FAQs

What should a good online lesson look like?

A good question. Our relationship with students remain the same whether face to face or oniine; however, new parameters enter the dynamic online which forces teachers to embrace the technology and try to leverage it.

1) Be aware of limitations.

Whereas at school, we have had an iPAD policy and all students have an iPAD, in the students' homes, this is has been a different story. During confinement every student seems to have a different device and a different operating system. The best way to deal with this is to plan lessons for the iPADs or the devices the students usually have at school. When students say, they haven't got this piece of software or something isn't working, it is because they are not on the school iPADs which are consistent in terms of the apps they have and how they function. I would also ALWAYS TEST the activity we want them to do on the iPAD before we ask students to do it. This forward preparation, therefore, is crucial for a good online lesson.

2) Teachers are CURATORS of learning; they CRAFT their lessons.

SHIFT the responsibility for learning from the teacher to the student by preparing well. Any instructions or explanations can be pre-recorded. in short voice recording or < 5 min videos. A teacher's hard work occurs BEFORE and AFTER the lesson not during it. Students should be actively involved DURING the lesson.

3) Craft the lesson with mini-activities

Plan 3 to 5 activities for a 45 mins lesson e.g. welcome and register / teacher explanation / send students off into groups / a little test or poll / bring them together. Have a clear structure and know how many minutes each activity should take, Communicate this to the students so that they can develop responsibility for their time-keeping. Try to post materials a few days before the lesson to take advantage of flipped learning. You'll be surprised how many students come to the lesson prepared! (And then prepare extension work!)

4) Give students choices

In order to develop student ownership of their own learning give them choices within their assignments and pathway options, e.g. You will author a book. Which media are fit for purpose for book authoring? Book Creator, a Google site, a Word document, pen and paper, (not Powerpoint!).

5) Think Blended Learning

Blend both digital and offline environments so that students are not in front of the screen all the time. Paper or any other objects created can be photographed/filmed/recorded and submitted!

6) Opportunities for collaboration

Students love collaborating. Give options to allow this to happen. Students can discuss or create a digital artefact or solve a problem together especially during lockdown.

7) Behaviour for Learning

Teach students how to show courtesy when asking questions - 1 at a time - learn to listen and no interruptions. Praise the ones who get it right publicly.

8) Starter

Give students time at the beginning of the lesson to chat and express how they feel. During registration, come up with a question that you want an answer to instead of saying "present" - it can be funny, wistful, or wise.

9) Enjoy the lesson you have crafted

Pause and smile often. Don't run the lesson at a frantic pace! If you enjoy it the students will too...

How to stop students from muting each other or removing participants in Teams?

There are two ways to do this. 1) Make the meeting in the Teams calendar prior to the lesson, add all the students, then assign a participant's role to them. 2) If you run the meeting within the team, as they login and whilst making small talk, quickly add the students as attendees.

How to set up small groups in Teams?

Before the lesson, create 4 separate channels per class (I have found that a maximum of 4 channels works best). I created Star Wars names for each group which the students have enjoyed, but you can use any names related to your subject matter. After I finish whole class teaching and/or explanations, I tell the students that at a certain time, I want them to leave the General channel and to go to the channel I have prepared for them. I then close the General call, and go to each of the 4 groups to make calls for them which they join in their small groups. In these small groups they discuss the activity, decide on a way forward and start on it. My job is to pop into each channel every few minutes and make sure the students are on task which they invariably are! Within their small groups, they can share their screens and discuss their problems. With my prompting they are able to find solutions to the problems I have set them. I then ask that they share their outcomes to Class Discussion where they can see each others' work and comment on the solutions they like best.

What is the best way to run a test?

For me the best quiz platform to conduct tests in for a traditional test or exam is Socrative. However, beware, you will need to restructure questions into a multiple choice format. Students will find it harder to communicate on phones at home in search of answers, as each question can be scrambled and the answers to each question can be scrambled too. If you choose to teacher-pace the quiz, you can manually set a time limit for each question before you allow students to answer the next question. You can also allow students to visit the question only once.

Any other kind of longer problem-solving such as that found in Maths, Science or Computer Science, I prefer my students to be tested in an open-book examination kind of situation. I try to embed these tasks in a project that is evidenced in stages. Each stage needs teacher feedback to ensure that it is the students' own work and is propelled forward in the right direction. ePortfolios are very useful in this regard as they document the process.

How to annotate work?

Students are able to annotate work very well using their iPADs and Showbie. OneNote also has this facility which is used widely by Science teachers, although, it works better if students and teachers are using a computer. A stylus or an Apple Pencil is a very good investment if you need to write on students' work regularly. Another way to correct student written work is to have them write it in a Word document. Teachers can track the changes here and offer suggestions to improve the work via a comments tool that appears in the margin.

What is a good video-sharing platform for students?

Flipgrid is secure. It is part of the Office 365 suite. Teachers can control the recording window and when all videos need to be submitted by. Students can also view the work of the other members of their class and provide feedback.

What are the best platforms that support collaboration?

Powerpoint Online

Word Online

Excel Online

Book Creator in a browser

Teams Channels

Showbie Class Discussion

Popplet Mind Mapping Tool

Flipgrid Video Sharing Site

Sites website creation tool

Kahoot Teams

What are the best writing platforms?

Book Creator

Word Online

Google Docs

Storybird

What is the best way to get students to speak?

Ask them to make voice recordings regularly in the comfort of their own homes, until they develop confidence.

How do I get the students to view a document (file) and read it live?

In Teams I share my screen (Partager l'ecran > Lancer la diffusion) with my students. I mute all students, then I go to Showbie where I have prepared the text. Students follow my screen. I highlight each sentence and ask a student to read it aloud.

Can I use the record function so that a participant who did not have the opportunity to come can view the session? I suppose there is a privacy policy?

There is a privacy policy and before we record we need to make it very clear to the students that the recording will begin. Click on the three dots and a Record function will pop up. The video is saved to the Teams Stream which you can share with your students in your channel.

How do I integrate a questionnaire created on Microsoft forms in a Teams session?

There is a plus sign in your Teams Channel feed. Click on the + sign and add the Forms app. It will prompt you to find the Form which you have saved on OneDrive.

I have a lot of physical paper worksheets. What is the best way to get these to students?

If the original digital files are not available, the documents ought to be recreated. A quick way of doing this, is to scan and save it as an OCR file file which means it can be edited. (Scanning it as an image makes it non-editable). Use Kami or Word to edit your OCR file, then save it as a pdf.

Essentially, the files should be transformed into editable digital files as there is a lot more you can do with them. Divide up paragraphs or pages and get different students to focus on different aspects. Online means interactive. Try to build interactive activities into these lessons where students can work on a text, then come back together to exchange the enhancements or understandings as a group. A digital file also makes a good foundation to start creating other digital artefacts such as quizzes, presentations or websites.

What is a good tool for explaining Maths?

A quick fix: Show Me or Ziteboard on an iPAD with a stylus.

A scientist: OneNote on a Microsoft Surface Pro with a stylus.

Pro: Wacom, Ziteboard and stylus is used for drawing and has a closer feel and outcome to paper.

Three essential items are needed: A tablet. a virtual whiteboard and a digital pen or stylus.

What did you make your website in?

This is just a Google Site. I like to use it as it is free and simple to use. It also includes free hosting, so other than the domain which costs 10CHF per year there is no need to pay a provider for hosting the site. Microsoft documents and Google Docs are inserted seamlessly; it is the same with standard movie files and animated GIFs. So as a teacher, it is easy to keep all one's digital resources in a central location and to adapt them for each class I teach every year.