Google launches $10m Distance Learning Fund and tools to help educators and students

With around half of the world’s student population unable to attend school, educators are facing the challenge of teaching remotely at an unprecedented scale.

In light of this, Google today announced two new resources to help teachers and students stay connected – a resource for educators called “Teach From Home” and a $10 million Distance Learning Fund.

Teach From Home is a central hub of information, tips, training and tools from across Google for Education which aims to help teachers keep teaching even when they’re not in the classroom.

To start off, the site is providing an overview of distance learning, including information on how to teach online, make lessons accessible to students, and collaborate with other educators.

Built with the support and cooperation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Institute for Information Technologies in Education, Google says Teach From Home is an evolving resource.

Google is continuing to speak to teachers and partners to get feedback on what is most useful so they can build on and improve this.

Teach From Home is currently available in English, with downloadable toolkits available in Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic and Polish, and additional languages coming soon.

As part of Google’s $50 million Covid-19 response, it has launched a $10-million Distance Learning Fund to support organisations around the world that help educators access resources they need to provide high-quality learning opportunities to children, particularly those in underserved communities.

The first $1-million grant is being made to help the Khan Academy provide remote learning opportunities to students affected by Covid-19 related school closures.

Along with the grant, Google volunteers are planning to help the Khan Academy provide educator resources in more than 15 languages, and through their platform, they’ll reach over 18 million learners a month from communities around the globe.

Google says it hopes to announce additional grants to other organisations soon.

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