8 minute read
Remote Control?
by Synergy
Andy Clunie-Wicks
When the country first went into lockdown in March 2020, many schools scrambled around to try and provide any kind of remote education at all, let alone any that was effective. My own school was quite lucky because we were already using an online communication platform that parents were very engaged with, which meant it was relatively easy to set up online learning for our children and monitor the level of engagement fairly easily. We could set up work online for children and see they were engaged in it. Many other schools in our trust, however, had to suddenly switch to using unfamiliar tools very quickly and at short notice: to say it was a steep learning curve was a massive understatement! In my role of Computing Champion for the Trust, I was the first port of call to help sort out technical and other issues for children, parents and teachers. After the initial panicky couple of weeks, the number of help requests dropped off dramatically and we could focus on the level of engagement in this strange new world of online learning.
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This first phase of online learning used Google Classroom to set assignments and tasks. Teachers also recorded videos to explain the lessons to the children and uploaded them to Class Dojo (our
Remote learning Phase 1: March - July 2020
school’s main communication platform). The main issue for teachers was finding a balance between providing enough material for children to work on at home and making it interesting, engaging and relevant to the curriculum. We also had to provide work for key worker and vulnerable children who were still in school, so teachers soon settled into a daily routine of providing online work that children would complete either in school or at home depending on their circumstances.
During this first phase, feedback from parents and some children was very positive. Some teachers thrived on having to find new ways of teaching their subjects at arm’s length, while other staff members enjoyed improving their computing skills. As time moved on, though, it soon became very clear that some children were not taking part in every lesson, while a significant proportion were not engaging in any online learning at all. Through monitoring, feedback and contacting parents we realized there were a few barriers to engagement. The first, and most common barrier, was a lack of devices for home use. We surveyed our children prior to lockdown to assess whether they had technology at home to join in remote learning, loaned Chromebooks to families that told us they had nothing and arranged training for parents to help them support their children. As the days passed, it became clearer that a lot of our children
were using an unsuitable device which made it hard for them to take part. Either the screen was too small, or they had to share it with siblings, or it was not available because it was being used by a parent. We ended up loaning more laptops until we ran out.
Learning environments also contributed to the drop-off in engagement. Some families could not provide a quiet location where a child could concentrate for an hour or two per lesson. In serious cases, we classed the child as vulnerable and offered them a place in school for the duration.
After a month or so the numbers taking part had stabilized. We were seeing between 50% - 75% engagement with online lessons, with a general downward trend in participation. Once we excluded technology and environment, we concluded that some children struggled to motivate themselves to learn independently or did not have access to adequate adult support at home to help when they required support. On a positive note, parental engagement was at an all-time high. Most classes now had over 90% of parents linked to the online platform (in our case, Class Dojo) and some had more.
Bubbles and live remote lessons
When schools reopened fully in September 2020, we were ready to implement some of the ideas we had learned from the first tranche of remote learning. We had, for example, built up a bank of useful online resources that we were able to use in the classroom. Covid safety measures meant that we could not meet in person for training sessions, so we continued to use Google Meet to stay in touch with colleagues and for our own professional development. When the ability to record meetings was added it made this more flexible because we could time shift a meeting that otherwise would have been missed.
Heading towards Christmas saw the exponential rise in cases and, despite all our efforts, children, staff and even whole classes started having to isolate themselves. When I was asked to work from home for two weeks because of a case in one of my classes, I agreed to trial running a live lesson from home for children in school. Up until this point, we had only held short ‘check-in’ meetings with children. Now I was attempting to teach a whole lesson online from my sofa! Would the wifi hold up? Would the class be able to see the slides? Would they be able to take part in my planned activities? And would showing them my cat sleeping on the other end of the sofa be engaging or distracting?
It was a bit like being an NQT again! It was all new and unfamiliar! Suddenly, I had to think really carefully about how I was going to teach because it was all at arm’s length and involved more detailed preparation than would normally be the case. Plus, the class in school was supported by an adult and this had also to be taken into consideration and prepared for (I normally teach my lessons solo and thus do not plan for another adult in the room). But the difference in engagement was tremendous! The lessons from those first few online live classes were going to be put into good use sooner than I thought….
Remote learning Phase 2: January - March 2021
Skipping over the spectacular U-turn debacle we were now faced with another period of remote learning. What could we do to improve our teaching? We took a decision to teach regular live lessons every day to supplement the remote learning we had begun with initially. To use the current jargon, we were balancing synchronous teaching over asynchronous learning, which seemed to be supported by research*. In my role as Computing Lead for our school, I worked with teachers to find the best tips and tricks for live lessons and shared them on the Trust intranet. In the first two weeks of phasing in live lessons we had to iron out issues of safeguarding (such as how to prevent children from joining their own Google Meet without an adult), sharing screens effectively, recording attendance online and using interactive resources efficiently, amongst other things. The impact on engagement was clear: live lessons were more popular than non-live lessons. After the initial flurry of excitement, and after we had established clear rules on muting mics and using chat appropriately, live lessons settled down into a routine much like class lessons. In fact, live lessons in our school included children in class as well as children at home. This shift to live lessons has also allowed us to innovate on what online resources we use in lessons. We have experimented with a variety of different apps, tools and websites and have definitely come away with some great ideas for the future.
We were lucky enough to obtain many new Chromebooks which were loaned to families. We staggered our live lessons so that siblings in the same household were not online at the same time. We created a more detailed register so that staff could record who attended online and in school for each live lesson.
Consequently, this time round the number of children not participating was much lower than phase one. We have been able to focus attention on contacting those families and offering support to help them keep up with their learning.
Back to life
At the time of writing, we are a week away from reopening the school to all pupils. As a staff body we are determined to make the most of what we have learned. We will use technology in lessons more frequently - especially now we have an abundance of devices. Some of the online resources we have pioneered in lockdown are great for in-class use too and we were keen not to lose those advantages. We are going to use Google Meet to collaborate with other schools in the Trust (and elsewhere in the world), to link children and classes together in meaningful and exciting ways. We are thinking in particular about how technology can affect learning for SEN children to improve their life chances as much as their learning. As we catch our breath, there will be more developments that will arise out of this (literally) life-changing experience. And I, for one, am looking forward to never having to say ‘Please mute your mic’ again...
Bloopers - when live lessons go wrong
Some of the perils of live lessons include: • Technology issues - Wi-Fi dropouts, frozen computers, broken cameras • Environment issues - cats appearing at a window, children wandering past, doorbells going off. This is an edited WhatsApp message from a colleague which sums it up: My grandparents phoned my house phone halfway through the lesson, kids were messing around on Jamboard, sound in year 6 kept going, my toddler was crying and climbing on me. He then proceeded to press buttons on my laptop so my mic is now broken! We will shelve that recording!!
