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by Chris Burke is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Education Dive
Improving online learning through reflective practice
Lauren Barack
Aug. 18, 2020
Dive Brief:
It can be difficult for classroom teachers to find time to reflect on
the school day, high school engineering teacher John Kamal writes for
Edutopia. But making small changes, like recording notes and details
daily, can help educators take a more holistic view not just on each
lesson, but on the school year overall.
To help them stick to these goals, educators should make data
collection as simple as possible. Notes should be jotted down quickly
or recorded via a voice recording option on a smartphone, students can
be asked to complete surveys, and peer educators can be tapped to write
down their observations of classroom activities.
These notes can then be revisited once the school year has ended, so
educators review and consider what may need changing for the next
school year.
Dive Insight:
As students head back to school this fall following a spring disrupted
by the coronavirus pandemic, educators are eager to improve upon their
experiences with the quick transition to remote learning. By embracing
reflective practice, educators can better position themselves to pivot
when emergency scenarios arise, using a deeper understanding of what
has or hasn't worked face-to-face in their efforts to improve digital
lessons.
Reflective practice can also help better identify the pros and cons of
tools used in the spring to encourage, for example, the adoption of
more flexible digital learning tools flexible enough for schools to
adapt to a remote environment again, should they need to move quickly
back to that model.
Learning how to shift all subjects into a remote environment has
presented many challenges, but an area where some teachers able to
excel was looking to what students may have on hand in their homes to
complete virtual assignments, particularly in the arts. Since art and
music classes often rely on physical materials and instruments,
educators in some districts have adapted projects by utilizing objects
easily found at home.
Students, for example, could mine their backyard for flowers and weeds,
and then conduct a botany lesson, dissecting plants for a science
class, a suggestion from the University of Florida’s Department of
Agricultural Education and Communication. Unesco, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has even more
virtual learning suggestions in an online database of reading
comprehension tools and coding classes.
Educators may also want to look at tools used in classrooms. Students
have used virtual and augmented reality in computer science classes,
for example. Inexpensive cardboard virtual reality headsets have been
tapped by teachers to take students on virtual field trips, allowing
them to explore the North Pole or tour the Guggenheim Museum in New
York City for classes as wide-ranging as English language arts to
science. These headsets can be found online, some for less than $10.
With the new school year looking to be a hybrid of online and in-person
learning, at least at the start, educators and curriculum directors can
fold virtual learning tools into their curriculum, knowing they can fit
into a classroom learning space, and one at home as well.
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