The Covid-19 pandemic has already led 32 countries to close schools, giving an impulse to e-learning, including Italy, which on March 26 with over 80,500 infections and 8,165 deaths (were 21,000 and 1,400 just on March 15) is at the moment the country with the largest number of patients still infected (and of deaths) in the world.

Scuolalab is free online

Waiting to understand if and with what consequences on the school year the school will be able to resume (closure is currently scheduled until April 14), wherever initiatives for distance teaching are intensified. In Italy, Protom Group has decided to release the Scuolab suite online for free, on the platform www.scuolabonline.com until the end of the 2019/2020 school year.

On it are available for second-grade secondary schools, 31 experiments in virtual reality in Physics and 10 in Chemistry, as well as 8 experiences in virtual reality on Earth Sciences for first-grade secondary schools.

Edmodo and Google among the most used

However, the most used sharing platform is Edmodo, not to be confused with edMondo, a virtual world based on Opensim, of which Mondivirtuali.it talked in 2016. With Edmodo, you can create a real virtual classroom, sharing multimedia materials, assigning in-depth and group tasks.

Another widely used suite is G-Suite for Education, which includes some of the best known Google services like Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Documents, Sheets, Presentations, Forms, Hangouts Meet and Classroom, thanks to which it is possible to manage distance learning.

Hangouts Meet, in particular, it allows you to communicate via chat and video conference to large groups, for a maximum of 250 participants. Classroom, instead, allows the creation of real virtual classes, the distribution of tasks and tests as well as sending and receiving comments.

Telegram and ad hoc apps are also widely used

Do not forget popular communications apps like Telegram, through which the teachers of the different subjects, on set days and times, maintain contact with their students by assigning tasks and projects and commenting on the results obtained.

There are of course also many other platforms, among which it is worth mentioning at least: Kahoot, which allows for quick tests, quiz tests, and even student topic competitions; Betywell, an app for shared readings and text comments in 140 characters; Storybird, an app that instead allows you to create stories, starting from an image, alone or in groups.

And what are you currently using for distance learning activities? Let us know and keep following Mondivirtuali.it, active also in the midst of the Covid-19 outbreak, also through our account on Twitter and our fanpage on Facebook. But remember: Mondivirtuali is also on Flickr, on Scoop.it, on Paper.li, and on Youtube. And maybe subscribe to our newsletter.