Online Teaching and Learning - Reflection on the pros and cons

 Learning opportunities are everywhere for everyone if they know where to look. In 2020 the learning world underwent a forceful change with the move to online learning due to COVID. In the later part of the year blended learning made a return to the limelight as social distancing and COVID regulations took hold. So where has the shake-up left the landscape of online learning? Let's take a look at the positives and negatives.

Teachers now see online learning as something they could do rather than something they can't do. 

Thanks to the forceful move to online learning teachers have had to upskill in developing their digital practices to assist them in delivering learning to their students. Many teachers have innovated their practice and have tried new resources and strategies.  An unfortunate side effect of this has been an increase in workload, however innovation is messy and takes time to critique and motivation should not be lost because of this time and effort.

Self-paced flexible learning has proven popular with many students 

The ability to access learning at a time that suits around daily schedules and responsibilities has proven popular with some learners.  For some students however this is proving difficult due to the self motivating aspect to access learning in particular way.  Being able to work at your own pace is useful but where you may be lacking motivation or are tired, can mean that you can reschedule your learning for a better time. The key element with this is that the rescheduling occurs and learning is completed in a timely fashion. 

Focus has been placed on learning to learn in the digital space 

This is a big positive.  When I reflect on my own learning throughout my life little time has been spent on teaching me how to learn in the best way for me.  I can recall filling out questionnaires around learning styles but not having a look at more in-depth information about how learning actually occurs.  Thanks to the move to online delivery, teachers have placed more emphasis on working with learners to support them in understanding how learning occurs in the digital space.  This is massively beneficial to learners especially as we try to create agency in learning in the digital world i.e. promoting lifelong learning to all learners

Digitising manual processes isn't digital transformation.

 As many teachers were forced to upscale online delivery skills very quickly due to COVID-19, this affected the ability to learn in-depth information and practical practice of online delivery strategies. Much of what has been learnt has been superficial in the early part of 2020, due to the prolonged need to deliver online teachers have been able to develop their knowledge and processes of how delivering online is different to the physical world.  However in some cases this led to the digitising of manual processes, for example teachers deliver in a similar style in an online space to the physical space, set an assignment waiting for learner's to complete the assignment, marking the assignment and then feeding back. This practice is the same in the digital space as it is in the physical space.  More innovation and practice is required here for practitioners to ensure that the learning experience is unique and interesting to learners.

 Demand on teacher workload. 

 Teachers have been forced to learn new skills very quickly, but to develop long term confidence and knowhow takes time. Due to the time taken in learning new skills, teachers have been forced into spending more hours on planning and preparing lesson material for delivery in the digital space.  This has come at a costly price for many who struggle with the strain of changing their normal working practices to accommodate the new need for online delivery.

Digital Deluge. 

In his book Limitless, Jim Kwik Talks about how at the beginning of the internet age people would come on and leave the digital space for example the term BRB would be used when referring to leaving the digital space and then returning.  Now in this modern day people rarely leave the digital world.  There is a bombardment of information for people to work through. Jim also talks about digital dementia, digital distraction and digital deduction all terms that relate to access to digital tools which has led to challenges around learning and memory. Digital dementia for example covers how many people now could not remember their best friend's phone number as computers and mobile devices remember this for us.  Digital distraction is as much of a problem in the digital learning space as in the physical learning space, learner's are accessible 24/7 365 through their mobile devices.  They may receive many notifications and alerts that can distract them from their learning processes.  

From a learner's perspective the move to online learning in many cases has proven positive especially when trying to create agency in learning for learners as they move through their careers.  If we continue to work with learners on teaching them how to learn and accessing tools at their own convenience this could be very cost efficient for the United Kingdom and other countries on the planet due to the requirement of reskilling, so that individuals can transition between careers and in particular higher skilled employment at a cheaper cost. 

We should be careful not to over indulge in our use of technology and ensure we don't use technology for the sake of using technology. Planning an interesting and engaging curriculum is the way forward and ensures the key skills learners need are embedded and included within our planning and delivery. By planning effectively we allow time for teachers to upskill in tools that could be used to support learning and avoid the need to upskill very quickly without efficient practice and safe space failure. Online learning is here to stay and in summary our ability to continue to innovate will be key to the success of learning that moves into the online learning environment. 

Let's keep collaborating and thanks for reading.

using Flipgrid to reflect

I'm a huge fan of reflective practise. We learn so much from observing and reflecting on what we taught. I've recently subjected myself to videos of me teaching online. Let's not pretend it's an enjoyable experience but it is one that creates an environment to help us learn and grow. Hattie says that the most effective teachers are the most reflective. I think we all know the importance of reflecting. 

Recently I was asked, how do I reflect? I was in a group of FE practioners and I was curious to others responses. One said she calls someone at the end of her day and debriefs. One said she answers the OTLA sheet of questions she has to complete and then it came to me. How do I reflect? Face to face teacher version 

1.0 of me reflected by talking in the office after a lesson, maybe sharing what didn't land right and a colleague passing a resource they were using that was more successful. Teaching online version of me 2.0? I watch the video and cringe, but then how can I take action?

We are missing that collaboration, that informal connection that supports our practise. I wonder what value we have missed by not having those opportunities? Just like we are working hard to create online supportive environments for our students, we should be placing the same amount of emphasis for staff. How can we create spaces for staff to thrive rather than survive when teaching online?

One large factor is time. Time to reflect, time to think. In FE we are often so very short of time already it is hard to picture opportunities to carve out more time. I heard from a college this week that due to under recruiting (genuinely no one's fault!) all staff had to increase teaching hours or provide cover in traditional PPA time. The value on staff developing their practise has been valued at a low level in this example. If a colleague reached out and said they wanted to talk about their practise, would you have the time to listen? Would they have the time to speak?

Time is precious. We can't make more of it. We need to maximise the value of the important stuff and minimise the noise. In a radical thought this week I wrote down all the things that I do that someone who was less qualified and paid less than me could do vs all the tasks it needed to be actually me there to do them. There was so much I think I could make a case for a PA! But how true is this across all our roles? How often do we undertake roles because it is easier for us to do them?

So when do we have time to reflect? When we became teachers, however our route into teaching looked, we were encouraged to reflect. Write down our evaluations. Compare those with our mentors or our observers. Develop action plans to improve our practise. A sort of Gibbs model for reflection. Now we are learning how to adapt our craft in new ways. We could probably do with another view on how it's going? But we may not have time!

If you, like me, have videoed yourself teaching, perhaps consider uploading them to a Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a wonderful tool that if it is unfamiliar I do encourage you to check it out. I'm a huge fan of right tool, right job, and although I am proud to be the first female goodle coach in EMEA and one of 78 globally for Google Innovator in 2020 this Microsoft tool is the right tool for many jobs. Flipgrid is a space for you to create a noticeboard of videos posted by others that you inspire with your topic creation. In teaching I use it to get students to talk through their working out on paper. The bit that I greatly miss in teaching online! We use it for staff birthday cards and there is some competition now as to who makes the best video for Flipgrid!

For teaching reflections though it is a great tool. I upload a video of my lesson. Generally the recording from Google Meet but this could be from Zoom or Teams or whatever you use. I can then insert timestamps of key parts where I want to make notes or ask for others opinions. Perhaps I want some new ideas for how to do starter activities as mine felt a little flat? Maybe I'm happy with my questioning and want someone to check they agree? Or I might be amazing at differentiation and have been asked by a peer to share my good practise. Observers can join the Flipgrid via a link, a code, restricted to domain or public. You are in control. I get that fear that your ventures into online teaching may not be ready to be viewed by the world. Mine aren't either! Mine are locked down to only those that I share the flipgrid with can view! 

I choose to share with different people depending on what I am looking for. I might share with peers if it is subject specific content I want help with. I might share with the TLA team if it is more broad areas I want help with. Sometimes though I like to share just to check I'm on the right track and I share with that trusted colleague who will be kind, specific and helpful in their feedback. It can be a lonely place teaching online and I'm finding lots of ways to oversome that by using Flipgrid. Observers can record video feedback for me. Their freshest thinking. They can skip to my timestamped section. I can hear their initial thoughts. Text comments are also a feature. I can read a summary evaluation. I quite like seeing a written summary, perhaps with reference to a resource that might help me next time round or some extra reading. 

This tool has wider reach and power though as a TLA tool. Perhaps we could form peer TLA groups where we all share via a Flipgrid and comment on each others teaching? The time it takes to upload a video is seconds. The video is created via the online meeting software I have taught my learners via so that takes little effort too. To watch another's video will take time, 10 minutes. To comment and leave a reply, probably 2-5 minutes. With time being so tight I'm hopeful we could find 15 minutes to reflect on our practise. But I'm more inclined to suggest that we should make time to reflect on our own practise. 

If you want to know more about how we, at Driving Digital, can help you with supporting reflective practise culture at your institution please get in touch. 

Breakout Rooms for Formative Assessment

 Over the course of 2020 video platforms have become the norm in delivering online synchronous teaching.  As a result there has been an innovation of features to support teachers in delivering lessons in a more pedagogical way. We have seen features such as breakout rooms, hands up and use of chat boxes which have allowed the development of how learning occurs. Platforms such as Zoom already had features such as breakout rooms which left some of the other platforms needing to catch up in responding to feedback from teachers, who had been relying on these resources to deliver teaching in lockdown. In this blog we will take a quick look at how breakout rooms can support formative assessment for teachers.

Breakout rooms become particularly popular with teachers who attended online CPD using the platform Zoom.  As a result many teachers went back to their own schools and colleges and requested such features to support their own delivery.  As we come to the end of 2020 other platforms such as Google Meet and Microsoft Teams have integrated breakout rooms into their operating features. So why are breakout rooms a key feature in helping teacher's deliver online learning?

 Review pedagogical  research and approaches to learning and you will see that pair or small group discussions can help formative assessment abilities of learner's prior to whole class questioning activities. Without  breakout rooms this becomes near impossible to complete in a verbal manner and  students miss out on the opportunity to discuss their thinking and knowledge with other class members or peers before speaking in front of a whole group. If we look at research from Professor John Hattie in his works making learning visible, we can see on his scale classroom discussion is rated at 0.82, making this an effective pedagogical approach to positively impact learning. 

For teachers this means they can also enter and exit breakout rooms and sense check with learners where their knowledge may be at set points within a lesson.  This is particularly beneficial in supporting formative assessment practices to help identify the teaching and learning gap in lessons. For larger groups this might not always be possible but teachers can make use of features such as polls and instant chat in which students can provide a summary of their discussions, so the teacher can quickly review and use it to form further questions. Breakout rooms also provide the opportunity for small group working tasks that can support further formative assessment activities. This could be particularly useful for project-based learning where learners will need to work together in groups to complete activities. 

In his work on formative assessment Dylan Williams talks about how assessment should be frequent, low stakes and formative. The use of breakout rooms allows teachers the opportunity to formatively assess learners in smaller groups or in pair settings which can help develop the level / style of questioning that can then occur in whole-class discussions. To keep the assessment as low stakes, breakout rooms can also support the teacher in providing feedback in a more personal and inclusive way to learners. Relevant and precise feedback scores highly as you would expect on the Hattie scale but also helps in closing the teaching and learning gap, positively helping learners make progress in learning. 

The use of breakout rooms will  require practice and consistent use for both teachers and learners.  I would encourage teachers to practice using this feature with their colleagues or if possible in smaller group lessons to help them in developing their practice moving forward.  Teachers may also consider in lesson planning potential task structures that can allow for smooth use of breakout rooms.  Consideration should be thought about for group or pair pairings to support behavioral management and maximise the impact of time spent within a breakout room for a learner.

If you would like to know more about breakout rooms and how they work please feel free to get in touch with us at Driving Digital