Distance learning: The dilemma of keeping our Year 7/8 learners engaged...

One of the most challenging aspects of Distance Learning is keeping out tamariki engaged. Having experienced lockdowns previously with a shared class, Dianne and I know the importance of having systems in place that have been revisited regularly so that should another lockdown occur, everyone in our class knows what it is they need to do to keep their learning going from home. Our students know to check their email every morning and know to look at the Distance Learning page on our class site to access their work. We have practised signing into and participating in a Google Meet, and know that all our students are able to do this.

Each day we were asking our learners to join in a Google Meet to make sure they stay connected with us, and with their classmates. Unlike previous lockdowns, this one seems to be the hardest to keep our learners engaged. Initially, a large number of our students saw the break from the classroom as a bonus holiday, which meant we had just over half the class taking part. During our time at Level 4 we have made a number of changes that have helped us to establish connections with a much larger number of our students, however each day who we are connecting with has become an ever changing picture.

Some students have attended every Google Meet and have completed all work set, some have opted in and out of the Google Meets but have continued to share completed work, whilst others have attended no Google Meets but regularly share completed work. On the other side of the coin there are those who have not been able to establish an online learning routine. These are the students who have attended one or two Google Meets but have completed none of the work set. In reality for some of our learners participating in a Google Meet is a step too far out of their comfort zone. What I have appreciated is getting one or two emails from our learners who find many aspects of learning a challenge in class. For many of these students online engagement has been a struggle, but they want to say hi and let us know they're ok. Finally, we have the students who appear to have completely dropped off our radar. The students who have not responded to any emails, participated in any Google Meets or completed any work.

This is not a time time for us to judge or put pressure on anyone. In reality we do not know or understand what their home situation looks like. There are many other factors that contribute here but the main one for all of us being that lockdowns are challenging and that it is incredibly hard to stay motivated. 

What we did...

Google Meets: 

• We changed from whole class meetings everyday, with Fridays set aside for Tech, to whole class meetings only on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays are now opt in meetings for anyone who would like to ask questions, have something explained in more detail or simply just say hi, and Fridays remain set aside for Tech. By doing this we noticed that some students sign in every day, some on Mondays and Wednesdays and others only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are not only reaching a wider range of students by doing this but also finding that the amount of work completed has increased significantly.

Student Voice: 

• One of the most powerful tools we have is the ability to listen. Our students simply do not see working from home as an opportunity to continue doing the work we do at school. I have seen many posts on social media from other teachers sharing how their learners simply adapt, but in our case ours don't, so we have needed to be really creative. We asked our learners what topics they would like us to cover and made our purpose for learning fit those themes. For us this has meant saying goodbye to our term focus of Hauora and hello to Anime/Manga, Online Gaming, Events in History and Famous People. By doing this we have been able to keep our learning going by keeping learner engagement in place. 

• The one that stands out the most to me is our theme from last week of 'Online Gaming'. Not playing the games (we had disclaimers in place on the very first teaching slide), but instead creating characters, graphing character emotions, justifying reasoning, writing character descriptions, describing settings, exploring vocabulary and using these words to summarise main ideas, writing paragraphs, creating and solving theme based written maths questions, taking a deep dive into coordinates in maths, reading maps, exploring direction and most of all having fun. The engagement and effort that went into the detail in the tasks completed was amazing, with a high percentage of our students completing all the work that was set. 

• Our students prefer tasks where the finish line is in sight and can be completed in any order. We very quickly adapted to this style of learning and find that the elements of choice we provide keeps more people motivated. It is a real challenge to cater for the huge variety of learning styles during distance learning, so developing learning challenges where students have the option to choose to collaborate, or complete independently, has been one of the keys to our success in helping our learners keep their learning going from home.

Purpose:

• Having a real purpose behind the learning has been one of the important messages we have shared with our students. As with anything you do, knowing why you're doing it, is what motivates you to participate actively. 

Feedback: 

• Dianne and I have made a point of giving feedback on every piece of work that has been shared with us. The comments tool in G Suite has allowed us to give affirmations and identify where tweaks (or if needed, specific guidance) can be made to increase the detail and accuracy of responses. This has proven to be a really valuable way to connect with our students on an individual level as the protocol in our class is to reply to any comment received. They can see by acknowledging their work we are valuing the efforts they are putting in.

• Linda (our amazing TA) is a highly valued member of our LS2 distance learning journey team. She actively takes part in all our Google Meets and comments on every blog post. By doing this Linda has not only maintained the extremely important connections she makes in class every day, but has used her online presence to provide our class with an authentic online audience.

As I said at the start of this post, this lockdown seems so much harder than previous ones to firstly capture, and secondly keep, our students engaged online. Our purpose in general has been to keep our learning going from home. Many of our students have been able to do this, but for some, the face to face learning opportunities that come with a move to Alert Level 2 will be their time to revisit and strengthen the connections they had made to their learning before Alert Level 4 restrictions were announced. It will once again be our time to tweak, change and adapt our program again to make sure we all end our 2021 learning journey positively with everyone having found an opportunity to celebrate the learning successes they have had this year.