In an attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, schools across the globe shutdown affecting billions of students, teachers, school staff and their respective families as lessons either ceased or moved to an entirely remote environment.
While online classes were originally targeted towards unique minority groups such as working adults who want to continue studying, persons with disabilities (PWDs) who cannot go to school physically or those with special medical needs who have to stay home, the disruption brought about by the pandemic has advanced the adoption of online learning in schools all over the world.
Now more than ever, training and equipping teachers with tools for remote and innovative learning is an essential step educational institutions and the government need to take to circumvent any future scenarios that could potentially affect the schooling year.
Canva for Education, offers a rich and authentic learning experience tailored to the needs of a classroom by empowering teachers and students to create and collaborate online through visuals. Best of all, it is an entirely free resource of teachers globally.
The user-friendly intuitive platform also includes add-ons such as education-specific content, the ability to create captivating videos, plus every ingredient to bring designs to life with Giphys, over 2 million images, 800k icons and illustrations, 700+ fonts, YouTube integrations and QR codes.
Yani Hornilla-Donato, Canva’s Manila Country Manager, explained the estimated 27 million students, expected to enroll this academic year in the Philippines, are sure to benefit from Canva for Education – as it is a wonderful platform for project-based learning whether in the classroom or not.
“Our goal is to help teachers create engaging classroom content, simply. With a plethora of classroom-friendly templates, relevant to specific learning goals, teachers can create eBooks and eBook covers, beautiful presentations for their subjects, class schedules, worksheets, handouts, online test papers and posters; the options are only limited by your imagination,” explained Hornilla-Donato.
Canva for Education also includes an all-new collaboration space, a review workflow, access to content from Google Drive, Dropbox, Folders, version history and SSO with Clever and Google.
“We have truly tailored this product to ensure it meets the needs and requirements of schools worldwide, serving as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for creating and collaborating in the classroom,” furthered Hornilla-Donato.
In a webinar hosted by Canva, in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd), Mark Anthony Sy, DepEd EdTech Coordinator, highlighted the value of equipping educators with tools to empower them in the classroom.
“We have discovered how much Canva for Education can help our teachers be more imaginative in designing materials to engage and motivate their students in the classroom. As a department, we want to empower our educators with tools that will inspire them and help them go beyond limits in their respective classes,” said Sy.
“We are happy and excited to share the gift of Canva for Education to Filipino teachers, showing them how they can easily create beautiful learning content for their students and even fellow teachers. Ultimately, the platform aims to help them integrate visual, digital and design literacy in their classroom experience,” concluded Hornilla-Donato.
The webinar also paved the way for Canva and DepEd to launch a Facebook Community for Filipino Teachers that serves as a space for professional support and training as teachers learn and adapt to the modalities of virtual and distance teaching.
Canva and DepEd will hold another Canva for Education webinar for Filipino teachers on June 15, live on DepEd Tech’s Facebook page.
To know more about Canva for Education, visit https://www.canva.com/education/.
