On this episode we take a critical look at what #VirtualLearning has exposed good and bad about education. Our goal continues to be to provide take aways for now and later. We will discuss things that need to be tossed when we return to school and things that need to stick around.

Virtual Learning is Crazy

The pandemic of Covid-19 is upon us. Who knew that there would be so much “free” time yet we feel so overwhelmed and busy with our lives? We, like many educators, are striving to make this virtual classroom as meaningful as possible while battling equity and engagement issues.

We will continue to provide usable takeways even in a real classroom. That journey continues in this episode as we evaluate what needs to go and what needs to stay.

What needs to go?

Unfortunately, this virtual learning has exposed some shortcomings in education. We are not suggesting that the teachers or the educational system is inadequate in anyway, but rather somethings have been exaserbated in this virtual world.

Multiple Learning Management Systems – It is not the learning management systems that need to go. Whether you use Schoology, Infinite Campus, Canvas or GoogleClassroom, they are all great. Its the fact that it is possible that a single student is being asked to navigate more than one of these systems or more in their day.

Not enough instruction is being dedicated to teaching the platform. I, like many, help the student navigate the platform each day in class and take for granted them not needing to truly learn how to use it. This have been exposed because now the parents are being asked to help them navigate multiple platforms and it is causing incredible hiccups in the communication system. Communication is critical to engaging all stakeholders.

So what needs to go? Pick 1 learning management system for the student(building). Many buildings may very well have a single platform, other may even require said single platform. This is not always the case. Let’s help the student and better engage the stakeholders by settling on one platform in our building. This will come with some growing pains, but how much more effective if they become masters of one rather than beginners of many.

Tech Proficiency – It is important to make them more profcient at the tech you do use. Now is not the time to introduce a new tech tool. With that being said, find a handleful of tools that are most effective and dominate that tech. We are as guilty as many others of tech hopping; this week its one and next week its another.

Email Communication – How do we better communicate without flooding an inbox. This has gotten worse as we have students who have disengaged from learning and their parents are receiving 5-10 lengthy emails a day. A link to a fluid document that provides detail of communication can help this issue. Collaborating better with colleagues to send a unified message. This is a lot of work and we are trying to conquer this ourselves. A quick fix, but it overflows our inbox, is to CC colleagues so they are aware of what is being communicated.

What Needs to Stick?

Differentiation of Instruction – New, trendy and unavoidable are teachers providing their instruction using audio and video. This is great, but this is not the takeaway. We keep hearing, be sure you are communicating with your students in multiple modalities. YES!!! We have arrived. This should be how it always is. Even if the students are in front of us having the passage read aloud or a video of us explaining it again for our students is immensely beneficial.

Use this time to create a library that can be used now and forever. If that student is absent next year, they can now better accecss what they missed because you are on video. Consider mastering some of these tools like Screencastify to use from here out. Maybe you even take advantage of these free trials to create more than what is necessary for this final month or so of this virtual school year.

How Much Work are We Giving these Students?

We are isolated in our classroom and we are not always aware of how much work exists in their other classes. The average student may take 3 hours to work, but the range of abilities may be 1-6 hours of work. This is no different in “real” school. How do we better help the students balance this work load? Do we consider some “guided study” time to help the students who need more time and enrich those who finish early? How quality is the work that is being given? If they are doing the same task on repeat on an assignment, could it be shortened for some? These questions and more are at the forefront of our conversation and need to continue to be the conversation.

How do They Show What They Know?

I have deceived the listenership prior to this episode. I was not a Flipgrid expert. Luke is and I would nod along when Luke would talk about it. That has changed and I love Flipgrid. Regardless of whether that is the program or you are using another like Seesaw or Google, let’s not lose what is working so well now for us in the tech world. Just because I return to my physical classroom doesn’t mean I can’t except some virtual work.

Lately, I have been have students summarize what they did on the previous night’s practice. This isn’t new, but using technology to do this is for me. I have seen an increased engagemetn from some who often disengage in class. Luke reports a bump in performance because of this “new” accountability using video to explain the work they did. We discussed this in out notetaking episode 32: Respect the Process(ing).

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