If you have kids, teach kids, or live with kids, chances are in the next few days the way you do school is going to change. And it’s also a good bet that you might suddenly take charge of what student learning looks like in your home.
It’s likely part of that might be tools for digital learning. Digital learning is my job. I spend my work hours shaping learning opportunities around digital tools.
But I also want to be real with you; most schools don’t have functioning online options for learning in place, let alone the time and resources to deploy to 100% of the student body in a manner of days.
The idea of developing something like this on the fly in such a short time makes sense only as enrichment or reinforcement of prior learning considering the work won’t count, be adequately assessed, or amount to much more than busy work.
It’s also not going to do what families hope it’s going to do -- keep their children busy for the length of a school day.
Schools are going to present something to do with students, be it recommendations for projects at home, worksheet packets, links for free online tools, whatever -- that’s all fine and good. But ultimately this is something that will be implemented by the family at home.
This means we need to be realistic with families about what learning at home and learning at school look like and how they function differently.
What you need to know is that beyond content, curriculum, or completion of work STRUCTURE is the number one most important thing you can provide for your child in this time of quarantine.
Sitting your child in front of a screen or a packet of worksheets and expecting the next eight hours to be filled with quality learning isn’t going to happen.
In schools those eight hours are filled with transition, housekeeping, group and project management, and myriad other small detailed tasks that add up to huge chunks of time -- all things you will not necessarily have to worry about in your own home.
School cannot and will not soak up the same percentage of your day at home. Understand that now. Let’s give families some freedom here. If you want to fill the time you have but also fuel your child’s interest, you need to rethink how you school.
Give students this time free of the curriculum and the testing to explore something they have passion for.
Maybe they want to start a YouTube channel, start a blog, learn to cook, figure out how to draw -- or maybe they just need to investigate some new hobbies, talents, skills, or knowledge that previously they haven’t had the time or the opportunity to look into.
If you have ten minutes I highly recommend watching this youtube video called Caine’s Arcade ().
This is the kind of freedom and structure that your kids will absolutely thrive in while they have unlimited time to explore passion, collect resources, and share the story of why they care about something.
I also would share AJ Juliani’s resources on running a Genius Hour in your classroom (or at home) at this link (ajjuliani.com/genius-hour-bl…) if you seriously want to get started with something like this.
You will note that many of the suggested projects concern high levels of tech(creating blogs/starting a YouTube Channel/recording a podcast, etc). If you are reading this and it sounds like something you are interested in pursuing with your quarantine time please reach out to me.
My website is joshchoward.com, and I am on Facebook and Twitter @joshchoward.
I understand this is going to be a difficult process for many families to work through. I wanted to write this because I don’t want families to misunderstand how learning looks differently at home than at school
-- and so however you do decide to address this issue, please remember to be patient with your kids and understand it’s hard for them too. Nobody asked for this. God bless and good luck.
