I'm no expert on remote learning but here are some things that could have helped this week and may help schools transitioning in the next couple of weeks (thread) (1) Post 1 assignment PER WEEK (at least to start) for ALL grade levels.
(2) Schools, please send 1 email with a link to all Ts office hours etc. instead of having each individual teacher send their own email. This would have helped parents. It took a long time to sort through the emails and write out schedules.
(3) Have the homeroom, teacher of record, or other assigned person reach out to families they haven't heard from to check and make sure they are ok and help them navigate the digital side of things as some families have limited/no access to tech, speak a different language, etc.
(4) Provide a video with a SHORT mini lesson and a walk through of the assignment, how to turn it in, navigate links/tabs, etc. Even if your students have done a few digital assignments, it's hard to remember how to navigate tools if we haven't used them in a while.
(5) Make assignments easy for students to access and complete. Ex: Not posting a PDF for students to convert or copy word for word onto a Google Doc. It may be easier for us to upload the PDF but it makes it more difficult for the learner.
(6) Include digital literacy lessons (how to use split screen view, how to use webcam to take a pic and upload, share settings, using tools to design and create). Especially if these are things we are asking them to do in a lesson. Trust me lots don't know how.
(7) Provide options for students to have text (instructions or passages) read to them. This might be the teacher recording themselves reading or providing text-to-speech alternatives.
(8) Make the instructions to assignments very clear and avoid adding too many things in one assignment. It is difficult for adults to navigate multiple tabs and even harder for kids to do so.
(9) This thread doesn't even address all of the equity issues. My suggestions are not at all helpful for families with zero tech :(
(9)Please reflect and adjust throughout this process. Like I said before, we will not figure this out in the next couple of months. We are all going to make lots of mistakes. Now is a great time to learn from them. Hoping that next year will be full of many + changes in edu.
