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Regional students get head-start in virtual classrooms
Paul Brescia
While schools around the country rapidly work to deliver remote learning, and students adjust to a learning experience outside of the classroom, it is business as usual for Australia’s regional and rural students.
Clayfield College, a boarding school in South Brisbane, has many regional students who access their classroom materials remotely. As a result, it already had procedures in place to create virtual classrooms, facilitating discussion, and closely mimicking the in-class experience.
Covid-19 has forced prompted schools to take a hard-look at remote learning facilities. We spoke to Cathy Lamb, head of technology and E-Learning, Clayfield College, on how the school has moved to remote learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“For children who live out west, remote learning is nothing new to them,” she says.
Lamb notes that at Clayfield College, which already has a focus on STEM education for its young girls, “The girls are not daunted by the technology. In the 21st century, these are tools that they will use for the rest of their lives.
“There were some classes already using the tools – but now we are rolling it out to all staff. We have to be able to deliver curriculum remotely, communicate with students, and enable a classroom environment.
Clayfield uses the Microsoft Teams software suite, specifically, Teams for Education. It allows the teachers to compartmentalise their work with students. There is an area for communication, which emulates the classroom discussions that would be held, along with a separate area for files, in which the teachers provide the written materials.
OneNote operates as the classroom’s chalkboard, where a teacher can provide visual explanations of the content, using a touch screens on laptops or tablets.
Between the separate areas, the classroom functions as it would in a physical location, with students interacting under guidance from teachers, and working together simultaneously.
Lamb has spent the past week training all the teachers within the College, to be prepared when the Brisbane school term resumes after the Easter break. Making it easier for teachers to grasp is essential when working on such tight timelines.
“They understand the programs better when they have been broken up into those areas that mimic the real classroom. We can also have those conversations in real-time in a safe, encrypted environment for the students,” says Lamb.
Some schools have invested in Virtual Learning Environments, or VLEs. Programs such as Firefly and Noodles allow for a learning experience that is digital-first. Unlike Microsoft Teams for Education however, they are not free for registered educational institutions.
It is hard to fundamentally change your delivery model, particularly when that changed is forced by a once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic. Even in a post-coronavirus world, the changes made to delivering education will live on beyond the virus.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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