learning pods - the future

 This is from a recent piece in the New Yorker:

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Why Learning Pods Might Outlast the Pandemic

By Lizzie Widdicombe March 14, 2021

Learning pods have played a fraught role in the covid era. When the concept surfaced, a few weeks into the pandemic, it seemed to epitomize the worst elements of this crisis: the way it has cleaved the haves from the have-nots, and has set the have-lots adrift on luxury lifeboats of obscene privilege. There were reports of parents shelling out a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year to hire a tutor for their kids. But, as time and the virus have worn on, the concept of pod learning has expanded to include everything from home schools to babysitter shares and informal group Zoom sessions—the wide range of things that working parents are doing to occupy their children.

Why Learning Pods Might Outlast the Pandemic | The New Yorker

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They're very popular in the States - and are indeed looking to the future of education:

Learning Pods

Learning Pods During Coronavirus Explained - The New York Times

Learning Pods Tracker | Center on Reinventing Public Education

What Are Coronavirus School Pods? | POPSUGAR UK Parenting

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But there are issues:

Can You Form Homeschooling Pods and Microschools in an Equitable Way?

Learning ‘pods’: a new solution to the coronavirus school crisis | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

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Here's an explanation:

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Micro-schools, pods, pandemic pods, and learning pods all refer to the same concept, one that is pretty easy to understand: students gathering together in a small group – with adult supervision – to learn, explore, and socialize. Usually, pods are formed when families in a neighborhood or vicinity bring children similar in age group together.

National School Choice Week

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Here's an excellent report on the phenomenon from the BBC:

Coronavirus: How pandemic pods and zutors are changing home-schooling - BBC News

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There are also possibilities growing for the UK:

Can I Start A Pandemic Learning Pod To Teach My Child During Lockdown? - The Education Hotel

Learning Pods – More Than A Mobile Classroom – A mobile classroom for the flexibility to show, teach or test wherever you need to – office, shop or factory.

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What about in other countries?

Scuola e coronavirus: cosa sono i learning pod?

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