Month: January 2021

Online Teaching: More tips

Following on from my previous post on remote teaching tips, I thought I would post a little bit more on what works for me and on some of the things I have found in carrying out online teaching of students.

Keep it simple – Likes

I had been looking at ways to get feedback from students and had looked at MS Forms as a solution before I was put on to Polly as a solution.   It was then that Sarah Clark ( @sfm36 ) suggested using the Like functionality in Teams.   In my search for wiz bang and something fancy, I had missed the simple and obvious, being the ability to simply post a comment, question or learning objective in Teams and have the students use the available Like options to respond indicating if they were happy, etc.  

The moral of the story being, keep it simple!

Agility – Use analytics where possible

I have been using Stream to create some little 2 or 3min video guides and other support materials for students in addition to recording the lessons for students to review post lesson or where they missed or had trouble accessing the lesson.   I normally make the recordings available for a week before removing them.

When using stream I can easily see the number of views individual videos have received which can give me a steer on how useful or not they are.   I am always conscious of the need to work Smart rather than Hard, and therefore if particular resources are not being watched by students it doesn’t make sense to continue spending time and effort producing them.   

And this is exactly what I have found with my little additional support video guides; students simply aren’t watching them, and instead are viewing the recorded lessons instead.   As such am going to produce fewer of these video guides going forward, focussing more on guides for difficult concepts or key areas only.

I think Insights within Microsoft Teams is also worth a look, however as yet I havent played much with it so this may be for a later post.

Questioning

This is difficult in an online space, especially where cameras might have to be turned off for bandwidth reasons, or due to school policy regarding online teaching.  You don’t have access to the normal body language info you would have in a classroom to help however I think the tips for questioning in an online classroom are similar to those in a traditional classroom.

I keep a list of the students and record who I have asked questions to and who has responded; That way I can randomly pick students to answer while ensuring I try to engage all students.   I also record whether student answers were in line, exceeded or were below my expectations, which can help me in later questioning, allowing me to identify where certain students may need a little scaffolding of the questions, etc. 

I also acknowledge that some students don’t want to talk in live lessons and therefore I invite them to use the chat functionality in Teams if they prefer this to speaking via their mic (or maybe they don’t have a mic in some cases).   This also works for where the lesson is delivered asynchronously, with students leaving their answers/comments as posts within Teams.

Engagement

I have read a few posts from educators over the years talking about the importance of engaging the students and of the stage craft which teaching inherently involves much like the stage craft required from actors.    In our current world of online education, I think this isnt as easy for reasons similar to those mentioned above in relation to questioning, including the lack of access to body language and other non-verbal communication.     I think it is therefore important to try and find ways to add a little engagement, fun and comedy to lessons.    One of my approaches to this in face to face lessons has been to start lessons with lateral thinking problems; This is something I now plan to restart within my online lessons.   I am also planning to make use of different backgrounds to my video sessions and a “where is he now” style lessons segment.   Overall, this isnt an area I have done much with so far however it is something I plan to address in the coming weeks.

Conclusion

The above are a just 4 more thoughts or ideas in relation to online teaching.   They may work in some contexts, in some classes or some of the time.    As this lockdown progresses it may be that I may change my mind in future and suggest that some of the above no longer work for me.    This continues to be an evolving situation and my experience and understanding of it, of what works and what doesn’t, continues also to evolve.

Remote Teaching: Some tips

As we are once again in lockdown and doing remote teaching I thought I would share some tips and things which have worked for me.

Big pointer

It a simple thing, but resizing your pointer makes it easier for students to see what you are pointing to.   Simply type Mouse Pointer Size in the search bar in Windows 10 and you will then get the ability to make your mouse pointer as big as you would like.

Lesson Holding Card

I now start the video feed on lessons just before the allocated time, using a holding card to display some basic info about the lesson.    The holding card is created in PowerPoint and I have set PowerPoint to display the slideshow in a window, which allows me to have the holding card on screen while also having other things on screen at the same time as I prepare for the lesson.

I note I could also use this holding card to list a starter activity for students to do; This is something I will be experimenting with over the coming weeks.    This just makes the lesson start that little bit more polished and controlled.

Thanks to @HecticTeacher for this suggestion.

@Forms; Quick Learning Polls in Teams

Thanks to @IanStuart66 for this one.    In Teams it is easy to quickly create a poll for students to answer.   This is really useful for a quick learning check at the end of lessons.

Simply type @Forms ? , , ……. Into the Posts within the channel you wish the poll to appear.   A poll will then appear under your message with a summary of the results showing under this.

So, for example, I might use the below:

@forms Are you able to add formula to a spreadsheet? Very Confident, Confident, Not Confident

Students can then respond in MS Teams with an instant summary display of the results also showing up in Teams.

Stream; Creating pre-recorded content

I strongly believe that when teaching online, it is best to mix synchronous and asynchronous methods.   For the asynchronous and for pre-recording lesson content or support materials my current go to app is Microsoft Stream.   I particularly love the ability to record picture in picture meaning I can demonstrate something on screen or go through a presentation, but with the students able to see me.   I think the ability to see me as the students teacher makes the content feel that bit more personal when compared with simply recording a narration over the top of screen recorded content.

Stream also makes it easy to control permissions so you can make it available to all students in a class or just some students in a class, or to the whole school, as needed.

The one additional point I will make in relation to stream, but also in relation to any pre-recorded video content, is to simply get it done.   Initially I found myself re-recording the content again and again to try and get it perfect, leading to a 5 min piece of video taking hours to produce.   I quickly realised this was unsustainable and that, like in lessons where we make mistakes or say “erm” too often, I am human so there is no harm in these things being included in the videos.  The videos simply need to be good enough for the purpose for which they have been created.

Conclusion

The above are 4 reasonably simple ideas which I have found to be quite useful in my teaching over the last couple of weeks. I hope that you find them useful or at least they provide you with another couple of items for your teaching toolbox.

Pledges for 2021

It’s time for the 2021 pledges!  And this year I have referenced some of the 5 ways for wellbeing.

Am not sure how much use there is in setting pledges for the year ahead when 2020 quite simply proved we have little control over what the future may bring.  That said, it is very useful to be able to look back on what I planned at the start of the year, what happened during the year and what I actually achieved.   So, on that note, here are my pledges for 2021.

Dry January and maybe at least 1 other month

Ok so its not quite going to be dry Jan, as the old firm game on the 2nd came with a few drinks; So maybe mildly moist January?     I do like a drink however want to try a bit of detox, first trying to go without for most of January, and then depending on how that goes I may repeat the process at least once during the course of the new year. 

Update: Ok so after first week of term, another national lockdown and switch to remote learning, and also a severed fibre optic cable following an incident with a digger, I think I may have to accept “dryer (than December)” January for now!

Reading / Keep Learning

This is now a regular target of reading at least 1 book per month throughout the year.   My books continue to be non-fiction and I can see this continuing in 2021.   In fact, I have already filled my bookshelves with books to read in 2021, with 14 books purchased, so am ready to begin this pledge right away.

Exercise / Be Active

2020 saw me manage 100km in a single month which was amazing progress for me.   In the year ahead I need to build on this and ideally achieve regular exercise across the whole year.   My thinking is to try and manage 3 runs per week albeit I may take the occasional week off.   As such maybe 100 active days with 5km each would see me achieved 500kms in the year.  This sounds like a reasonable challenge but achievable.

Holidays and Breaks

2020 didn’t feel as if it had a real break in it, as my long-planned holiday to the US was cancelled.   As such I think it will be important to break 2021 up and to have some breaks away and maybe a holiday, assuming Covid19 restrictions allow for it.    I think having some breaks away are critical as they help signify the various parts to the year and to separate them; 2020 lacked this so the year seemed to melt into a single period of time.    I don’t see the breaks or holiday being anything particularly adventurous but simply having some family time away, somewhere away from home and work, will be an important part of the year ahead hopefully.     Also, I think holidays or other breaks serve as an important reward for all the hardware work, both personally and professionally, throughout the year.

Connecting and Contributing / Connect

In 2021 I want to make sure I continue to connect with fellow colleagues across the world and I continue to contribute to discussion where possible and especially in relation to EdTech, esports and Cyber Security in particular, as three of my particular focus areas of interest.    Ideally, I want to identify new ways with which I contribute to these themes including once again considering video blogs or podcasting; two things I have often considered but never made any really progress on.  I also hope to get involved in some virtual conference events or roundtable events.  I forever find these both useful and interesting.

Take Notice

I intend to keep a journal in the year ahead;  This is something I started doing last year but at times I fell away from this habit.  This year I would like to try and keep to this process, focusing on the positives but also less on a “done this” / “didn’t do this” approach, akin to a to do list, but more on the emotional side of things and how I felt about things.   I suspect this will be quite difficult for me given I have become so very task focussed over the last few years.

It is also worth mentioning my wife’s third charity endeavour, again supporting Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.  This year she has swapped her usual 100km walk over 2 days for a longer 200km but over 50 days.    I will of course be supporting and encouraging her in this effort.   She has raised over £1000 in each of the last two years so I am hoping she manages at least the same this year.   For anyone interested her Just Giving page can be accessed here.

And Finally….

2021 is likely to start of challenging as we continue to wrestle with Covid19, however I am determined to make the year as successful as I can and to be able to look back in a years’ time, happy with what I have achieved.

And so, on with 2021.