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Distance Learning During the Lockdown

INTRODUCTION
This page is dedicated to resources and support for teachers who are at all levels of distance learning development. With the current lockdown situation in NZ, I hope all teachers visiting this page will find some resources that will help guide them in developing content and supporting the learning of their own children while working from home.


MINISTRY of EDUCATION SUPPORT
Before getting started I would like to share the following resources that are available through the Ministry of Education. This site is designed for parents and teachers during this time of uncertainty around the timing and duration of distance learning.

https://learningfromhome.govt.nz

Scroll down to the LEARNING RESOURCES to see what's there!

Also, to assist out students at home, especially those who are without devises or have to share devices, the Home Learning channel on TV will help. It will also help entertain your own kids at home which can support you to do your work,

Drawings of tv screens with roofs above them, representing the home learning and papa kāinga tv channels

Home Learning | Papa Kāinga TV and Māori Television will start education programme broadcasting for early learners and students (Years 1–10) from 9am on Wednesday 15 April.
Home Learning | Papa Kāinga TV will be shown, free to air, on TVNZ channel 2+1 and on TVNZ on Demand, as well as on Sky Channel 502. It will run from 9am to 3pm on schooldays with programming for children and young people aged 0 to 15, as well as for parents. Home Learning TV will initially be on air for one month – with provision to extend beyond that depending on the COVID-19 situation.
The Educational Hub





THE EDUCATION HUB
The Education Hub is dedicated to Teacher Professional Development and Learning. Their mission is to support evidence-based inquiry into teaching and learning. There are great articles on professional issues in education, but more importantly they have a host of resources on home learning.




MAKING VIDEOS

Perhaps you would like to have a go making videos but haven't before. Here are a few tips from MissDtheTeacher


Importance of Feedback

This infographic comes from joelsperanza.com There are other resources on his website around using technology to support learning. You will see a link within the text below to his page on "flipped feedback" using video.




LEARNING IS FEEDBACK: AND HOW TO DO IT ONLINE






Let’s imagine you walk into a class of 25 students and begin teaching. You are about to receive A LOT of feedback.



The moment you finish that sentence, you’ll be receiving feedback. It’s in the student’s eyes.



Might be a tough lesson ahead.
You continue, you ask a question to the class.



The question was easy, students are engaged, the learning is happening.
You ask another question, only one hand goes up. Billy answers.



You walk around the room, you look over shoulders. You give and receive feedback. The feedback is a two-way street.



A raised eyebrow, a quizzical expression, a scribbled teacher note, a brief chat, a tick, a cross, a joke.
What you hear, what you see, what you say. All is feedback.
  • Feedback about their learning to them
  • Feedback about their learning to you
  • Feedback about your teaching to you.
This feedback comes through many channels, and it comes all the time.
But that is face to face. What about when we move online?

Online Learning and Barriers to Feedback

There are a lot of people who have suggested just picking up what works in their face to face environment and moving it online. Keep the regular timetable. Teach live lessons.
After all, we have the technology right? We can video chat with our students in real-time, it’s not much different to being in the class with them.
To believe that, is to fundamentally misunderstand what is special about addressing a class of 25 students as a teacher. It isn’t special that they are listening to you live. What is special is all the feedback you are giving and receiving. You cannot question your class effectively online like you would face to face, and they cannot question you.



Online Learning blocks the regular feedback channels
Yes, they can type a little question in chat box below, maybe even shout the question out in the middle of your explicit instruction… but that question isn’t giving you, the student, or the class, the feedback you all need.

Online Learning and Opportunities for Feedback

But… where a window, closes an opportunity opens.
While it is true that Online Learning is a barrier to many types of feedback, it is a conduit for so many more.



  • Post a small diagnostic task after each new learning sequence and mark all of them digitally, posting back instantly.
  • Send your students individual messages asking them to summarise some aspect of the learning.
  • Write every single one of your students an individual message about their work.
  • Send every student some video feedback.
  • Have 6 different feedback conversations all at once via the power of asynchronous chat systems like Microsoft Teams.
While you’ve lost what is great about face to face teaching, you have also been unshackled by its slavish adherence to the clock. You are now master of your time, and you can use it to gather as much feedback as you like, however you like.

All Learning is Feedback

When you plan for online learning, at every point, I want you to ask yourself the following question.

Is feedback flowing from this?

Because…

Learning is Feedback.



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