Keeping your head while all around you are

Keeping your head while all around you are hybrid learning

In what’s been two years of unprecedented challenges facing teachers, hybrid teaching and learning is the latest to tackle. But how do you keep your sanity being in two places at once? Kelly Kenyon finds out some of the secrets to a successful shift.

In 2020, hybrid teaching and learning was a concept too crazy to even think about. Then a virus swept through the world, closed classrooms, and dumping us all into online learning. We did what we always do as teachers, we adapted, adjusted and upskilled to make sure the children in our classes still got the best education we could provide. Online learning became a new normal. Now, two years on, we are facing the next shift as we have students both at school and working from home.

What is hybrid learning?

Hybrid learning is where students can receive learning from a variety of sources, both online and offline. Regardless of how the learning happens, students should get an equal experience in both online and offline settings. There should be a feeling of familiarity across platforms and spaces; just like buying from a physical or online shop. Each provides a similar experience, with a call centre or online chat that you can contact for support. All are working in unison, understanding the needs of the customer and the products they supply. Just as we create systems within our physical classrooms, we need to create the systems that work for us within a hybrid setting. In his recently published guide, Getting Started with Hybrid Learning, NZ educationalist Derek Wenmoth breaks down the process into seven actions: • Learning Conditions Audit; • Establish Your ‘School’ Online; • Template Planning; • Design Learning; • Encourage Participation and

Contribution; • Monitor Student Progress and

Assessment; and • Professional Development.

Making it online

To begin, unpack what conditions and structures are currently working successfully in your classroom. What are the fundamentals of your successful pedagogy as a teacher? Don’t throw out what you’re already doing that works well; a lot of this can be easily transferred online.

Then look at the current home situation for your learners. Take stock of devices, Wi-Fi and the number of people sharing these. What forms of communication between you and the student or their wha nau exist? What support does the student have at home? Ways to do this could be through sending out surveys to gather this information. Keep in mind that you must make it equitable, so if parents can’t fill them in online, ask them on a phone call or send a paper copy home. Remember that multichoice and tick boxes are going to help your response rate. If they have to write a lot, it will be hard to get them back.

Landing space

Now take stock of what you have to work with as a teacher, both the physical items and the knowledge of online and hybrid teaching you have. Who can you turn to for support? Then establish your ‘School’ online. Consider how your hybrid space is going to be represented online. What platform are you going to use? Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Seesaw, Education Perfect, Edmodo, ClassDojo? Your class needs an online ‘landing space’, where students all go to orientate them to their learning. Whatever you decide, your online classroom should be consistent across the school to avoid confusion for students, wha -nau and the community.

Teachers spend a lot of time developing physical classrooms for comfort and the same needs to happen for online classrooms. Decide how you want it to look and how you will allow the flow of your classroom from the physical to online. This is where students can get familiarity across platforms. Keeping a similar colour palette, for example, or even using pictures of your physical space on your online space can help.

Choose a base selection of online tools that you will be working with. Do not use too many, especially at first. It’s better to have three to five that your students can use well. An tip from us at UTB is when introducing a tool, use it in context. Rather than teaching each specific function of the tool, use each tool to complete a task.

Hybrid planning

We know as teachers we often don’t like being confined to a template. However, for hybrid learning, these can be the key to success as students become familiar with them across platforms. As students need to move from in-class to online, they will know how to complete work if templates or the same structure are used. A quick tip, turning your hard copy modelling books into a Google Slide or Jamboard can be a simple way to start. Develop templates to be used across schools or syndicates. Use what already works and, if needed, convert it into an online version and co-create learning across classes to share the load. From the layout of the learning space to the timetable, visual prompts and the role of the educator, teachers design all aspects of the learning. The same needs to be considered when shifting to hybrid learning. Think about how you will organise your online learning space – by topic, term/week, status, etc. and consider if you will you stick to a timetable or have it flexible? Making your visual prompts online will allow them to be used in both spaces. In fact, the role of the teacher needs to change. You cannot be expected to teach two classes, but rather become a facilitator of learning when required. When designing the learning, topics and lessons need to be thought about and chosen with hybrid learning in mind. Make sure all the resources you are using can be used within your online space. This may mean scanning physical resources you have made or recreating them in an online tool. Choose resources that can be used in both spaces, such as slideshows, videos, images, online text, e-books, and quizzes.

Connection and consistency

Connection with others is still an integral part of learning, whether it’s in the classroom or online. Allowing space for students to participate with one another is a key part of this. Ways to do this are through using Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams to connect to students as a teacher, and also for students to connect with each other, or to stream what’s going on in the classroom (choose one and keep it consistent across the school). You could also use messaging platforms to enable students to communicate. Google Groups and Microsoft Teams can both be set up with the teacher as part of each group/team (establish clear guidelines around use). Another tip is to use fun tools like Kahoot, Flipgrid, or Minecraft to get the students engaged with each other and the learning. Remember, assessment of learning always needs to be considered when creating learning tasks for students. In a hybrid environment, monitoring and assessment become the key to success. Use the tools already in Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams to help with assessment and monitoring. Both have rubric creation tools that can help with assessment. You could use a spreadsheet or your student management system to keep your data organised. During these challenging times, student well-being and engagement is also important to monitor. A simple, quick check-in at the start of each session is a really simple way to connect and Google Meet has a polls function you can use quickly for this.

Give new things a go

Finally, upskilling is important when dealing with something new. It’s paramount that your school’s PLD program is tailored to the needs of your teachers.

The Ministry of Education provides schools with free PLD. At UTB, we love to tailor the learning to you and your school’s needs for maximum benefit to all your staff, not a one-size-fits-all approach. Spending a little of your own time upskilling can make your life so much easier.

Hybrid learning is the new shift in education and something we’re all going to come up against if we have not already. The biggest thing to think about is still the students and your well-being as their teacher. Go at your own pace but don’t be afraid to give new things a go. Above all, remember you are not alone. There are plenty of resources to be found online and many people to help support you through the shifting tides toward a new world where hybrid learning is the new normal.

Kelly Kenyon is a Technology Trainer at Using Technology Better (UTB).