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The Sun Times, Owen Sound: April 27, 2020 

Directors of education with local public and Catholic boards said Monday that distance learning is a lot harder than having teachers and students in the classroom.

So extending e-learning in publically funded schools to the end of May will require more focus on how students are progressing outside of the classroom, they said.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced Sunday that distance learning through its Learn at Home portal will be extended from May 4 to May 31 “at least”.

It was March 13 that Lecce announced all publicly funded schools would close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen emergency orders to stay home, prohibit gatherings of greater than five, and public health pleas for hand-washing vigilance.

“I think probably the quality of the instructional experience is still a long way away from being the same as if those students were in classrooms with their teachers,” said Alana Murray, the director of education at the Bluewater District School Board.

CNN: April 20, 2020 

C21 Canada: April 23, 2020 

In response to the disruption caused by COVID-19, we are pleased to announce the formation of the Canadian Learning @Home Coalition supported by C21 Canada and MindShare learning, two established leaders in learning & innovation in education.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed the greatest crisis and mass disruption to student learning in the history of Canada with over 5 million K-12 students impacted, resulting in immense challenges thrust upon teachers, students and parents to ensure continuous learning at home.

The COVID-19 crisis is providing a catalyst in K-12 education in Canada to build on our strong public education systems and further support equity across schools with access to technology tools, resources and teacher training.

“ Education is a basic human right. In the short-term we need to address in-equity and access for kids and families and educators. We need to build Canada’s readiness and capacity to deal with possible mass disruptions in the future and learn from this COVID-19 crisis,” says Robert Martellacci, Chair, Canadian Coalition for K-12 Learning @Home, “ Collectively, our goal is to lessen the burden on students and parents. It truly takes a digital learning village to raise a child in the 21st century.”

This is a bittersweet time for the Class of 2020. As students head toward graduation, it’s not the day they might have imagined — no processions, no diploma handoffs, no parties. They are commencing at a time of great uncertainty. But graduating is a tremendous achievement, and worth pausing to celebrate even in these circumstances. That’s why Facebook has planned a special event on the Facebook app and Instagram.

On May 15 at 11AM PT/2PM ET, we’ll broadcast #Graduation2020: Facebook and Instagram Celebrate the Class of 2020. Your commencement address will be given by Oprah Winfrey. Awkwafina, Jennifer Garner, Lil Nas X, Simone Biles, and more, will share words of wisdom for the class of 2020. Miley Cyrus will do a special performance of her hit song, “The Climb.” 

The ceremony will acknowledge high schools and colleges in the US by name, state by state, including photos and videos of the class of 2020 and messages from deans and principals across the country. The video will be shared on Facebook Watch and available at facebook.com/facebookapp. Highlights and more will be posted to the @instagram account on Instagram, and on contributors’ social media accounts.

Sara Sanford, a music teacher at Masonville Public School, challenged her students to suggest music which they use to calm, relax, get inspired or boost their mood. She received an outpouring of suggestions and compiled several playlists. Sara has incorporated a variety of styles and decades into each playlist to introduce her students to music outside their normal listening habits. The playlists, most of them between 20-30 minutes long, have been shared with the community via her google site

Some of Canada's northernmost MPs are hoping the virtual House of Commons sessions starting Tuesday can lead to more discussions about broadband connectivity in non-urban areas. 

Northwest Territories Liberal MP Michael McLeod is working from a laptop at his home in Fort Providence, N.W.T. He said he has some difficulties connecting to Zoom conference calls, and, due to limited bandwidth in the North, is resigned to audio-only participation. 

McLeod said the pandemic "reinforces" the need to connect Canadians with reliable internet. 

"If [the government] didn't know it was a problem before, they certainly do now," McLeod said. "Because we flag it as an issue." 

McLeod and his colleagues in the Liberal government's rural caucus, including Yukon MP Larry Bagnell, have brought up internet connectivity problems many times in the last few weeks as the coronavirus pandemic stretches on. 

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