I know there will be a steep learning curve for some. I just found it embarrassing that collectively, after weeks of prep time, this was the best they could turn out.
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Can we mobilize teachers?
- Thread starter Mad Mike
- Start date
I am surprised. I'm busting my nuts off trying to work from home. So much easier being on site and working in a live environment.
Here I've got kids, wife, distractions galore. I get my 8hrs in...but they're typically spread throughout the day so we all keep our sanity.
Our site is effectively shut down, and while I don't tell my wife too much about it...a part of me wishes I got stuck out on site in BC for 2 months. While it would suck being away from the family, we would effectively be making way more money because we wouldn't be travelling home for 2-3 rotations. Now I actually have to worry about having enough work to be kept on payroll.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Not acceptable, how can you be responsible for teaching kids anything if you haven't got the skills to use a personal computer. My parents are 78 & 80 -- last night they hosted an online birthday party for my daughter using ZOOM and an IPAD. Their tech savvyness is limited to turning on a computer, using email and Chrome yet they managed to organize and deliver an online birthday party using email and a web-link to ZOOM given to them by another senior.
It's not that teachers don't know how to do it -- they are trained to deliver instruction. The delivery method is different however the learning curve for delivering a class online is a 1 day learn. If they say they can't, they are really saying they don't want to work.
I've spent the last 2 weeks training classroom instructors how to deliver from their homes, few are what I call tech savvy -- none have had difficulty with the conversion after 4 hours of training.
If you know a teacher who is struggling with the conversion to online delivery, and says they 'can't' PM me. I'll volunteer to teach them how to setup and deliver for free. I'm sure @jc100 could do the same if he has the time.
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Mad Mike
Well-known member
Learning curve is not steep. If you can use and Internet browser and a phone you're 90% there. The hard stuff regarding delivery is exactly the same whether the delivery is virtual or in class.
Happy to help. Over the years I’ve used green screen tech, been filmed while using an electronic white board, used adobe connect/zoom and others, used Blackboard and a few other classroom delivery systems, used online assignments, virtual tutorials, virtual office hours etc. One thing is pretty universal in having a successful online course. Keep it simple. When we have students going to multiple sites and sources with multiple log ins for their work it starts to get messy.
Also don’t reinvent the wheel. I stopped using my own videos as there were professionally done ones available online. Videos can be helpful for that personal touch though but I have virtual office hours for that.
Keep in touch with the students. Every week I have a blog at the start of the week that recaps what they did in the past week while my TAs have a blog looking to the week ahead. During the week we post up helpful tips and also what we think the students should be looking at that week. We have a suggested schedule online too with important dates. Some words of encouragement and motivation whenever the forums get quiet helps.
Get in front of an issue. My smart phone is set up to notify me when a student posts a question to the class forum. If I answer it quickly then that can stop a panic in the entire class. I answer most questions within an hour, faster than if a student is on campus.
Those are a few things that I’ve found to be important. There’s plenty more but it also depends on your subject.
By the way, Zoom has an integrated whiteboard that you and students can share. It’s very useful for showing thought processes. For teachers I suggest getting a windows 10 based touch screen computer and digitizer or something like an iPad Pro. Also don’t rely on the laptop mic and speakers. Get a headset with a boom mic and ambient noise reduction capabilities.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
All good advice. I actually use 2 computers while leading VILT, both logged in as presenters (you can also use a browser on a phone as the second session, having a stylus helps). One for driving the class, the other for whiteboard/media/screen sharing apps. You don't need this kind of setup but if you can setup that way it's great.
You mention words of encouragement when things get quiet -- I will agree this is the heavy lifting in a virtual class - engagement. Leading virtual classes require a shift in efforts -- NOT NEW SKILLS - to keep the class engaged. Group exercises, games, more frequent (short) breaks are employed keep engagement levels up.
Whiteboards are a bit trickier -- most virtual class training shows instructors how to use whiteboards interactively where instructor and students participate -- I find this isn't very effective -- just use a whiteboard as you would in a real classroom.
I use the whiteboard intermittently. Get a student to show me their thought process and then I’ll point out where they went wrong and why, then they do it again corrected. I don’t “give” answers away as students don’t learn that way, it’s better that they get a sense of achievement through “doing”. I’ll have the student talk about what they are doing while writing too. Now the issue here is that this is all recorded so that other students can learn from the process so right at the start of the course you need to break down any issues with stigma over shyness and the thought of looking silly in front of classmates.
You can lose an entire class if you handle this wrong at the start. Never be sarcastic, never make the student look small, always find the positive rather than accentuate the negatives. Do this and the class will see that there’s a benefit to involvement. Do it wrong and no one will engage with you.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Agree, but there's nothing new in that for teachers -- these principles are the same whether delivering virtually or in class.
Today's "1 hour" of learning is watching the same bad video of someone reading a book as Monday, five vocabulary words, which one doesnt belong and tracing shadows. All of the lessons are written for parents to teach. There is no attempt to create something that kids could attempt to do as self-directed learning. The teachers sent us pictures of themselves. Friendly but painful.
Yes but the difference is that in class you can select a student and force them to answer a question regardless of how you’ve treated them in the past. With online learning you have to let them come to you. For me there’s way more carrot than stick with online learning.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I call them out online all the time! I do it a bit differently, I might pose a problem or question then let the class know I want 3 perspectives/answers from learners. When it comes time for them to respond, I ask for a volunteer -- you'll always get one -- then I let the volunteer select the next responder, repeat.
Another thing you become aware of when you do a lot of VILT is cultural differences, particularly if you have a culturally diverse group of learners. This is of course a gross generality, none the less after teaching thousands I'm pretty confident in my observation. Some cultures are conditioned to 'hold face', meaning they won't engage unless they are absolutely certain, some conditioned to 'damn the torpedos' and throw responses from the hip without regard for anything. Teaching in Toronto you may have to deal with this, elsewhere in the province not so much.
This problem is common among my parent's generation and even my own (I'm in that weird cross over generation.) I was lucky because my dad's a geek and I followed. However, after working at 2 software shops and 2 traditional businesses it's become obvious to me that many at my age or older are actually too stupid to check if things are plugged in, understand the task manager, or google things in a traditional business. And this causes animosity to build because one side is wondering why the other side is incompetent and the other side blames their incompetence on technology.
It's really funny to see how this evolved because I recall many kids/teens/young adults being criticized by the older generation for being too virtual. I wonder if the generation after mine will push everything into VR space by the time I'm a "boomer."
EDIT: Forgot to mention, I'm also noticing this trend among older gamers who don't "get VR." I guess everyone hates learning lol
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I found a bigger internet hiccup than students having a slow connection. Teachers having crap upload speed. Video of the teacher was clearly shot using a potato. So far 22 out of 24 students have managed to connect to the video link. Not sure if the other two haven't tried or if there is a technical obstacle.
Lots of people are having speed problems, I am doing a tonne of web meetings and it is a disaster for lots of people. Worst I have seen, one of the guys at my company is on the east coast and has FTTH/GPON 1 Gig symmetrical service, it was running at 8 Mbps up and down on Ethernet (it wasn't his WiFi...) last week!
Province deploying 21,000 4G iPads to students without internet access. Free Roger's data until the end of june. iPads preloaded with learning apps. That should help a lot of students that have been cut off. Obviously there will still be a few that this doesnt solve. I hope they are including an awesome case as well. Nude ipads and children isnt a good combination.
www.cp24.com
Ontario to give iPads with free data to 21,000 students who lack access
The Ontario government will be distributing iPads with free wireless data plans to students who may not have access to the province’s online learning tools as schools remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
www.cp24.com
From what I have heard first hand and read online is that iPads (likely all tablets as "iPad" tends to be like Q-Tips these days when people talk about their tablets??) are extremely difficult to use with the online tools and it is difficult to complete the assignments. Specially with, but maybe not limited to, boards using Google Classroom. Chromebooks would have been the better choice if cheap but usable was the goal, but I guess Apple/Rogers gave them some sort of deal and they could just add a SIM card... Each board is different but many switched to Chromebooks in the classrooms (from Apple iPads) for a reason, not just price.
But really, the school work would need to be pretty lightweight to be able to do it on a tablet in anything but the lower junior grades. Imagine writing an essay on a tablet without an external keyboard...my head would explode. If Apple include keyboards maybe, doubt they did. Right tool for the job is always better than the best deal.
But really, the school work would need to be pretty lightweight to be able to do it on a tablet in anything but the lower junior grades. Imagine writing an essay on a tablet without an external keyboard...my head would explode. If Apple include keyboards maybe, doubt they did. Right tool for the job is always better than the best deal.
My kids jk teachers were sending links on how to download plugins so you could see everyone. Ugh. Requires real computer to install. My suspicion is that most of the kids will be accessing on a tablet as most families dont have spare laptops (and definitely not spare kid proof laptops). I sent the teachers a work around where they run the plugin and then share the window. Not perfect as video quality is rough but at least device agnostic on the receiving end.
It is not just about the online "face-to-face" time but the ability to complete the assignments. My kids are in grades 6 and 8, no way they can complete all that is being assigned on an iPad, just not possible. For them, the teachers are doing the "face-to"face" classes in smaller bunches (4 to 8 kids at a time) so that has not been a huge problem.
JK is obviously a different game assignment wise.
JK is obviously a different game assignment wise.
Apple TV is useless without a decent broadband internet connection. The "iPads" that are being handed out are 3G units purportedly for people without broadband, so I'd doubt they'd have Apple TV. There's a casting workaround with dongles. They're not prohibitively expensive.
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