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Lesson learnt from remote learning

So here we go again, but this time it feels different.

I am not claiming to be an expert in remote learning and I know I still have many lessons to learn but I am hoping that these thoughts might help you and in return you might help me.

I will draw on my own experience and 'Teaching in the Online Classroom' by Doug Lemov to share the lessons learnt.

Doug Lemov and his team admit that they are no experts in this field but quickly embarked on a thorough investigation into the Online Classroom by observing as many online lessons as they were able.

The main lessons I can take away from this book is the reflection on the difference between Asynchronous (learning occurs at different times in different places) and Synchronous learning (learning happens at the same time) and how there are benefits and limitations of both. 

Obviously in the book these are all explored in detail but in summary;

 Asynchronous (pre-recorded lesson delivery)

 Synchronous (live lesson delivery)

+ Can be more polished 

+ Build and sustain relationships

+ Both staff and students can control schedules

+ Greater engagement e.g. cold call

+ Can allow for more sustained and complex assignments

+ Check for understanding in real time

+ Familiarity of teacher resources

+ Fewer 'written words' needed to explain tasks

- No real time assessment

- Coordinating schedules

- Less connection & accountability 

- Technology issues (on both teacher and student)

- Screen fatigue 

- Screen fatigue 

- Decreased attention

- Decreased attention

I have been fortunate in my school that as teachers we have had some flexibility in how we deliver our remote learning. I believe this is a credit to our SLT for trusting that we will do our best given our own personal circumstances. Conveniently, this is what Doug refers to as 'building a synergistic model', i.e. a bit of both is ideal!

A lesson I have learnt just in the past week in my synchronous lessons is that although it might be tempting just to set a lesson from @OakNational, or @bbcbitesize, as after all they have produced some fantastic resources and videos so why is every teacher reinventing the wheel? These options lack that personal element and it is now our job to 'dissolve the screen'. We need to remind our students of the classroom that we once shared and will share again! Yes it is a leap of faith to record yourself and send it out there but the feedback from my students from my pre-recorded videos this week has been positive and I will share a few with you;

In this lesson I made a short video using a PowerPoint resource that the students were familiar with and I opened it with a 'hook' image they had seen as starter before. In the last few lessons before Christmas I cold called Tom to tell me what the image shows (mainly to wake him up first thing!) and I still did this in the video 'Hopefully Tom, you will remember what this image is about' and I hope this got his attention at home too. Obviously as a pre-recorded video I have no idea if it worked but clearly the familiarity of the resources was 'handy for a recap' for someone.


In this lesson I tried to recreate how I would deliver this lesson in the classroom, regularly asking the students to pause the video and write down their answers to activities and press play when they were ready to hear or see modelled answers. I admit, this was with a highly engaged and conscientious Year 13 group but I explained at the beginning that for effective learning to take place I was just going to have to trust that they followed my instructions in the video. Another leap of faith. 

I believe that we can create a 'synergistic model' by using our personalised videos in addition to other resources e.g. from @OakNational @bbcbitesize @senecalearn @YouTube @GSCEpod @SnapRevise to name a few, then the students are getting the best of both experiences. 

As we embark on week 2 of remote learning we have been asked to move towards more synchronous 'live lessons' as much as possible and I look forward to reflecting on the lessons that I learn. In Doug Lemov's book there is a vast collection of ideas to consider but it is important to not run before I can walk so for now I will focus on:

  • Increasing my familiarity with the Google Classroom functions
  • The use of cold calling
  • I hope to keep the students cameras on so that 1) I am able to attempt to read their body language for engagement and understanding 2) I can build in 'show me' activities
If anyone has any 'lesson learnt' from the above then I would love to hear them and I urge you to have a read of 'Teaching in the Online Classroom' by Doug Lemov.



 

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