AWS Educate mobilizes global educator network to support remote learning with no cost resources

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

To help the global education community during a period of increased remote learning, AWS Educate is launching an “Educator Mobilization” initiative to provide resources that support educators as they migrate to virtual instruction. Launching the week of April 6th, resources will include webinars hosted by educators who are members of AWS Educate with expertise teaching in online classrooms, as well as virtual office hours.

As K12 school systems and higher education institutions across the world transition in-person classrooms to virtual environments, educators are on the front lines to ensure continuity of learning. For each school, university, or college, the experience will be unique with challenges and opportunities as educators prepare with varying levels of knowledge in facilitating remote learning. AWS Educate is tapping into its vast network of professors and teachers with experience teaching online to help other educators navigate this process.

“This is a difficult time for everyone, including the global education community, as students, parents, and teachers alike have to adapt to a new normal,” said Ken Eisner, Director of Worldwide Education Programs for AWS and head of AWS Educate. “The AWS Educate community of educators wants to pitch in by volunteering their time to help their fellow educators around the globe, as they grapple with the move from in-person instruction to remote delivery. When we decided to reach out on this initiative, the response was overwhelming and immediate. It’s a nod to how we have come together to help one another during this situation.”

AWS Educate sourced content and webinar topics from a survey to thousands of educators globally and as well as conversations with AWS Educate Cloud Ambassadors. Open-ended questions about current challenges educators are facing provided insights to help customize webinar topics and correlating virtual office hours.

Content topics range from building foundational skills for teaching online to advanced sessions for virtual education, including topics like privacy, FERPA, and balancing teaching your students and your own children

Noah Gift, MIDS Professor in Cloud Computing at Duke University says “It is great to see AWS Educate go beyond offering basic how-to videos, and offer K12 and higher ed educators actionable insights addressing the big challenges we’re facing.”

For more details and a full list of webinar topics and to sign up, please visit the initiative website. Topics for week one webinars include: Teaching Online: Ten Suggestions for Success with Michael Soltys – Chair of Computer Science, Information Technology and Mechatronics Engineering at California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), Teaching Online for Beginners with Garry Smolyansky – Professional Learning Coach and Professor at Seneca College, and Develop an Asynchronous Remote-First Infrastructure for Your Class with Noah Gift, MIDS Professor in Cloud Computing at Duke University.

Learn more about AWS Educate and the AWS Educate Educator Mobilization initiative.