Given that most of our schools had some sort of online learning last year during the pandemic, it’s not a bad idea to have something in the back pocket if we need to do online again. Distance education (correspondence, radio, television, CD-ROM, internet/online) may in fact become more widely available on a regular basis now that we’ve done it once.
In class, we did the Mad Tea activity, where two concentric circles are former, inner circle faces out, outer faces in, and each pair discusses the question on the board before rotating to their right. Everyone engaged rather than just a couple sharing. Obviously this is a great example of what can be done easily and effectively in face-to-face (f2f) learning, but can something similar also be done online?
Whether a class is f2f or online, the teacher must plan & sequence carefully to ensure learning considers:
-student-teacher interaction
-student-student interaction
-student-content interaction
The 5R’s: decolonizing and indegenizing online learning were also discussed:
-Respect
-Reciprocity
-Relevance
-Responsibility
-Relationships
Signals in the classroom versus online should also be considered. While raising a hand in class is simple enough, finding the icon to raise a hand on Zoom always takes me a few extra seconds, at which point I’ve missed my window.
Gather Town seemed like an idea that could definitely be engaging for the student! If there’s ever a snow day that’s online, I might try using this format to keep minds of winter land.
Google Classroom is used across multiple districts, so Google’s courses on using that tool are going to be invaluable for saving time getting integrated into your school system.
Liquid Margins is a web annotation tool that could be used in the classroom that I would like to look into. Hypothesis put out a series of Clips and videos on Liquid Margins in the classroom and this one was interesting for me because it related to collaborative writing, critical thinking, and the writing process:
Both f2f and online classrooms have their pros and cons, and a mixed format could be a great solution. However, what needs to be considered to make it especially effective is “What is only possible online? What is only possible f2f?”