9 The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number: 2020-1-DE03-KA226-SCH-093410 situation that learners, teachers, and parents are experiencing (Sofianidis et al., 2021). As a result, there are opportunities to eliminate obstacles related to lack of digital skills (e.g., provide relevant training), infrastructure, and (social) inequalities. In addition to the training and development of digital skills, measures for equity should include the incorporation of assistive technologies/resources for special education, the implementation of data protection systems and emotional support mechanisms. The use of technology along with the absence of physical interaction highlight the importance of tackling issues of data protection and emotional health. Researchers mention that students are concerned about the lack of socialisation with their classmates and the lack of human contact during online learning, as seen from the nationwide school shutdowns due to COVID19 (Sofianidis et al., 2021). We should ensure that specific measures are taken for the provision of psychological support such as services inside and outside school, provided by a team of experts (e.g., psychologists) and actions that cultivate appropriate usage of technologies. Additionally, teachers should be trained on how to spot mental health issues such as any signs of stress that students may experience (Sofianidis et al., 2021). This way they can develop actions that foster mental health across the student and educational community. Therefore, the strategic plans should focus on schools’ social dimension, strengthening its connection with the society (Nisiforou et al., 2021). In virtual education, the learning experience should be designed to fit the capabilities and barriers of the online context. Given that participation in virtual learning is technologymediated and there is a lack of physical interaction, we should foster learners’ participation, engagement, and overall motivation. When teaching is focused on lecturing and there is lack of student-to-student cooperation, discussion, and interaction, students might be unable to concentrate over a long period of time (Sofianidis et al., 2021). To avoid the application of such traditional, teacher-centered methodologies, teachers must be properly prepared to teach virtually, exploiting online pedagogies (Sofianidis et al., 2021). Examples of modern and innovative pedagogies include group work, peer-to-peer feedback (mediated by the teacher, as needed), self-reflection, interdisciplinarity, simulations, online games, online laboratories, personalised, differentiated, and adaptive instruction. All these should promote the establishment and maintenance of an online learning community. It is worth mentioning that alternative forms of assessment should be present (e.g., self- and peer-assessment, rubrics, portfolios) along with immediate feedback, to strengthen students’ online participation (Sofianidis et al., 2021). For this reason, we need to (re)design the curricula to have the modern methods as the backbone of teaching, focusing on cultivating students’
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzYwNDE=