In the spring of 2020, when the entire education system worldwide switched to distance learning, parents became key learning agents, helping students to understand how to continue learning, how to use digital solutions and how to support students in this process. This article summarizes parents’ views on the distance learning process and the challenges they faced. This is part of a larger study carried out within the project “Life with COVID-19: Evaluation of the overcoming coronavirus crisis in Latvia and recommendations for social resilience in the future” (CoLife), which was launched in Latvia in the summer of 2020 and analyzed what digital learning tools schools can use to support students in their learning. Parents’ views on 738 school-age children (313 responses about 1st–4th graders; 362 responses for 5th–9th graders and 63 responses for 10th–12th graders) were obtained, and the main conclusions were that after parents became learning agents, they would have liked more support from educators to understand how to support their children in the learning process. Parents would also have liked schools to be interested in how their children are doing and whether everything necessary is available. Overall, it can be concluded that in this crisis, parents tried to support their children, and in most cases, it was the mothers of the students who provided this support, but it was primarily based on the need to use digital technologies, which means that children whose parents do not use digital technologies may be more exposed to the danger of falling into a risk group with larger educational gaps.

The modernization of the education system, the digitalization of the educational environment and learning management systems (LMS), where one of the solutions is learning platforms, are the most urgent directions today’s pedagogical work is taking to reap the benefits of the digital environment. Education quality can be improved in different ways: by changing the content of learning, forms of learning, learning methods and teaching aids; promoting the use of learning platforms in schools; introducing programming and robotics; using learning management systems and other systems. Technologies and digital solutions are transforming the educational landscape in technology-enhanced learning environments. On one hand, there are many possible solutions that provide technology-enhanced learning; while on the other, there is a need to transform educational processes, to transform competence in teaching, to analyze learning outcomes so that technology-enhanced environments can support knowledge construction. The authors of this paper analyze the results of research on learning platforms, in which several research methods were used: systematic literature analyses; development of learning platform evaluation tools; analyses of learning platforms; and surveys on teachers’ attitudes to learning platforms. Altogether 705 teachers expressed their opinion on using learning platforms as a tool for enhancing knowledge construction, providing feedback and analyzing students’ learning results. In this paper, the authors will discuss the results of analyses on nine learning platforms developed in Latvia, conducted using an evaluation tool with 22 criteria and 43 sub-criteria.

The digitalization of the world has brought with it changes in the mutual relationship of parents and children, upbringing traditions, and challenged the parents' role. Parents' attitudes towards the digital world could be described as “fear and fascination,” where a fraction treats the possibilities provided by the digital environment with uncritical adoration, while another fraction is convinced that the digital environment poses a variety of risks, which is why children should be deterred from the use of digital media for as long as possible. None of the approaches is productive in helping the development and growth of children born in the digitalization era. That is why an objective for the study was set out – to identify parents' competence in promoting children's digital literacy in order to seek solutions and make recommendations for parents to promote children's digital literacy. The chapter summarizes the results of a part of an ongoing study of parental competence in raising kids of the digital era.

The relevance of the present research is justified by the wide range of educational robotics applications and the rapid development of educational technologies in general. Technologies are produced faster than it is possible to develop methodical teaching materials or curricula, especially in the Latvian language. Educational robotics develops various skills and knowledge, such as algorithmic thinking, problem-solving, logical thinking, etc. However, despite the clear achievements in technology education, there are a number of related problems. These include the lack of teachers, the qualifications of teachers, the lack of funding, and the insufficient provision of teaching materials in line with the new approach in the Latvian education curriculum. The study aimed to develop, test, and improve instructional materials for the implementation of the curriculum for the use of digital technology in elementary schools, as well as to create a methodology for evaluating learning achievements in ICT lessons on the topic “What is programming and how to program in a visual environment” and promoting the development of algorithmic thinking (learning with the educational robot Photon). The study uses mixed research methods. The first part was the analysis of the literature on educational robotics and computational thinking. In the empirical part of the action research, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. The results obtained are important for a wider and more meaningful introduction of educational robotics in Latvian schools.