FEATURE: REMOTE LEARNING
learning? Using familiar platforms reduces stress for both teachers and pupils. Contact your Education Technology suppliers
and get their help and advice – are they offering free training on how to use their tools in a remote setting? Are they offering free licenses to other products you might not normally use, but which would support you during this period? There has never been a more important time for the industry to offer meaningful support to schools, and for companies to act as partners. Don’t forget to plan time for your teachers to
connect with each other and reflect. They can build their knowledge and capacity by sharing things that worked and any challenges they are facing. It also helps you pay attention to the uncertainty that may exist among your team and provide targeted support as required. Consider what technology teachers have at
home compared to in the classroom. Will they be running lessons from their laptops? Will they be doing any presenting? Do they need a separate webcam for better image quality and a microphone or headset for sound, to deliver a
lesson that can be clearly seen and heard? What is their broadband like? Think about any accessories or mobile internet solutions that the school might need to buy.
Communications audit How are you communicating during closure? Crucial to the success of distance learning is formalising a process for communication: between staff, between teachers and parents, and teachers and students. How will teachers share lesson materials, how will they send and receive lesson content? How will students know when they will receive assessment and feedback and when new content is available? For the school team, using a platform where
everyone can attend an online meeting is ideal, for parents, social media is useful, as is bulk texting and many schools already use these tools. You may want to use them to announce to parents and pupils that lessons are ready to download. We recommend browser-based tools for sharing lesson content because it doesn’t require students to download any software. To access the lessons, they just need an internet connected device, which could be a smartphone
April 2020
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