The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward an unprecedented challenge for all schools, students, and parents around. The challenge of online classes. Education and lectures had gone online quite some time back but never before was it enforced at this scale. Young students who are yet not ready to learn from their teachers over a laptop or phone screen are being forced to sit in one place and stare at a device that they also use for leisure. And this trend is bringing in a whole of distractions as the effectiveness of online classes is continuing to drop. Digital distractions are real and need immediate tackling.

Here are a few ways in which you can help your child to focus more during his/her school’s online classes. You cannot take care of all the digital distractions and bring physical classroom-like focus but you can certainly tame a few to increase the level of concentration.

1. Alter your child’s mindset about the gadget

This is the first step that the best school in Sonipat will ask you to take. If you were previously using your phone to allow him/her some game time, make sure that you do not continue using the same gadget alternatively for games and online glasses. This will distract the student heavily. He/she will know that just beyond the ongoing class is his/her favorite game and even when the child is staring at the screen, his/her concentration will lurk at the unfinished level in the game. Separate the gadgets for education and leisure and maintain a strict boundary. Keep the leisure device out of the visual range of the child when online classes are going on.

2. Limit the overall screen time for a day

There is something called a digital overload which happens when someone spends too much time in front of a screen. As a result, attention wavers during meaningful work as the mind finds it exhausting to spend another second either with a laptop or a phone. Hence, you need to check your child’s overall daily screen time to not digitally exhaust him/her, especially when online classes have become a regular phenomenon. Even if classes may not seem like the child is spending time on the phone, it is still happening over a gadget and the mind responds in the same way. Try setting reminders on a notepad and playing games with physical toys.

3. Turn off all notifications

It is mentioned in the guidelines of secondary education Haryana to not allow any notification stealing away the student’s attention when an online class is on. Notifications are the enemy of attention. A simple sound or disruption from the notification bar can shift the student’s concentration at a moment’s notice which will then take an eternity to come back. So, visit your device’s settings and turn off the alerts for all notifications or allow the video app to override the notification function. Gadgets are unfortunately designed to keep you hooked and that is the last thing your child needs during classes.

4. Block access to unnecessary apps

Modern gadgets have multi-screen or split-screen features. That is, you can split the gadget’s screen into two independent segments and run two independent apps in the segments. Basically, the online class can go on while the screen can be split into two to surf social media, e-commerce sites, or any other video application. Even if the student does not do it, the knowledge that the feature exists can be distracting. Download an app blocker and restrict access to all those applications that the student will not need during online classes. This will force the mind to pay attention to what the teacher is saying.

5. Set periods for gadget use

The method is called scheduling which the best boarding school in India employs in their regular curriculum. For instance, good schools have a set time for exercise, leisure, and academics. These are rarely interchangeable even if sports cannot happen since it is raining outside. Similarly, schedule your child’s gadget use and stick to the routine. If the day is booked for online classes, make sure that the time is not spent playing games when a class is not scheduled for a particular day. The human mind functions well in a routine. Once broken, it gets all confused and loses attention.

The shift to digital education has not been easy for anyone. Yet, Swarnprastha Public School has made the transition smooth for its parents and students as the institution has always been following an adaptable approach. SPS has guided its parents and students to embrace online classes quickly and done its best to maintain the continuum of education. The school acted to replicate the physical classroom’s ambiance, maintain focus and assist students to see the crisis through without much disruption.