Unfortunately, many of my colleagues didn't fall into this category a couple months ago and were expected to start providing an e-learning environment to their students, without, in many cases having ever experienced it themselves and without any direction from "above". Simple things like sending emails became a challenge for many staff as our email program has limits on storage and the number of messages/day. What platform should be used to share learning resources? What are the benefits of a webpage over a google classroom? What is Zoom? What is Google Meet? So on and so forth. Coronavirus and COVID-19 has been a wake up call not to the limitations of educational technology, but to the limitations of educators. Anyone over the age of 40 went to University at a time when email was new, the internet was simple and limited, dial up was the way to get access and god forbid you get a phone call while online. Or as in my case, graduating in 1996, my educational technology was a desktop computer that was essentially just a fancy typewriter. This cohort of educators from the pre-internet era make up a large portion of the teacher population and as a result our e-learning experiences of the past couple months have reflected this. Moving forward we need this to change, as soon as this September, a blended e-learning/in person learning format could be our reality. As educators we need to get "up to speed" and be ready for this. Here are some problems to consider and problem solve for. 1. The need to webcast every minute of the day to the kids in your class that stay home? Can you do it? Does the school even have that capability? Here is one of many tutorials for doing just this: https://www.dacast.com/blog/live-streaming-classroom-online/ 2. Worksheets represent a large part of the practice in learning at the elementary level. How do you have the students complete worksheets online? (Check out this video below on how to do this). Here is the blog page that goes with the video: https://www.bespokeclassroom.com/blog/2020/4/1/how-to-convert-a-pdf-to-a-google-slides-document 3. How can you use the online component to extend the classroom learning? The online aspect cannot be standalone at the elementary level - too much reliance is on adults if it is. The students need to know what's going on and be able to access and do the work on their own as much as if feasible. 4. How do you stay connected with the students? Will we have to teach all day and then "zoom" after school to catch up with the kids not there? 5. Given the vast amount of information, programs, platforms and the like out there, where do you begin? This must come from "above" and be consistent throughout the education system. Without consistency and guidance we will continue to have the hap hazard cluster of approaches seen this past spring. These are just few issues to come... what other troubles will come up? Comments are closed.
|
E-PortfolioThis e-portfolio will take the form of a blog and will record my progress in the Diploma in Educational Technology from Cape Breton University. Categories
All
Archives
July 2021
|