Feedback from The Trenches on The Start of A Different School Year
What is hybrid learning? Well, if you didn’t know before as a teacher, a student, or a parent, you most certainly do now. Hybrid learning is the combination of face-to-face and online teaching. And it’s the answer to how we have kept children learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Until now, some teachers had embraced and tried it, and others had not. It’s something that lent itself more easily to some subject areas than others. And for high school education, it was considered an ‘extra’ delivery method.
Enter the most difficult year of teaching for this generation of teachers. In the midst of a global pandemic, teachers have been tasked with moving their teaching and learning to online methods. Some have found it completely overwhelming learning new technology. Others have found it easier to adapt. A year on, we ask the question ‘Hybrid Learning Approach: Yay or Nay?
There has been a lot of discussion and feedback on the eLearning and online teaching that has been taking place over the last year. Parent zoom bombing going viral. Inspirational stories of how teachers and students have come together to build online forums and communities. Efforts to help students through periods of isolation and mental health struggles.
Let’s take a look at the pros and the cons of throwing digital learning into the mix when it comes to supporting the education of the next generation.
The Good!
There is no doubt that having the technology to move learning online is something of a wonder! And in as quick a time as the schools have managed! This is something that we should all be extremely grateful for. But what for the future?
Personalized Learning
Many teachers have found the ability to provide students with individualized learning plans online. They have been able to meet their varying needs and supported differentiation extensively.
Teachers have increased the use of online quizzes and websites. Examples like Khan Academy provide students with step-by-step courses and guides that are aligned to the curriculum. It moves at the right pace for the students. And teachers see different resources that are available out there, to complement their own.
Dashboards and Reporting
Many of the Learning Management Systems (LMS) used also give teachers access to lots of data, dashboards, and reporting mechanisms. They enable them to see where students are excelling and where they are struggling. They can look across the board for areas that need to be revisited with further instructional learning. It also helps guide differentiation so you can see who perhaps needs further stretching through extension exercises for example.
Interactive Learning
The use of digital technology has meant that teachers have taken advantage of video, online interactive quizzes, gamification apps and really had to think creatively to expand the different ways that they approach learning.
The flipped classroom has become much more prominent with teachers expanding the ways in which the instructional elements of teaching are delivered through filming lectures, homework reading, online videos, and presentations – freeing up more time for the assignments and activities to be completed through online group work making use of zoom breakout rooms for example.
Digital Skills
The world has been gradually moving online over the last decades, and the pandemic has catapulted the advancements of technology no end. On that note, using eLearning as part of the curriculum delivery is going to be crucial to supporting all children and students to have the necessary technical and computer skills needed for the workplace, and incorporating this long term through the use of digital technology both in school and outside will ensure that those with less access to technology gain the opportunity to build digital workplace skills and don’t get left behind.
Now the Bad!
For some, getting to grips with teaching online has been completely overwhelming, they have been struggling to cope with everything that Covid has thrown at their families, let alone adapting to a new teaching method, learning technology, and coping with the inevitable issues and errors that occur when you’re trying to bring a whole class of students online from their bedrooms, with buffering internets, crashing computers and interrupting siblings, parents and pets!
Engaging the Students
While there are many ways to use technology to our advantage, the overwhelming feeling has been that nothing beats good old-fashioned face-to-face delivery when it comes to teaching a complex subject matter. You can see easily what the students are taking in, what is going over their heads and needs revisited in a different manner, and you can see it as a whole, as a collective in the room.
When attention drops, which it inevitably does with a group of students regardless of the teaching method, then you are immediately aware and immediately able to change direction, mix things up a bit – without setting up 27 different systems to get things going.
Not to mention, school is a place for study and home is a place for many things to happen – so having the students in the brick-and-mortar school automatically places them in an environment that is dedicated to studying, absent of the many distractions from home.
Reading the room
Right now, making sure your students are learning is important, but equally important is making sure that their health and mental wellbeing is being looked after. There is no replacement for face-to-face learning and engagement when it comes to being able to pick up on any underlying issues that are going on and having the opportunity to support, guide and just check in with your students. Teachers nowadays have a number of different roles when it comes to managing their students, rightly or wrongly, and being able to ‘read the room’ allows them to ensure that students are coping mentally, developing socially, learning academically, and have access to counseling, support and a listening ear when it is needed.
So, let’s revisit the question – Hybrid Learning – Yay or Nay?
Well, it’s a yay, but with the emphasis being on Hybrid learning, a combination of face-to-face learning, mixed up with some online delivery to build variety into the curriculum, to build digital and technical skills, and to allow more learning to be completed remotely and re-accessed from home to help students catch up and recap where needed.
But can digital learning replace face-to-face? Not at school age, no, the additional skills gained from classroom learning and too important for the future.
And what about doing both at the same time, which has been the story for many teachers over the last year? Absolutely not, is the feedback. Teachers have risen to that challenge and risen phenomenally. They keep students going, keep them learning and accommodate those in class and at home. But it has been no easy task. This year has left them drained, exhausted, and leading many to resign and retire.
So yes, there’s a place for online learning and the hybrid model. Ideally, it’s where it suits the subject, but not for all areas, and certainly not simultaneously!
Here are a few stories from other teachers on how they and their schools have coped from Ed Week. Have your experiences echoed the above, what are your thoughts on the issues?
We’d love to hear from you!
