FEATURE: REMOTE LEARNING
if they don’t have a laptop or tablet. It also means that communication is through a school-wide platform rather than a private one, important for safeguarding.
Curriculum audit Be realistic about what teachers can and can’t teach remotely to avoid frustration on both sides. Different things will work for different age groups and some age groups are clearly more difficult to teach remotely than others. Young children will need parent or guardian supervision so be considerate of the time they have available. Take current lesson plans as the starting point and adapt them, thinking about the types of files that can be share with everyone. Teachers will need to email or upload PDFs or MS Office documents to a sharing platform. They may need to split your plans into smaller tasks than usual and use trial and error to find the right balance.
Types of remote learning Broadly speaking, remote or distance learning falls into two categories: self-paced learning and teacher-led learning - with a third category that is a blend of these approaches. With self-paced learning, students’ complete activities remotely at their own pace, using online tools with some opportunities for feedback. Essentially, it’s an extension of traditional homework where a task is set, students complete it and then receive assessment from the teacher. This type of distance learning is easy to set-up, either before a school closure, or during it. Using an online platform, a teacher simply uploads PDFs or MS Office documents to a browser-based Education Technology solution, or a cloud-based storage drive, which students can be given log-in details for.
Teacher-led learning is more of a replication of
the classroom environment. Students engage in learning activities at the same time, using virtual tools to enable real-time feedback and discussion. Education Technology providers do offer solutions now that foster learning via devices, allow interaction between teacher and pupils and offer assessment functions. They will be familiar to many teachers from classroom-based lessons, using them remotely is essentially the same, just with your audience in a different place. An example of a blended approach is the
MOOC model (massive open online course) used a lot in university and higher education, where a teacher broadcasts a lecture to people watching online. It usually has a limited amount of interactivity, like the ability to post questions in a comments or messages bar that can be read by everyone. Or, students watch the videos of the professor’s teaching self-paced, but join the
professor and other students in a group session at an agreed time. Primary and secondary teaching ideally has more interaction because teachers need to offer more support and check that pupils understand key concepts.
Tips for self-paced learning for teachers • Set the stage with a clear title, directions and a short list of key objectives. Be clear and maintain expectations, pre-empt any questions you can anticipate. • Try to include some familiarity by connecting to learning activities that have been done previously in class. You could re-use a ready- made activity to activate prior knowledge and to provide context for your virtual learning lessons. • Don’t limit yourself to text, keep the lesson engaging with different types of media. Link to video and audio content stored in Google Drive,
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www.education-today.co.uk
April 2020
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