Covid-19: What happens if school is closed?
Wednesday 4 March 2020
E-Learning | Distance Learning
As I write, governments in 119 countries have closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the virus Covid-19. In some of these countries schools have been closed for weeks and others are closing in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus.
Students and teachers are being forced to complete schooling online. E-learning | distance learning is becoming a necessary modus operandi (a way of operating) instead if being an extension of classroom activities. We must do our best to offer high quality learning experiences remotely.
I learnt the value - as well as necessity - of e-learning when I was director of a school in the Middle East at a time of civil war. One Friday night two thirds of my students flew back home, and for the next six months we had to teach using online tools.
I write this blog in the hope that the tips it contains will help students and their teachers as they face the reality of online learning.
IB Update
The International Baccalaureate keeps you informed on issues relating to Covid-19 and its impact on schools HERE. Their newsletter (27 February 2020) covered who to contact | internal assassessment | examinations | professional development.
Online learning, teaching and education continuity planning for schools, IB, March 2020. The guidance here is intended for staff supporting schools that are facing closures and quarantines due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. It is contains suggestions and guidelines for online and blended learning, with further suggestions for free apps and solutions for schools that may not have online or mobile solutions in place at the time of closing.
Establish clear guidelines and protocols for E-learning between school and home (see references at end of page for examples).
Strategically plan for e-learning: it is much easier to continue working in ways you are used to using pre-established e-learning tools than having to learn completely new ways of teaching, learning and communicating. Read Adrian Scarlett's blog (see below for full reference). For example, audit which platforms are you already using (e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Classroom,or BigBlueButton). Also note that many companies are offering free services to schools closed by Covid-19 (e.g. Yacapaca - formative assessment tools to deliver instant grading etc.)
Recognise the benefits of e-learning, and make it a core of your educational mission. Learning on-line - at a distance from school - is different than learning in a classroom face to face. However, there are some benefits:
- Flexibility: students can study wherever they are in the world, at their own pace and at times of their choice.
- Independence: most virtual learning options encourages and requires independent thinking while also providing the benefit of group discussions and feedback.
- Deeper learning: IBM have found that participants learn five times more material in online learning courses using multimedia content than in traditional face to face courses. On the whole students work faster than they would do otherwise and take in more information.
- Built in assessment: in online courses assessment can become more of an ongoing process - regular short tests can improve student engagement.
- Personalised intervention: the teacher reacts directly with the students’ work on a regular basis: interventions can be more targeted.
Train staff and students in remote teaching and learning.
Build on the platforms you already use in school, day-by-day. What are the key tools you already use? (see below for links to some commonly used tools). For example, (a) the Google suite: Google Meet can be used to check attendance, while Google Classroom lets you upload resources, set deadlines, allows students to turn in work they have done and, importantly, lets you mark it and send back the corrections, allowing you to ensure that they have studied the topic.(b) Microsoft Office 365 allows you to set up classes on Teams and to use OneNote to assign and mark classwork to students.
Get your resources on line: you may well have many resources on line but are they comprehensive? Ensure they are all 'in the cloud' before school has to close.
Ask departments to identify (and communicate with both students and parents) specific e-learning sites they use in their subject area. All academic disciplines have specialised sites. Why not create an e-learning library and communicate it with your students and parents? (e.g. in Maths there are many, including, Mathletics, Corbett Maths etc.). There are also generic sites that specialise in many subjects (e.g. BBC Bitesize).
Manage connectivity and expectations: as well as ensuring excellent technical support for students and staff school leaders need to think carefully about the messages they are giving in order to protect the well-being of both. (See Neil Bunting's article referenced below where he is considering introducing 'unplugged days').
Manage on-line timetables - to ensure all subjects are covered adequately. You may like to consider specialist subject half days | days.
Communicate, communicate, communicate - to all stakeholders, regularly.
Provide additional coaching and support to staff in how to offer optimum support online.
Never forget that learning is a relational activity - e-learning may be a necessity but it should always try to include the human touch, and interaction. "I think the move to longish term online learning will push us towards the limits of our paradigms for what we think learning actually is. We are still locked into a paradigm that learning is the transfer of knowledge. In this paradigm we will hunt around for online tools to convey knowledge from teacher to student. Or put another way the success of online learning will not be how digital (or 'e') it is but how human we can keep it. Adrian Von Wrede-Jervis, Bavarian International School.
With that it mind ...
- Establish protocols for communicating – e.g. essential agreements around access | completion requirements | commenting on other students’ posts | teacher comments.
- Identify clear learning objectives and assessment outcomes for lessons | pieces of work
- Keep task instructions short, simple and clear. Use command terms where possible - and provide a glossary for each of the command terms. Students find it more difficult to read lengthy instructions. Here are two examples for Geography, (a) for AQA, and (b) IB geography command terms.
- Use bullet points rather than lengthy instructional narratives.
- Use multi-media materials to present information and create interactive lessons (see below on how you can use technology to create interactive resources).
- Add hyperlinks to instructional words | key resources (note, do not give URL since they can be messy) e.g. please find the LINK HERE to the resource ...
- Chunk the learning: think in terms of small self-contained learning engagements linked to clearly identified resources.
- Give students options in how they complete tasks - e.g. students sometimes prefer videoing themselves - use a platform (e.g. padlet) that allows for variety of uploads.
- Intersperse online learning with regular assessments.
- Communicate: let students know when you are available online.
- Track student progress through regular assessments.
- Intervene based on tracking at timely points.
Here is a helpful graphic on good instructional practices in online learning. Click HERE for an article that explains each of the areas of the graphic.
Useful e-learning tools
- Collaborative platform e.g. Padlet: a platform for sharing work | assignments | resources - easy to use. It allows you to upload many forms of resources e.g. files, photos, videos, URL links, draw, audio.
- Video-conferencing: e.g. Zoom can be used for delivering classes and holding (staff) meetings around the world - such tools also have chat room facilities that allows for individual students to engage with their questions. Considering establishing daily time slots (if appropriate for your context)
- Student digital portfolios e.g. Seesaw Learning - a way for teachers to provide learning engagement and for students to curate their work and communicate it with teachers online
- Make resources interactive e.g. EdPuzzle allows you to pause and annotate videos as well as adding teaching notes and explanations. Voiceover allows you to “explain a concept the way you would in class - in your own style or maybe in another language”. H5P allows you to add interactive elements to any website - this means that you do not need to create your own resources, but instead make existing resources interactive.
Refer to my page Educational Technology Tools for a curation of other tools.
PS:
Do not use too many tools - select carefully. The important thing is that technology helps students do the learning - it should not get in the way of the learning.
Here is a great pictograph from Jennifer Chang Watall.
(i)GCSE Subject Websites
GCSEPod provide teaching and learning digital resources for 27 GCSE subjects.
Diploma Programme Subject Websites
InThinking websites for teachers and students
InThinking have websites for both teachers and students.
The teacher sites can be found at:
www.thinkib.net
These sites include INTEGRATED STUDENT ACCESS which enables teachers to set assignments and give feedback online. Student access is easy to set up; you can set reading, writing, discussion, and multiple choice assignments; and you can track student progress.
The students sites can be found at
www.studyib.net
These are revision websites for students which are designed for independent learning and self-assessment. They will be particularly helpful for IB2 students in the run up to their final exams.
Here are links to teacher sites and associated student access:
Pamoja
Pamoja Education offers two well supported options for schools:
- 'Pamoja Taught', online full GCSE, A-L:evel and IBDP subjects, developed in conjunction with the IB.
- 'School Taught', where schools can purchase the entire package of online materials, right down to adjustable lesson plans, used by our Pamoja Taught teachers.
Create a study space where you can get work done (desk | chair | lamp).- Keep your desk as clear as possible so you can easily find things you need.
- Make sure you know the learning objectives and how you are going to be assessed on any piece of work
- Work with other students online: form your own virtual classroom.
- Know your workload: know which assignments you must do.
- Organise your time: schedule your studies by writing a timetable and be disciplined to stick to it.
- Organise your assessments – by making sure you keep a calendar of when work is due
- Organise your work: by subject files | topic files within subjects – use sensible file names so you can easily find them.
- Take breaks. The beauty of the Pomodoro studying technique is it prompts you to take breaks. You study hard for 25 minutes without distractions then take 5 minutes to refresh and stretch. This technique tends to result in you achieving more as 25 minutes is a manageable time to stay focused.
- Control procrastination i.e. reasons for putting off the study: “When there’s a hill to climb don’t think waiting will make it smaller”.
- Ask for help when you get stuck: phone | email teacher. Listen to their feedback and act on it.
- Submit work on due dates.
- Contribute to collaborative projects or online activities and discussions. Online work helps you learn from others by reading their posts and reflections.
- Be flexible with WHEN you study: find the times of day when you are most productive.
- Stay positive! Accept that studying is hard work but also worthwhile. You need to take charge of your learning.
- Back up everything: there is nothing worse than deleting work you have done. You may like to set up a free DropBox account and save your essays there, or else use another platform. If you take notes by hand download a free scanning app such as Scannable and take a quick, clear picture of each page of notes.
- Attend to all course elements – e.g. make sure you look at all the material provided and attend online tutorials.
- Be polite – one of the problems with online communication is that it is very difficult to hear the tone of what someone is saying - a quick reply to a fellow student may come across as rude, or an email to your teacher may incorrectly sound like you’re being ungrateful. Here’s a few tips: never use capital letters (IT ALWAYS MAKES YOU SOUND ANGRY) | don’t use exclamation marks (!!!!!) | always say please and thank you if you’re asking for help | respect the opinions of others | don’t try and make jokes or be sarcastic | read your post out loud before pressing send.
