DFI Session 7: Devices Agenda

This week it was all about looking at things from a learners perspective and entering the learning world they occupy via their chrome book and i-pad devices. The key word driving this session was ubiquity, or ubiquitous. It's a very alluring word, and when it rolls off your tongue it feels exotic, romantically foreign and almost musical. Meaning: being everywhere, constantly encountered, widespread. The connotation behind ubiquity in education is that barriers to accessing learning are removed, and in the digital world, all learning is visible to all learners at all times. 

Learning is no longer bordered by the 6 hours spent at school, but continues beyond into the 24 hour day. In a world that has been heavily impacted by COVID-19 and regular lockdowns, the idea of learning being ubiquitous is gaining momentum in a way that it never has before. 

All over the world educators had to rethink the delivery of learning as schools were forced to close and students had to stay at home for weeks on end. The digital world of learning made itself felt in the advantages it was seen to have over traditional chalk, talk and book learning inside the four walls of a classroom space. For some educators, it was a small step while for others it was a giant leap. Either way, the world of education was turned on its head and shaken.

Although no-one was prepared, the resilience of teachers, students and school administrators kicked in and mountainous efforts were made to overcome the challenges thrown at us by a tiny crown-wearing virus. 

As we are asked to reflect on our own experiences during this time, after 7 DFI sessions, it creates an interesting perspective. Each time you gain knowledge, you realise exactly how much ignorance has been sitting on your shoulders, and how much you don't actually know. Despite that feeling, the questions put to us for reflection this week have provoked much pondering as I look back on the year that was.

I am most proud of the fact that at the end of the first and second lockdowns, I had families that were stress free and who had actually enjoyed the time spent at home with their children, not because the learning was ubiquitous and rewindable, but because they as parents and grandparents were not required to take on the role of teacher, and were able to participate in the learning activities themselves.

I sent out tasks that would not require new teaching, but instead were based on the previous years and terms teaching and learning. They were tasks that could be done together as a family, and because the learning was rewindable and familiar, parents were able to quickly pick up and work with their children on the academic revision and practice.

I found activities that were fun to do, including maths that was based around traditional Samoan recipes and crafts, that most parents and grandparents could bring their prior knowledge to. Yes, it was ubiquitous, and rewindable, but it was the simple joy of being able to work alongside their children that parents loved.

Our class Zoom sessions were usually sitting at 70-90% participation and were more of a touching base session to check in with families and the learning, ask questions of tasks we weren't sure about and to share our task responses. We began sessions with our morning routine in class (morning greetings and roll call, singing our national anthem and saying our opening prayer) and the sound of a cappella singing was a beautiful entrance into each week day. And the occassional weekend Zoom session that I was invited to!

For my learners, who just wanted the camaraderie of their peers, the Zoom sessions were an opportunity to catch-up with their peers, whom they missed terribly. We laughed, shared stories of our Covid life, and cried together when a beloved family pet died and one of our boys was left feeling quite bereft. We had grown used to seeing Otis bouncing up and down out the window, barking with excitement during our Zoom sessions, so we too, felt the loss.

Eventually my students were running their own zoom sessions in small groups or as a class in the afternoons. They abided by the rules established prior to this (must be in a family space, NOT in their bedroom, an adult had to be present, everyone was to be have the option to be included, must be live on camera, not using an avatar, and all language and interactions were to be positive and inclusive).

Our senior management were incredibly supportive of us as teachers and did not place any pressure on us to perform as teachers, running lessons from 9-3, as a few of my colleagues teaching in other schools were told to do. The main goal was to make the experience as stress free and enjoyable for our families as possible. Working as a team was definitely a plus.

I gathered both student and parent voice at the end of the first lockdown to inform what my class would do in case of a second lockdown, so that it was an authentic collaborative effort. (that paid dividends later on it the year when a second lockdown did happen!)

COVID Learning Week 2

What do I regret? That my learners weren't familiar with the Zoom process to begin with, and it took quite a number of phone calls for the second session before success was achieved! Other than that, I can truthfully say that I have no regrets at all. My students returned with a positive and strong well-being; our parents well-being was strong and they were thankful for the one less stress on them, and we were all glad to be back in a learning space together.

What have I taken forward with me back into the face to face classroom learning? Allowing time and space for my learners to just sit in small groups and talk about their responses to tasks, the results of their create sessions and to be reflective about their learning experiences with each other. No rules for how it has to be done to meet teacher standards, just following their student instincts for sharing. 

I am also putting more thought and creativity into the toolkits I create to make them more explicit for rewindable sessions should we go into another long term lockdown. The whole concept of "less is more" while simple to understand, is actually not so easy to achieve when you are creating digital teaching slides. Even more so when you are a 'wordy' person yourself!

I will however, also now add to that a few practice Google Meet sessions sprinkled here and there during class time, just in case!

On Fridays when I'm out of class at DFI PD, I have the same reliever coming in each Friday, so he has been doing art and technology days, as those are his passions. He plans his own day and my class is happy to have a "stone age learning day" as they call it. I suspect that as much as they enjoy the world of digital learning,  exploration and creation, they also welcome the break from it. If I'm away sick, the world of digital learning remains open and they continue on as though I was right there in the classroom beside them.

Having gained a multitude of ideas from my DFI sessions about how to make the learning more relevant, more expansive and more ubiquitous, I now have to problem solve how I'm going to put it all into action. It's certainly a conundrum. I think I'm going to get down on my knees and pray like hell for either that 11th clone or an 8th day.....

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