy. We’re also using the interactive Microsoft Teams platform as well. But, when frontal instruction takes place, teachers appreciate the simplicity of the CamStreamer solution, and also the very practical opportunity to create an archive of recorded lessons.”
“We have received positive feedback not only from students, who are well-acquainted with lessons in the form of videos, as they watch other such content daily on various channels. Parents are also very grateful for the video lessons – as the teacher explains more complex material in the video, parents can spend time in other ways without having to go over the material with their kids. I think we’ll continue to use this system if distance teaching becomes necessary again,” Jan Šindelář concludes.
Video Quality | 1080p |
---|---|
Audio | Built-in microphone |
Camera model | AXIS M1135 Network Camera |
ACAP applications | CamStreamer App CamOverlay App |
Streaming platforms | YouTube |
Location | Prague, Czech Republic |