Building Communities Online

I recently presented at Canopy Live on building communities online. This is a session I trimmed down from a full day's training that Dr Lou Mycroft and myself offer colleges and schools ( happily discuss more about this with anyone interested, anytime).

“Students said they were more likely to engage when they felt that staff valued them, were reliable and consistent in their engagement with online work, and had set up effective support measures.” 

(Palmer et al., 2017)

I purposefully include this from 2017 as I think anything pre pandemic is interesting. Not that what we learnt in the pandemic isn't interesting, but I like to highlight that online teaching happened pre pandemic and we learnt a LOT from that time too.

I don't think this quote is telling us anything unusual. Students want to feel valued. We all do. That is the practice of care (if you ever spend time with Dr Mycroft you will hear her speak to this often) that is education. How do we show students we care? What conditions for them to excel do we create? When teaching online how do we check in?

Also at Canopy Live was the wonderful Cat Lamin. She shared about how important it is to check in on others and your own mental health. She used this duck scale to ask us how we were.

What I like about the duck scale is that it is open to all, everyone can relate to the stages. This is one type of check in, there are others. What is important though is that we check in. I tweet regularly that the algorithms on social media show you what it thinks you want to see. To build community you have to go beyond the algorithm. Seek out people to connect with, topics that interest you. Scrolling isn't the way to build community on social media. Active dialogue is. Engaging with others, seeking voices different to yours to learn from. We rely a lot on platforms to deliver what we need. Think about a VLE. It shows you what you want to see, who has done the work and when. What it doesn't show you (instantly, agree that this is possible with back channels and extra interventions) is how the work went for students? How did they feel? Was it appropriately challenging? That's the human conversational part that we need to add in as an extra to our work. Likewise on Twitter, it delivers the information it is required to deliver. Scrolling until your hearts content, but the human interaction and connection is the work that you have to do.

If you are serious about building communities online, you might want to consider checking in, with a duck or without. The feeling of value you will show another in doing so cannot be underestimated.

Once you have checked in, how do you let students know that you value them throughout the lesson? I am reminded of a colleague who was once upset that a student failed to acknowledge her lovingly crafted feedback on each page of a students work. The student wanted to know the grade and what to do to improve in summary and disregarded hours of teacher feedback. Had the teacher asked what feedback the student had wanted there would have been a different outcome. Think yellow box marking where one section of yellow boxed work is marked intently. I have seen this include students self selecting the section to be marked also. The student has owned their work and indicated that they only require this section to be marked. The teacher marks that section with the level of feedback the student has asked for. Recognising whole college and school policies often dictate how we mark, but I think there are elements in this that can work and I have seen work well.

Teaching online, we can replicate this by indicating the yellow box. But that verbal feedback as we would traditionally circulate the room are slightly trickier. Sure we can verbally offer feedback, perhaps not whole class and maybe in breakout rooms? My go to technique is to use comments in student work live. I take a helicopter view of one slide deck. Each slide has the task, space for student work and each student's name on top. I then share one doc with the class with edit rights. Version history helps reinforce my expectations of etiquette and respect for others work in the doc. Each student navigates to their slide in the deck and works. I can see the colour code for each student as they work. I can then add comments live.

I can toggle my view to grid view (slide sorter view in PowerPoint) and see everyone working at once. I can see work appear live and dive in to slides where I think students might need help. Students feel safe to contribute, we have established expectations and I have reminded them of version history. Students feel valued that I can give them feedback quietly and as I would if I were circulating the room. Students could see each others work in the room normally, online they can too. If this were an issue for my students I would maybe move this quick, instant verbal feedback I am replicating online to Google Chat or private comments to students. I am showing students that I value their work and I am supporting them in their learning. We are all connected and building a learning community online.

Referring back to the initial quote, the value students perceive is also in expectations and support. Backchannel chats are a supportive measure my students enjoy. Our backchannel is via Google Chat. Students can privately message me live with how they are feeling, issues, ideas and I can support. Something like Backchannel Chat is also appropriate. That immediate support of knowing that your teacher is there and will be able to help is an effective support in itself, just the knowing. My students mainly share emojis at the level of challenge they are experiencing and my job is to support them to overcome that fear or work through it to achieve their potential in that class. This is time consuming and mentally taxing for me as a teacher, but since when was teaching not either of those things? We do what we need to do to help our students. I find setting a self marking activity for the class useful whilst I manage the back channel at key points in the lesson invaluable. Otherwise students would be left looking at my thinking face whilst I manage all the communication modes.

App Fatigue

When we first heard about Zoom fatigue we may have let out a little snort. Yet on reflection we probably realised we had Teams/Zoom/Google Meet fatigue too! That feeling of, not another meeting! In summer 2020 a leader asked me for top tips to help her manage her workload as she felt that she was sinking. I'm a huge fan of a coaching process and, although informal, we worked through and identified that it was continuous meetings that were the biggest issue. The jumping back to back between calls leaving no time to action anything from the previous meeting. She identified that a 15 minute buffer after every meeting might be a solution, she trialled it and when we chatted agin she extended it to 30minutes after every meeting. 

In my calendly I too have a gap after each call, time to gather my thoughts for the next meeting. Time to make notes from the previous one or fire off some emails and await responses whilst I hop on the next call. Yet zoom fatigue still happens on days when I have 5/6 calls a day. Sadly this is common. So I also actively manage my calendar with my calendly. If it looks busy on a morning next week I will book out the afternoon for admin/catch up time. If something urgent crosses my desk that time is available but otherwise it's time to catch up on the busy morning.

App fatigue is something I have seen in colleges I have been working with recently. Staff openly telling me that they cannot learn another app. Now I'm not sure this is true but I take their point. They cannot take on anything else new at this time as they are so busy. Catching up on missed practical activities or the dreaded TAGs that are thankfully now over! I get it.

Sheep dip cpd was introduced to me by Chloe Hynes from PD North. I chatted about it on my appearance on the Edufuturists podcast too. I've even spoken about it on the FE show on www.joyfm.co.uk as well! It is when we 'dip' staff into our agenda CPD. We have decided staff need to have this training, we dip them in and hope it sticks and becomes their new way of delivering their practice. Unfortunately sometimes the dip doesn't stick and there are no changes to practices. Sometimes with educational technology we are guilty of this too. We show staff a shiny new tool and hope it will appear in their lessons tomorrow and everyday there after. Delivery and approaches to CPD are not where I'm going here but will happily blog those too if you give me a nudge.

App fatigue has come about through this dipping of staff into training for new apps. We have dipped them in Wakelet, Edpuzzle, Flipgrid, Nearpod, Adobe, Canva, Kahoot, Kami and more! How many are staffs go to tools now? How embedded are they? Have staff had time to develop their skills further? Have we re-visited to support them? I was at a college recently and I showed a tool and the attendees finished my task really quickly. When I asked how they had managed to finish so quick they told me they had had this training before. So I asked, why haven't you continued to use it? Have you found your why? Answers varied but time and not finding their why were the winners.

Finding your why is when you find your why for the tool/thing/approach that you are being trained on. Why would this work for you and your students? Why would you change your approach? An example is British Values from my own development. It was an add on to my lessons but I went to some training that showed me that by embedding it I would be able to have richer discussions with my students and I had found my why, I changed my approach.

I was asked by a college recently to upskill staffs digital skills and I asked what training had gone before and a long receipt roll of training was reeled off. No wonder the staff have app fatigue. I decided to narrow the scope. With a working party we selected 6 core apps that worked for that college and those students. I'm not listing them all hear as they may not be right for you. We looked at each tool and identified all the possible why's for using each of them. Although some dipping still happened we took a variety of approaches and there was a shift. 

Revisiting apps staff have seen before will divide an audience, some will need a refresher and some won't, but by sharing why's and use cases rather than the clicks and bricks the sessions take on a different flavour. Clicks and bricks are when I show staff where to click and the features of a tool, not how it would look and feel in a classroom. In sharing the whys of a tool with staff you hope they come with you and it will be wonderful. It isn't always, but I have had more success with this approach than continual dipping.

I will share one tool, Slido. It doesn't have to be Slido you may prefer another audience response system but Slido is my preferred tool. Slido inserts into an existing presentation, on either PowerPoint or Google Slides. It is one of the simplest ways to integrate technology into an existing lesson. Staff at one college couldn't believe how easy it was to set up and it did (after a quick dip and a workshop!) become their normal way of working. Every lesson has 3 Slido interactions now, 1 at the start, 1 in the middle and 1 at the end. Students engage on their phone via the camera with he QR code, minimal set up and training needed. In the simplest way a rating Slido can be used where learners evaluate their own progress and inform their teacher. I've seen word clouds used and the distance travelled in the lesson is shown by the increased use of technical language from the students in the word clouds. Gamification via the quizzes means Slido wins for me. 

There will (hopefully) always be shiny new things in the educational technology world, but that doesn't mean we need to show them off all the time. Beware of app fatigue and look for ways to support staff with their own EdTech journey, meet them where they are and show them the tools that will help. Dipping can be distracting.

Conscious Conversations

 How many people have you spoken to today?

Did you see someone whilst walking the dog? Did you bump into parents at the school drop off? Have you rang your mum? Did you chat to someone on the train through your mask?

When we were face to face in a pre-covid world. I don't think I counted these conversations. I live in Yorkshire so it isn't uncommon to strike up a chat with a stranger on public transport or in a coffee shop queue. I would love to know if this was uncommon where you live too?

When in college in the pre mask wearing days you would often find me chatting in corridors, bumping into colleagues as I went about my day. If I am honest those conversations probably made my day. Our college had campuses across the city centre and one of the highlights of the week would be wondering who you would bump into either to or from one of these cross campus jaunts. The journey often felt much shorter if you walked and talked. It was also especially joyful if you hugged a colleague as you dashed across the city square racing in opposite directions.

Yet at the end of the day when I came home to debrief to my partner I don't think I counted these encounters. But now I am mainly online I do. I daily update my partner on the 20 minute chat with a colleague, the hour meeting with a new team and the multiple whats app chats I have had with my friends. I am conscious of these conversations.

Conscious conversations has become my new thing on my to do list every day. To make sure that I have these interactions for my own wellbeing. I have discussed this concept with colleagues who have all made agreeable sounds and nods. Is this a concept for us all in this covid world?

Are we meaningful in our interactions? 

I would direct you to this great piece on consciousness and intentionality here

Are the two dependent? Do we need to be intentional to be conscious? Especially in our conscious conversations?

We learn more when we have other voices in our lives. A wider network informs us of wider perspectives and helps shapes our views, positives and negatives. How do we bring reality to some of these online conversations? Perhaps we don't need to? Many, if not all, of my new friends and colleagues I have never met face to face. Of those I have it has been briefly. Yet the bonds and connections that have been formed between us over the past year and more has had a significant impact on my life. Not just my well being but my professional life and my personal thinking. Because I can engage more globally I have. Broadening my spheres. This is all with intentionaity as I have found my why. See my blog about finding your why here.

Welcoming other voices and actively engaging in spaces are two different things. You can say you are open to all but inviting people to share with you is different. Take the practice some people adopt that when you follow them they RT your name or they send you a DM to thank you for following them. That is actively engaging with new voices. Following back is showing that you are open. There is a difference between being open to others and actively inviting others to share with you. This is intentionality. These are conscious conversations.

There is a difference between intentionality and conscious conversations. I am intentional if I follow back. I am opening a conscious conversation if I DM or tweet your name. SJ @WhatTheTrigMath

Conscious conversations are the process I take now making sure I am intentional with my time. It brings joy to chat to so many wonderful people all around the world, hope we can connect soon!

Wakelet for CPD

This has been quite a week with the launch of JoyFM and starting mentoring the Google For Education Google Coach UK Cohort. In both these spaces I shared Wakelet for CPD and it seemed useful so am blogging about it here.

Wakelet is and isn't what you think it is. Yes it is a kind of noticeboard that you pin useful treasures on. But it is SO much more too! I'm going to start with the Twitter integration.

Twitter has become a key part of my own professional development. Rightly or wrongly. For all its flaws Twitter is where I find new templates and new ideas. I magpie from other teachers all over the world and adapt ideas for my own teaching. Hashtags and communities that share are great for this. #ShareStuffSunday by @i_teach_things is a great way to see ideas from different education phases. The #APConnect community share great ideas from the FE classroom. #AmplifyFE alerts you to big news in FE. Not forgetting #UKFEchat. These are my key hashtags and the age/phase/subject will have their own too #CASchat and many more.

Twitter is also the place where I see academics sharing journals they have written. Just this morning I read a wonderful blog by an academic on unconscious bias of accents. This is my kind of CPD. Experts in their field sharing their work for us all to benefit. I love being signposted to a journal I've not read before. I enjoy reading a peer reviewed piece on a subject that sparks my own journey of discovery of a new perspective.

Twitter is the place where I meet authors of books. I hear about launch events. I see Twitter chats to launch pieces. I engage directly with authors. I then build a deeper understanding of the book they've written. I discovered the launch events for The Manifesto For Teaching Online  this book challenges my thinking so the launch events helped clarify some viewpoints for me. This book is now my go to text and informs a lot of my current work. Had I not been on Twitter I would never have heard of it.

So what about our colleagues who aren't on Twitter? I only joined 9 months ago and engaging on Twitter has provided me with a treasure trove of activities and ideas. How do we support teachers not on Twitter? Could we share what we find? Absolutely! This is where Wakelet wins!

When creating a Wakelet collection you can click +Apps and the Twitter icon. From here you can add in a Twitter handle or a hashtag. Wakelet then pulls through what it has found! That simple! You can then curate through its finds or bulk add them to the Wakelet collection. 

I recently did this for #APConnect21 and these are some of the highlights that capture the Wakelet feature. Staff who are on Twitter can see new names and faces to connect with. Staff who aren't on Twitter can see resources, articles and YouTube links to access Twitter CPD.

The new emoji reaction feature in Wakelet takes this to the next level. Staff who view your Twitter Wakelet collection can react with a thumbs up or a heart. Double curation can then happen. You curate the Twitter posts that pull into the collection and colleagues curate the collection you created by leaving reactions meaning that the next person who sees the collection can easily identify the go to posts.

Here I have made a Wakelet collection on #ShareStuffSunday. Step by step on the app, I described how to do it on browser above but here it is via the Wakelet app

Create a collection and click add an item, select add from Twitter.

Type in the hashtag or handle of who or what you want to pull in.

Curate which posts you want to add. Here I selected all tweets.

And here it is the collection created all ready for you to leave emoji feedback on! Wakelets can be shared via links, QR codes, Teams, Google Classroom and so many more ways. You can also invite contributors to your Wakelet. This way asking others who are on Twitter to run the hashtag at a different time. Or added contributors can add more emat to the bones and articles or resources that link to the Twitter posts shared. The possibilities are beyond my introduction here.

Ultimately, if you find Twitter valuable CPD for your subject and you know colleagues who aren't on Twitter, perhaps you could make a Wakelet to share some of the good stuff you see?

PS you can find me on Twitter @WhatTheTrigMath 😉

Finding your why

 I have debated writing this on my What The Trig blog as it began personal but it has ended up more open than that so it will sit here if that's OK?

I recently delivered some training to a college who part way through the demo the staff explained that they had seen this tool and demo before. They showed me partially completed tasks on the tool in question. I then asked "why are you here again?" followed by "why didn't you use it more?" and finally I said "I think it's because you haven't found your why"

The staff, knew how to use the tool. They had an idea of how it would enhance their teaching and learning. Yet they hadn't explored it fully, they didn't have a reason to do so. Their 'why' for being in training with me was about a manager telling them to attend. There were many interpretations of how to apply the tool I was demonstrating to the classroom. We spent time exploring our 'why'. This was much more valuable and staff left with examples to embed into teaching from the next day. Instead of a blanket CPD approach we worked together to find our 'why'.

Finding your 'why' is crucial for embedding changes in your practice. Teaching is a career that develops habits early doors that become hard to change. I am fascinated by the review work Hobiss, Sims and Allen (2020) on habit formation in teachers. It got me thinking about how early career teachers need very different CPD and training to experienced teachers. Not because one is better than the other or that we assume experienced teachers need less and early career teachers need more. I mean early career teachers and experienced teachers need different CPD and training because they are at different stages of habit formation. Their 'why' for making changes will have different motivations.

The 'why' of an early career teacher, in my own experience and that of mentoring teachers, is that their 'why' comes from forming good habits. Wanting to establish best practice, a thirst to learn. The 'why' of an experienced teacher is often, again in my experience of coaching staff, to change habits or develop new ones. Also born out of a thirst to learn and establish best practice. Yet how often does the CPD I deliver, you attend, offer this level of differentiation? What I am asked to deliver are brief whistle stop tours for experienced teachers and in depth training for early career teachers. That in depth training is often sadly extended to experienced teachers who are on performance management pathways too. I have had to battle with organisations to explain that I need staff to find their 'why' and we differentiate the sessions based on the staff's 'why'.

Finding your 'why' has also emerged for me seeing the increase in people attending CPD events online. The emergence of self development CPD being freely available online has seen attendance at events sky rocket for mine and for others. I was in a session recently and my 'why' for being there was to support a colleague and provide technical assistance. I looked at their attendees and saw people clearly multi tasking. They were listening of sorts. Attendees left near the end and asked for a recording so they could catch up later. What was their 'why' for being there? Was it because they didn't want to miss out or because they wanted to learn what my colleague had to share? I wish it was the latter. 

A recording of a session is a great way to reflect and recall key points, I agree. Some people though partially listen live in the knowledge that they have a recording to look back over and they multi task in live sessions. I am curious if the videos ever go watched. I too have fallen into this trap of signing up to a million eventbrites to develop myself. I found I was unable to attend a few and felt guilty about taking a place and cancelled them. Upon reflection, my 'why' for booking on was because the CPD was there, it wasn't that I had a hunger to learn what was being shared. Finding my 'why' on this has now freed my diary up somewhat and I am enjoying reading and other activities instead. If something piques my interest I ask myself now, what is my 'why' for attending?

Social media is another place where I have found my 'why'. I was late to the party on social media as a wise person once said, there's no point in having a Twitter/LinkedIn page if you're not going to love it. It is for this reason I still don't have a LinkedIn page today. I do not have the time to devote to it. I would rather have no representation on the platform than a poor one. Forming JoyFM has meant I have had to open a new Twitter account and an Instagram account. This was a conscious decision. I had to consciously think about my 'why'. What would having this platforms bring me and JoyFM? Did I have the time to invest in them? 

My 'why' for my Twitter as WhatTheTrigMath was to connect with people. Share work I was doing, education technology and maths tips. My 'why' was self interest in the first instance and it still is to a degree. It is a source of income for me as a self employed teaching and learning coach. I get DM's from people asking for me to deliver sessions so the 'why' is clear on that front. Yet there is an aspect to social media that has added a new dimension to me 'why'.

As well as connecting with others, I amplify others work. My 'why' is because I want to share other people's work and their stories. It is this 'why' that led me to form JoyFM. I want to provide a platform where all can share. On Twitter I want to RT lots and amplify more! I genuinely hold close to my heart the value that we are all better together. Moving past the hashtag be kind, I want to be kind and support others. Twitter isn't always positive, I am not naive. But the negative experiences count on one hand vs the hundreds of positive interactions every day. 

I was recently on an Instagram live with Scott Hayden talking about digital wellbeing habits. Scott shared this with his students and we had a student focus. I shared some of my work as a common sense ambassador. Particularly the lessons from the digital citizenship curriculum on wellbeing. In one we look at the art by Eric Pickersgill. These images are so powerful. And again it got me asking, what is the 'why' for the people in the images with their phones? In my chat with Scott I shared my thoughts about scrolling endlessly and finding your purpose for being on the platform. Whatever platform you are on, are you active or passive? If you are active what is your 'why'? If you are passive what is your 'why'? This reflection has been powerful for me in stepping away from some spaces and throwing myself into others.

There are many aspects of life where we have 'whys' but how often do we stop and think, what is our 'why' for doing this? What are we hoping to achieve? How will we support others? How will things be improved by doing this. As society demands more from us I hope that we can all find our 'why' and be purposeful in our actions. SJ 

Developing Digital skills with Embedded Content

 Digital skills are needed now more than ever and not just for those learners who are at a school or college age, but for adult learners, teachers, trainers and everyone else. The global pandemic has highlighted how important digital capability is in today's world. So how do we build on the foundation of digital skills that many would have developed over the course of the last year or so?

Learning has and will exist forever, secretly we are all teachers. For many years now people have turned to the internet to learn new things. Your washing machine breaks, you check out YouTube for a video on how to repair it. You want to cut your own hair because the barber is closed, you get a step by step guide on wiki on how to do it. The internet is still relatively young in the grand scheme of things, but has forever changed the way that learning occurs. Little by little we see the digication of things which had previously worked perfectly well such as paper books, or paying for products with cash. The world is changing and so must the approach in preparing people for a future evolving at breakneck speed.

I found some stories, such as schools giving out a week's worth of printed homework out for learners during the pandemic very troubling. Why would we think this is acceptable in this day and age? Understandably many institutions will state funding issues or lack of equipment as a result, but i'd like to follow up with why hasn't digital skill development been on the agenda before now in classroom activities? Every job requires some element of digital skill, whether you want to be a hairdresser or a rocket scientist, day to day life requires digital skill and capability. It's about preparing the next generation to navigate the digital world. 

The pandemic has highlighted the real need for long term thinking and investment in digital infrastructure and accessibility. This in my opinion will not go away and we have seen the beginning of steps to rightfully make this wrong a thing of the past, so the focus now should be in preparing learners for the ride of using and learning new skills and knowledge through digital formats. 

Employers will play a key role on the digital skills required of its future workforce and it's important here that we do not get bogged down on the specifics of software but instead focus on a general approach to key learnings. If we take a look at the government's new technical qualifications better known as T Levels we can find some of the key digital skills knowledge required in these programmes:

1. Use digital technology & media effectively

2. Create with multimedia & design tools

3. Communicate & collaborate digitally

4. Process & analyse data securely

5. Demonstrate critical digital literacy

6. Code & programme 

To put this in simple terms, this is the employer person specification of tomorrow. The old saying of fail to prepare, prepare to fail really does apply here. The need for digital skill development doesn't just sit in the younger age groups but also the older age groups who will be teaching these skills to the future workforce. The pandemic provided many practitioners the opportunity to try something new and deliver learning online. Some would have swam but many might have sunk. Ensuring that people have access to regular CPD and development opportunities is key not just for the quality of future online learning but also the future of the next generation coming through, ensuring the best possible outcomes and learning opportunities for all.

With light now showing at the end of this COVID nightmare and many learners returning to the physical classroom, it's important we begin to plan the approach to keep digital skill development moving forward. The six areas mentioned above can really provide us with a broad spectrum of opportunity to develop learners to be life and work ready. Taking these six areas and applying them to future job roles and careers learners might want to enter provides us with an even greater opportunity to develop relevant and employer ready skills. I think it's important to mention here that we should not take for granted that a 16 year old knows how to send an email (Digital literacy) just because they were born in the digital age. That's nonsense. Many young people develop skills associated with social media, games or online music as that is what they access regularly.  By making the future skills relevant to employment, we can begin to forge the behaviours and skills learners need to flourish. 

A  report released by the European Commission in 2017 revealed that 44% of Europeans aged 16-74 do not have basic digital skills. The study further predicts that 9 out of 10 jobs in the future will require these basic digital skills, meaning that Europe could be facing a digital skills gap. There are significant differences in the rate of basic digital skill literacy between EU countries, ranging from 26% in Bulgaria to 86% in Luxembourg, with the EU average being 56%.Over the past decade Europe has witnessed a 1200% increase in technology companies valued at over 1 billion Euros. Regardless of learners wanting to go into tech or be a carpenter, digital know-how will be needed.

It's important to mention that digital skill gaps appear in every country all over the world, even where countries have excellent access to hardware and software, as well as super speed Wi-Fi and logistical infrastructure. Part of this issue is that self assessment of digital skill is often overstated and rarely correct. Results from five European countries have shown that people have insufficient levels of digital skills. For example, despite being well-equipped with PCs and using them frequently, the Swiss population has a poor level of basic computer skills. 85% of a digital survey respondents indicated that they were ‘good’ or ‘very good’ in using the internet and e-mail, whereas in reality, only 34% of them scored that high in digital skills ability tests. 

Digital ignorance is not to be ignored. A study conducted by the University of Twente concluded that the cost of lost time due to employees’ lack of digital skills amounts to €19.3 billion a year in the Netherlands alone and this was in 2017. Now more than ever we must take digital skill development to the next level, engaging with employers and putting plans in place to ensure all can progress, develop and learn the skills needed for the world of tomorrow. The cost of not doing so will be worse than any fiscal figures can detail.

How technology can reduce the disadvantage gap

 A report released this week by the Education Policy Institute (EPI), has found that poorer students in sixth forms and colleges trail their more affluent peers by as many as three A level grades when taking qualifications at this level. 

This exploratory research established that the disadvantage gap, defined as the gap in educational attainment between poorer students and their peers – is substantial during the 16-19 education phase, with poorer students continuing to see far worse educational outcomes than their better off peers.

The report also concluded that there was no progress made in closing the gap between 2017 and 2019, which brings to the forefront the worrying potential outcomes of the year of the pandemic 2020.. 

39% of those identified in the gap can be explained by learners' prior attainment at school, think GCSE. Entry for these learners into sixth form or college is generally into lower level education due to low achievement grades previously in school. The research also indicates the key role social economic background plays and how this also has a tipping effect on the scales of levelling off the gap.  

It is clear this is not a new problem caused by the pandemic, but an ongoing problem that is generally grounded in the background and circumstances certain learners find themselves in. Therefore the response is not a single solution but a package of measures that is required to provide equal opportunity to those most in need. 

Perhaps one area that has been overlooked is how the use of technology and how online learning could be an enabler for those most in need. We have seen some excellent innovation occur throughout the pandemic, from virtual tours of museums to online learning programmes. Technology could be the learning mentor that many students have never had, supplying them with the opportunities they might never have had access too.  

Thinking back to pre 2020, how many learners were asked if they had a device at home they could use for learning? Did they have a stable internet connection? And other such questions? Perhaps some, but for those who didn't have any of that the answer was generally you can access these services onsite at college. I do believe that those days are over, and the time of anywhere, anytime access will require those packages of measures, including investment in Wi-Fi infrastructure and hardware for learning.

The reason for this need is the world is changing, how we learn is changing and how we support learning is changing. One size fits all doesn't work and it never has, but technology can be shaped, can be personalised and can be agile - changing quickly to the need and allowing greater access and inclusivity.  

When I was in primary school my parents bought me an encyclopaedia, I found this massive book absolutely incredible. The scale of information available to me was incredible. I could look at anything from World War 2 to how clouds are formed. I developed an appetite to find out new things and was encouraged to do so. Every now and then I would give a little presentation to my parents on what I had been looking at in the book. Now imagine a learner who might never have had this access, whose parents might be forced to work long hours to feed them and keep a roof over their head. The internet has provided us with a multibillion page encyclopaedia which some learners can't get on to with ease and others of us spend multiple hours on each day. Is it any wonder we have attainment gaps?

Professor Sugata Mitra delivered one of my most favourite Ted talks in 2013. Sugata speaks about how technology has changed learning opportunities for young children across the globe. It is a fascinating watch and please if you haven't seen it look it up via the link provided. Within this talk Sugata speaks about the SOLEs, self organised learning environment, and the massive impact these facilities have had on learning for some of the most disadvantaged learners across the globe. The talk includes so many discussion points it's hard to summarise, but it's amazing how this talk was delivered in 2013 and the key points are still so relevant today. 

 

Perhaps the answer to this question of attainment regardless of age, is what the professor discusses in his talk: Wi-Fi + Collaboration + Encouragement of learning. “It's not about making learning happen, it's about letting it happen”. Powerful words and a quote that has stayed with me since I first watched this talk. Part of me thinks this is what is missing from some of the learners within this 16-19 age group: encouragement. If we can encourage learning and supply the resources to let it happen, we are on course for a much more positive outcome. 

Technology really is the way forward. It is how we provide greater opportunity and enable learners regardless of background or circumstance to thrive. The most important things to think about now is how we make it available to all, how we utilise teachers and mentors and how by making marginal gains we change the future prospects of billions of people.