August 25, 2020

Creating a Culture of Accountability at School

How to ensure our students become responsible and resilient in the new (digital-first) normal.

The shift to remote education is a big change for everyone involved—administrators, teachers, parents, and especially students. We’re all navigating this together and figuring out how we can adjust, what aspects of our “old” world we must keep, and what the new normal will look like.

Luckily, with the recent introduction of digital technology in the classroom, we had some level of preparation when COVID hit. Many schools had digital tools already in place they could leverage for full time remote learning, and therefore, students didn’t have to fully shift their methods of learning.

However, we’re still figuring out this new digital-first world, and we need to make sure we don’t lose the important interpersonal and executive functioning skills developed in the classroom.

One such skill is accountability. As homework gets assigned and collected digitally, students have become more passive in their learning experience. They simply wait for instructions and execute on them, rather than proactively planning, organizing, and taking an active role in their schedule.

What’s potentially at risk? Self-reliance and independence.

“Dependence is a general mindset where a kid believes they can’t tackle what’s required of them to effectively live in the world. They require an outside entity to handle much of their life for them. This dependence – this lack of belief in one’s own abilities, can wreak havoc on kids”, (99parent.com).

In the classroom, it’s generally up to the students to take down what’s required for their assignments, ask questions, manage their workload, and balance priorities. In other words, they learn accountability. Being accountable means being able to manage for oneself, being independent, and being able to take responsibility. This in turn, helps students develop confidence, pride and self-esteem.

When all of these crucial skills are empowered, greater success will find its way beyond the classroom to other aspects of students’ lives: more successful careers, stronger relationships, and better mental health.

That’s why at Studyo, we’ve made sure our platform not only enables digital learning, but helps students learn accountability. Students can easily plan their workload, manage tasks, visualize what’s on their plate, and raise their hand when there's too much going on for them. It’s the perfect addition to a school administration’s tech stack, and it takes the worry out of this inevitable shift to digital-first learning for everyone.

Accountability—for one’s workload, schedule, and assignments—is one of the key skills that students learn in the classroom and successfully take into the world, and it’s crucial that we keep this aspect of the “old” world as we shift to the new. For administrators, that means adopting tools that nurture accountability, which will in turn help develop students that are self-reliant, confident and ready for the real world.

If you’re interested in learning how Studyo can help your students build accountability, we’d love to give you a quick demo.

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