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.

Keep it Simple in a Complicated World

 Online teaching delivery can be hard work. It's a bit like starting to learn how to drive, the first time you pull off in the car and you are behind the wheel is for some very scary but for others very liberating. Think back to March 2020 and the beginning of lockdown across the UK, which driver were you? Those experienced in online delivery of learning im sure were very excited (including me) however this pandemic has really highlighted the need for serious thinking on how online learning is delivered and evolves into the future. 

April 2019 seems forever ago, the good old days of visiting a pub for a chat and a bag of chips without the military style planning required to meet a pal these days. It was also the time the government launched the EDTech strategy: Realising the Potential of Technology in Education. How things have changed since then and if anything the strategy is now out of date before it really got going thanks to COVID. Some elements of the document are to be fair, still very much in play. Especially those which details barriers to technology use. It is clear beyond all doubt that further investment, training and development is required to keep learners learning and teachers innovating via technological opportunities.

On the shop floor teaching staff haven't had the time to wait for the stars to align, they have had to get on with educating the next generation. Back to back video lessons, phone calls etc have highlighted the importance of future sustainable online learning through technology, the infrastructure and planning required to make the experience successful for all. The key message I think now is let's keep it simple. 

If you are a viewer of Grand Designs like me you always think, “blimey they are taking on a lot of work” or “they must be mad”. As the show goes on there are always bumps in the road, budget overspend and in the most recent series a global pandemic to deal with. At the end of the show 99% of the time you can't believe how the house looks and maybe bar some internal decoration changes you would move into the property tomorrow if you could. We are currently living through our own technological grand design in how technology is shaping jobs and learning in the future. COVID has accelerated the need for better understanding of technology use, pedagogy and striking balance between the new and the old. We must also remember this experience for some both on the teachers side and the learners side has been a massive switch off, and this is where battle must take place to ensure these people are not left behind. 

As with any house build, the foundations have to be correct, solid and strong enough to be built on. Before that the ground has to be surveyed and checked to make sure it can sustain a build. In many cases the surveying and foundations were skipped and many had to start buying interior features before they did anything else. The coming up of a calendar year of delivery via different means has been a big learning curve for some, but we should not take for granted that everyone knows what they are doing. It is key now that reflective practice informs what we do next. Identifying gaps in skills sets of staff, gaps in infrastructure for organisations and developing a plan to close these gaps. Keep it as simple as possible, give people the time and space to learn and develop and encourage all to be bold and brave much like the past 12 months will be key for long term success. 

Semantics of whatever this is learning

Home schooling?

At the beginning I and many others said that I was home schooling. We had our own kids at home and we were their teachers. The semantics are important here. We were teaching our kids at home but we weren't home schooling. Home schooling requires a conscious decision to remove kids from mainstream education and educate them at home. We were teaching in response to a pandemic, our own children at home, they returned to their classes. We weren't home schooling. They are now back at home and we are still not home schooling, we are response teaching them in an effort to sustain their thirst for knowledge. There is little to be lost here in terms of learning. 

Lost learning?

Lost learning, let's think about that. To lose something is to misplace it or to have something removed that cannot be recovered. We haven't mis placed our children's education. We have had the opportunity to attend school removed but this can and will be recovered as soon as, well as soon as, well, you know what as soon as whatever it needs to be for everyone to be safe.

In seeing all these unhelpful reports about lost learning we are defining the future narrative and eventually consensus may define that we accept lost learning as a thing. But how can this be? What are we losing? We are missing opportunities to connect. We are missing friendships and relationships. We are learning perhaps at a different pace to what we would have seen in school. But we lose nothing. We didn't pop our children's education in the drawer for safe keeping and now can't find it, did we?

Hybrid teaching?

Surely this is doing some classes online and some in school? Well no, hybrid teaching is that most challenging (personally an experience I would never choose to do) that mix of physically having some learners in class and some at home joining the class simultaneously via an online meeting into the physical classroom. The cognitive overload as I wrote that was great, imagine having to teach like that? Making sure all of them are engaged, checking progress all via online means and physical means. Sure I can see when this could happen as an exception when students are isolating but I can't picture this being sustainable long term, if you've had success at this please do reach out, there is research being done on this that you could help with. 

Synchronous teaching?

Teaching all the students at the same time. What we used to do in a physical classroom. We were all there at the same time, engaging in learning. Yet, a question for you. When we were in a physical classroom, did we pop a slide deck up, chuck some worksheets out and sit back down? Same rules apply when teaching synchronously online. Yes you can teach synchronously online, I have done it many times, check out my blog on What The Trig on it. I (honestly) serialise and critique how teaching online went. Synchronous is all together at the same time. Not necessarily on a video call at the same time. Doing synchronous teaching online may require a mind shift, a little tweak.

Its a question of value. What I call my sprinkles. Where can I sprinkle my magic today? Where can I add the most value to my learners today? Is it sitting here online watching them watch me watch them while I talk over my slide deck? Or is it designing an activity to apply their knowledge, gained from watching my slide deck on their own, to a new and exciting concept? I was taught in my first ever part time Saturday job aged 14 that, if you're sat down you've missed something, we're always busy! Same when I became a teacher, if you've time to sit down in class, my mentor told me, you're missing an opportunity for learning for someone. Same with synchronous online delivery, are we busy checking misconceptions, challenging assumptions with students. Content delivery can be done via a variety of modes when online, what value can you add to that content?

Asynchronous learning?

Which leads is nicely onto asynchronous learning. If your value is going to be checking assumptions and driving the learning forward, could the learners cover your content asynchronously before joining your synchronous lesson? Beware not to set too much asynchronous material with other teachers too as then the burden can be overwhelming for students, spread the load. Imagine all 9 subjects set asynchronous work all at once that is a lot of work for students to do independently in the week. If my class are coming to see me on Thursday online, I might sent them my content the Friday before and ask them to have watched or reviewed it before class, we can then crack on in class, synchronously. Oh wait now I've a hybrid of asynchronous and synchronous going on surely???? Sorry to muddy the waters again!

Asynchronous is learners learning at their own pace, their own way, their own style. You set an end goal and leave them choices to travel along paths to get there and you dip in with feedback at key points. Thinking about the value you give, is 60min of you watching learners watching content good value? What if we split that 60min into 6 lots of 10min sessions where we could have one to one's? We could schedule some more in around the rest of the class the rest of the week too. The learners could asynchronously learn content and make choices and complete tasks, we could speak to them about how it's going, extend their knowledge. Or those 60min might be spent giving verbal feedback on tasks completed? Or video feedback? Recognising the time commitment of the teacher here, managers and Hods may ask how much planning time to give for teaching online? A lot more than you were planning on giving teachers!

Flipping learning?

These approaches then are flipping our original classrooms so we are flipping learning. Yet flipped learning is when learners learn content ahead of class and arrive at a Synchronous class with the skills for the lesson. That very approach of learners learning content asynchronously and then arriving at a synchronous class is a flipped approach. Flipped learning though, doesn't have to be online. It's a beautiful thing when face to face too, it's synergy is not with learning online but the experience of the learner in gaining prior knowledge before class. The learner arrives ready to learn with a desire to delve deeper into the subject or topic.

Blended learning?

So it must be a blend then? Blending classroom practise with teaching online? Well blended learning is a mix of teaching online and face to face. 

                                    But wait isn't that hybrid learning? 

Blended learning is for an individual, the individual learns material both online and face to face. In hybrid the individual student would be one or the other, in class or not. The class are a hybrid, not the individual. Blended learning is probably the closest to what happened before lockdown 3.0 and probably what we will return to? Some groups are in, some groups are at home due to social distancing and classroom size restrictions. So the teacher plans some online work and then some face to face work and rotates round the groups. But yes you heard, double planning. This can be a blend of synchronous for those physically in class and asynchronous for those working online. 

A huge point to remember to all of these approaches is what does it look like for the learner? If they've asynchronous classes all week they will need to be highly organised to spread tasks out. Have we taught them how to apply their study skills? Have we taught them time management? Have we taught them the importance of screen time breaks? If learners have a week of synchronous online lessons this will be an important skill to teach. What about flipped learning, if we all follow that approach as teachers of the same learner when will they have time to learn our material? We need to collaborate with other teachers to ensure we aren't going to burn students out. 

Blended then itself branches into many forms, project based, station rotation, self discovery etc. The semantics are becoming more and more important the more refined we go into this journey. There are other approaches that you may be doing that I haven't covered here, did we ever categorise our in class teaching to this level before? The semantics will become the defining points of how this plays out. Success and failure will be recorded against each term used. 

FlipgridForFE

 We have been running a series of tweets recently under the hashtag #FlipgridForFE. We have had many requests recently either via our one to one sessions or group sessions of "what's the best way to do..." "how can I get students to do..." and most of the time our answer is Flipgrid.

Teachers are working at an enormous rate to make lessons as great as they can make them. You wouldn't be hanging around working all these hours in these ever changing conditions were it not for the love of the job at the minute! Teachers want to replicate their face to face classroom online, but this may not be possible nor the best idea depending on the group. Thinking about Puentedura's SAMR model we can place our activities against this framework and see are we substituting or is it better to augment the planned task online? 

Thinking about the key 21st Century 4C Digital Skills; communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking our SHED resources serve as a great tool for developing those skills. Sketching the problem creatively, critically highlighting key information, estimate a sensible answer using critical thinking. Followed by collaboratively communicating in a discussion to establish whose sensible estimates were correct. Flipgrid serves as a great tool for collaborative communication. Although students record videos individually whilst in lockdown they can collaborate by using comments, helping respond and reply to others ideas.

Flipgrid has a great mirror flip feature. This means that if you have a homemade visualiser (all my iterations here) you can record a model answer on Flipgrid. You can create a topic where you ask key questions, upload a video of your model answer and invite students to share theirs. Hattie  talks about modelling by a competent teacher having a positive impact on student learning. In this period of online teaching we can often feel far away when trying to scaffold and support, modelling is a great tool to support these aims. Flipgrid allows you to model with the old pen and paper where needed with the mirror flip too. The physical distance of student and teacher can be narrowed via Flipgrid when students talk as they write or show their work. Explaining why they did what they did may help you assess their level of skill greater than reading their written work as well as building connections between you both.

Flipgrid is great for giving feedback for students too. Anecdotally on social media we are seeing teachers herald the speed of their assessment and feedback with the use of video or audio tools. Recording a 30 second video of feedback is probably quicker than typing against a mark scheme, and more enjoyable! Video feedback builds social connection with learners, closing that physical distance bringing teachers closer to students. Students feel connected and the personalised nature of feedback

When setting topics on Flipgrid you can add in a custom rubric. This means that you can mark student video submission with a few clicks against your assessment criteria. They can also see the rubric as they submit the video. They old argument, how do students know what good looks like if they don't have a reference point! Both through model answers and the criteria they are being assessed against. Hattie says "The most powerful single influence enhancing achievement is feedback" Once students have flipped on the Flipgrid you can privately mark their work either through comments or a video response. Making feedback personal via video  may help those messages form in the student longer term memory too. 

We have blogged about using Flipgrid for staff reflection here but thinking about the new lockdown the issues still arise of staff isolation and staff lack of community. Staff may be missing that drop in to the staffroom to share how their lesson went, that offloading of class 1 on Monday morning who always put them through the wringer! Flipgrid could be a vehicle to support staff with this. Leaders could create a Flipgrid for staff communication could be powerful to help staff feel supported. A short video sharing how their foray into using a new tool could inspire another staff member who views it to give it a go. A positive comment underneath from a colleague saying I hear you and I am here for you may go a long way.

These are a few of our VERY long list of ways we encourage staff to use Flipgrid and the evidence that informs our thinking. If we can help you or your school or college with Flipgrid or any part of education technology please get in touch.

53 Books in 53 Weeks

 I enjoyed reading as a child especially in school, and to some extent in my teenage years. It wasn't really until my mid twenties that I became a consistent reader. This mainly coincided with the beginning of teacher training, jumping into research and gaining insight to help me develop my practice. I prefer non fiction over fiction, funnily enough unless i am poolside in a sunny holiday destination, then a good Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler book will do nicely. 

Over the course of 2019 I found myself reading much more consistently than ever before. This was mainly due to my colleagues talking about books they had read and me not being able to contribute much to conversations. At this point I really begin to think about setting time aside to read everyday and to study topics of interest. Having started life in the fitness industry much of my reading was around training trends and the latest innovations of practice in the leisure sector. Over time I broadened my knowledge in a range of subjects such as leadership, project management, entrepreneurship and much more. By the end of 2019, I felt like I needed a challenge to support my continued reading. 

Being a millennial, I spent far too much time on YouTube. One day in December 2019 before a video started an advert played, in which somebody was talking about some sort of “too good to be true” idea in front of his Lamborghini he had bought as a result of this new idea. The key part of this advert for me, was the pile of 52 books he had on display and the words “the average CEO reads a book a week”. Something really hit home with me about how much time in a day I had spent doing things which were not benefitting my knowledge and understanding of the world I was in. At that moment the challenge was born. I was going to read 52 books in 52 weeks. (It wasn't until late in 2020 that i realised i had to read 53 as 2020 was a 53 week year!)

So, the challenge began with very little planning just a plan to read a book every seven days. Well that didn't work, in fact it was really difficult at the start of the year. At some points I had 3-4 books on the go at once. I didn't set out a list of books at the start i wanted to read but as i got closer to the end of a book i would begin to look for my next one. At certain times in the year I had to read short books to get back on track with the target. 

One book really changed my approach to reading and that was Limitless by Jim Kwick. This book spoke about speed reading and provided techniques on how to read quicker but also how to absorb the information I was accessing. These tips and tricks were very beneficial to the speed I was now reading at. As the year went on i felt my reader was getting quicker and quicker and i was able to absorb lots more than i had before. I would recommend this book and it will be one I will read again in 2021.

The second area of strategy change was one I have been against for a while… using a Kindle. I am quite traditional and those who know me know how much I value family, freedom and that I regularly drink out of a union jack mug. I like the feel of a book, it's not on a screen, it's away from the bright white screen lights I have on my work laptop, it's old school. But on this occasion with over spilling book shelves and my partner telling me to keep my books tidy the move to Kindle made sense. Kindle provides some good analytics on reading, such as pages left, percentage completed, you can change the colour background amongst other things. One other bonus is books are generally cheaper if bought on Kindle also.  As the year went on I used Kindle more and more and even invested in a Fire tablet just for reading. Not every book I read now is Kindle, I have a happy medium of getting some books in physical form and some via the Kindle, which works well for me. 

I won't be trying to repeat my 53 book total again this year but I will be continuing to read consistently. Below you will find my 5 top tips for becoming a consistent reader and the full list of the titles I completed in 2020.

Tips

1. Read Limitless by Jim Kwick 

2. Don't over plan the books you want to read. I read a book about Contagion in April (I wonder why) which I had no interest in the month before. 

3. Don't buy multiple books at once. Commit to the one you have and try to finish or nearly finish it before moving on to the next.

4. Set time aside to read. Personally I always read for 30 minutes before bed. Sometimes I will get an extra 30 minutes first thing when I wake up too. 

5. Research the books you want to read before purchasing them. Books should be enjoyable and interesting, so check out their ratings. 

Completed Books. 

1. Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed 

2. The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek 

3. High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard

4. Leadership, A Practical Guide by Alison & David Price 

5. Becoming Supernatural by Dr Joe Dispenza

6. Money by Laura Whateley

7. How to Own the World by Andrew Craig 

8. Love to Teach by Kate Jones 

9. Read and Send the Right Signals by Glenn Wilson 

10. Work Smarter, Not Harder by Graham Allcott

11. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown 

12. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

13. Imperfect Leadership by Steve Munby 

14. Leading Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise by Peter Cook

15. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

16. The Rules of Contagion by Adam Kucharski

17. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

18. The Age of Walls by Time Marshall 

19. Good Vibes Good Life by Vex King 

20. The Clever Gut Diet by Dr Michael Mosley 

21. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

22. It's Not About You by Tom Rath 

23. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill 

24. Limitless by Jim Kwick 

25. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

26. The Perils of Perception by Bobby Duffy 

27. Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

28. Why we Sleep by Matthew Walker 

29. Fact vs Fiction by Jennifer Lagarde & Darren Hudgins

30. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B Peterson 

31. Teaching Walkthrus by Tom Sherrington & Oliver Caviglioli

32. Out of Our Minds by Sir Ken Robinson 

33. The Innovation Ultimatum by Steve Brown 

34. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason

35. Who you Know by Julie Freeland Fisher 

36. The Power of Us by David Price

37. Superforecasting The Art and Science of Prediction by Philoip Tetlock and Dan Gardner

38. Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

39. The Prime Ministers by Steve Richards 

40. Factfulness by Hans Rosling 

41. The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salgeber

42. Hustle by Jesse Warren Tevelow

43. Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday 

44. The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof

45. How Successful People Think by John C Maxwell 

46. Dream Teams by Shane Snow 

47. The Teaching Delusion by Bruce Robertson 

48. The Art of Saying No by Dam Zahariades

49. How Innovation Works by Matt Ridley 

50. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl 

51. The 5am Club by Robert Sharma 

52. Blink by Malcom Gladwell 

53. Critical Thinking by Ian Tuhovsky