Isolation
Learning at home may be isolating. It's no surprise that without the bustle of the classroom and the companionship of their friends, some kids might develop a strong sense of isolation, which steadily erodes their motivation to study.
Regardless of what they say, many children will miss school when the alternative is being cooped up at home at a desk.
Many of the educational tactics that we take for granted in our classrooms might be harmed by isolation. If we aren't cautious, group work, class discussion, and collaborative activity can vanish totally from the curriculum, along with the related levels of student engagement and rich learning that such experiences give.
Thankfully, there are a few things you can do in a digital setting to retain the classroom dynamic and make things personable. Here are a few examples:
Use chats, discussion boards, or cloud applications to coordinate virtual group activities.
Lack of motivation in online learners
As difficult as distance teaching is for us, it is likely to be considerably more difficult for our pupils. They've moved from classrooms where learning is expressly encouraged to bedrooms and kitchen tables where distractions abound and expert assistance isn't always available. It's understandable that some people may be tempted to opt out.
The best source of motivation is a set of clear, quantifiable objectives. Set them up on a regular basis to give kids something to focus on. Instead of giving them an open-ended assignment and leaving them to it — as is tempting when you aren't in the same room — make it clear:
- The amount of time students should devote to the job
- A tangible or measurable result ('each participant must discover five things about x')
- A method of accountability ('they must be uploaded on our shared platform so that everyone can view them')
- A deadline
- Consider gamified applications and games.
Technical difficulties with online teaching tools
Distance teaching has become a lot less intimidating as a result of advances in EdTech over the last decade, but there are still certain concerns to be aware of.
Before you begin, be sure your kids have dependable access to technology. There will not always be a good internet connection or a gadget accessible for pupils to utilize in every home. Parents will be able to report these difficulties in an initial email, message, or text, allowing you to plan ahead of time to accommodate such pupils.
It's also crucial to remember that, despite all the rhetoric about our children being "digital natives," many of them aren't very good at confronting novel software or using it responsibly. As a result, an initial 'onboarding' event for kids is an excellent idea, and you might consider sending a quick orientation to parents through email as well.
Whatever mechanisms you have in place, make sure there is a clear "hotline" for students to report technological concerns. That's not to imply you'll take up a full-time IT support job – you won't be able to solve everything – but it will at the very least alert you to kids who may require special accommodations.
Take a look at our guide on setting up an online classroom if you need some extra assistance.
Time-consuming resources
When you can no longer teach simply by standing in front of a class, you must rely on resources to perform the work for you. And it takes time to make those.
Even your vocal directions will need to be written down in a way that all kids can comprehend. It's a little like organizing a relief lesson for a day off: you spend so much time planning content for someone else to give that you believe it would be easier to just take the class yourself.
One approach to avoid the inconvenience is to record your own lesson and upload it online (like in a flipped classroom), but keep in mind that the technical aspects of this take time as well.
If you don't want to have to grind out a ten-page instruction manual plus an interactive movie for a single lesson's worth of information, you should look into EdTech solutions. They soon pay for themselves in terms of time saved thanks to built-in resources and instructional content.
Setting and forgetting online learning activities
In a distant education situation, students aren't the only ones who may experience a lack of accountability. It might be difficult for teachers as well.
When we're not surrounded by the face-to-face interactions and classroom surroundings that shape so much of our work, it's tempting to fall back into' set and forget' mode, assigning work online and hoping for the best.
However, in the face of such huge upheaval, our commitment to high-quality education cannot be put on hold. It’s a time when our students need us more than ever before, and it is the perfect opportunity to innovate and try something new.
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