Planning for blended learning

As I write this, we don't know what September will bring. We assume September is coming as expected but local lockdowns and bubble collapsing appear to be the normal. I have been fortunate to have 5 minutes to think about what do I want my classroom to look like in September. I am fairly certain I don't want to teach live lessons virtually. I am fairly certain for a few reasons: 

1) How will I check progress?

2) How will I adapt if they're not getting it?

3) How will I give feedback

4) It sounds exhausting

In terms of checking progress, my usual go to tool would be Pear Deck or Slido. Both allow me to collate feedback, confidence checks and contributions whilst presenting. In the section of my lesson where I chalk and talk. In the new virtual world. This should be entirely still possible. However I have been delivering staff CPD virtually for a few months and in the majority of cases staff's internet hasn't been capable of hosting a virtual meeting and another tab in the browser. I have tried guiding staff through joining both Pear Deck and Slido via their phones as well as the Google Meet on their browser. This was a clunky experience for all involved. I'm not sure I want to pursue this. 

Adapting my content, sure, this is a skill I have in my locker but is it a skill I have when running a virtual meeting? When I will be in present mode and not see my students? I am able to join the Google Meet on another device so I can see the participants on one screen and present on another but the focus and attention that takes means I am not focusing on what matters, the learning experience.

Giving feedback. The awkward delay waiting for a response when you throw a question out there, then they talk when you talk. No thank you. If I have an important message to give I want to give it my full attention in my delivery and the recipient to be ready to receive it also. All of this sounds exhausting.

I have blogged before on the Driving Digital New Normal blog about planning. As I have gained more experience in the virtual teaching world I am more convinced than ever that we need to deliver in a team teach approach. In a traditional classroom we plan 15 minute episodes. Ideally staff could take it in turns to deliver 15 minute episodes. Whilst one is delivering the other is running the chat, offering feedback. This seems sensible to me. So far it doesn't seem to be catching on as a concept.

So we are back to square 1, how will I deliver content virtually. Alice Keeler and Jo Boaler have often said, stop pretending that Google exists. Now more than ever we need to embrace the tools and material that already exist. I think the skill of teacher is in the relationship and feedback the teacher builds with the learner. The learner has to trust the teacher and in that trust be willing to take risks, that's when transformative learning experiences can take place. 

My plan currently is, and this is subject to change, record my chalk and talk section. Post this to Google Classroom with the resources of the lesson, then hold a live virtual meeting to discuss how the work has gone and give valuable feedback and build those relationships. Followed by a class virtual meet where we quiz or assess our skills at the end of the topic. I could run a quiz or a bingo in a Slides presentation like in class, where they draw a 3 x 3 grid, and that seems like a nice experience for students.

Hyperdocs are going to be key. Everything all in once place. Self marking quizzes to help check progress. Existing videos that explain my point. You know for that moment when no matter how you say it some students just don't follow? Now we can include an alternative video on the same topic so if they need to hear it from another voice to help it sink in, we can! There are opportunities to be had, we need to seek them out a bit.

EdPuzzle

I moved into an Ed tech role 2 years ago. I am not an expert in ed tech and actually a lot of my maths lessons are dull and very non techy, I think that’s what makes my colleagues willing to listen to me when I come and show them some new glittery tech. I am acutely aware that time is precious. I am proud that I will only show staff a tech idea if I see a real benefit. It has been very unsuccessful when we have been asked to ‘push’ tech out to staff! I was reflecting on the Google Forms for Feedback using videos and thought, I need to assess them part way through these videos, otherwise we may end up with more misconceptions. I stumbled upon EdPuzzle.

EdPuzzle is fantastic, I am not ‘pushing’ it to you merely telling you the benefits it has given my learners and other staff’s groups. EdPuzzle allows you to insert questions into a video that you can either set as free text or multiple choice. In maths I use it inside Corbett maths videos. When Mr Corbett uses a GCSE question for a second example I will pause the video and insert a question using EdPuzzle. My learners enjoy it. They say it keeps them watching. It reminds them to make notes! I have tried it will my 16-18 learners who enjoy the speediness of it, they like that they have to do something rather than just watching the video. My adult learners, 19+ enjoy it because it gives them time to take in what has happened so far in the video. Here is a quote from a student who is in his late 60’s:

“It is hard to get the video to play but I like that it pauses it, I can think about what has gone before. I can watch some more and enjoy the explanation”

I take the point, it turned out that EdPuzzle when on an Apple iOs device needs the EdPuzzle app downloading rather than watching it in a browser. That part is hard to explain to students (and staff) that some need an app and others don’t. The power of the tool regardless of this initial barrier to accessing the tool makes it worthwhile. Once the learners have watched the video you can get a RAG rated sheet of their marks, timings etc. Evidence of progress over time as they work through tasks. You can lock videos down so that the learners can’t skip until they answer the question. Sometimes I enable this and sometimes I don’t depending on my group.

I knew the power of the tool and was slowly working my way into embedding it naturally in my lessons when I decided to share it with another department. I took it to the English as a second language, ESOL department. I demonstrated it to the staff, my hope was that the staff would see the benefit to them that their learners could listen to the English spoken language and then answer questions based on what they had heard. I was right, they loved it. One teacher took it to heart, it instantly became her go to method for assessing topics. She insisted on using her own videos rather than inserting questions into existing You Tube videos as I had been doing. The level of effort she put into this cannot be underestimated. 

What transpired was a brilliant display of dedication and commitment by this teacher to her ESOL learners. They could watch a video on their phone as they're were waiting for a bus and practise the language that they needed for the journey. The teacher had evidence of progress over time using the tracking produced by EdPuzzle. She could show starting points, hours spent learning and improvement in the quiz scores. In my lessons my learners felt that it brought Corbett maths to life. As brilliant as Hegarty maths is, the students appreciated a different voice and a different method of assessment. As I set it to multiple choice in the Corbettmaths videos, I didn't need to mark the work. I used misconceptions for my incorrect answers. See my post on misconceptions in my Google Forms blog. Then the video progressed and Mr Corbett answered the question in much more detail than I ever would so if the learners had misunderstood or made a mistake they could identify where they had gone wrong. Finally to end I would I sent another multiple choice question with an image of a GCSE exam question to see if there had been any progress. It looks a little like this: 

The video pauses before the second example by Mr Corbett. I have used the incorrect angle fact of angles on a straight line add up to 180o to give the incorrect options of 85 and 100 degrees. I have also listed 45o as an incorrect option to diagnose the misconception of opposite angles being equal applying here. The video then resumes after the learners answer the question and Mr Corbett goes through in great detail how and why the correct answer is 140o. I really like this as an independent learning assessment tool. I am all for something that gives learners independence, stretches them, reduces my workload and evidences progress, I think EdPuzzle is a great tool that hits this brief!