Can Learning be "Virtual?"

Over the past few weeks I've been doing a lot of consulting work with several schools who are preparing for the fall semester. I've been doing some professional development for teachers, and helping school leaders think through some pedagogical and technological decision-making as they develop multiple options for what the fall might look like for their schools.

It's interesting to see what has been common experiences for many teachers in different parts of the U.S., and what is unique to particular places as well. Overall, I could summarize the online teaching experiences of teachers with whom I have interacted as challenging, exhausting, and not entirely pleasant. (And that might be putting it all very nicely, honestly!) Many educators have found the distance teaching adventure of Spring 2020 to be demanding, to say the least!

But one comment I heard from a teacher in one of these meetings really grabbed my attention. In fact, I paused to scribble it down right when this individual said it:

So Many Thoughts: Planning for Fall

There is an old saying that "crisis doesn't create character, it reveals it."

I am not sure if this is completely true, but I've been thinking a lot about this in light of how our emergency distance teaching adventure has unfolded over the past weeks and months.

This has been an educational crisis, for sure. And it hasn't all gone well, at least in my own teaching practice. There are plenty of things that I would have loved to do over, from the kinds of assignments I gave in some situations, to the way I communicated my expectations to students, to being a little more proactive in reaching out to a few students. It all ended up well enough in each of these situations, and we made it through. I feel like I'm still kind of catching my breath after the hectic pace and uncertainty of the end of the spring semester. I suspect many educators are feeling that way.

But the fall semester is out there on the horizon, and soon enough it will be here. And as much as I wish I could take more time to rest, to regroup...I think planning for fall has to begin now.

I know many schools already have those kinds of planning sessions underway, but I'm thinking here about teachers in particular. What can we do to be best prepared for teaching this fall? Here are six things that I think educators should think about. I don't mean this list to be a prescriptive "here's what you gotta do if you're going to be teaching this fall," but more of a "here's what I'm thinking about and I hope this might help spur your thinking too." I'd love to hear your thoughts in response.

How to Manage Teaching Online

In this season of isolation and shelter-in-place, many teachers have suddenly found themselves teaching at a distance. There are all kinds of technological and pedagogical challenges for this, obviously. But working from home provides another whole challenge of its own.

I had an email from one of my grad students that named this challenge pretty squarely. He reached out, knowing that I teach online a lot, and wondered how I manage teaching online. I was glad he asked! He asked several questions, which I've included below, along with some of my thinking to respond to each of them. 

I should note that while some of these are aligned to research-based best practices, a lot of this is anecdotal examples of things that I have found that work for me. Consider this a case study in managing the work of teaching online, as developed through practice, experimentation, (some) research, and a bit of the school of hard knocks too.

Image by Thomas Lefebvre via Unsplash

Lament and Joy and COVID-19

I have been so busy. So, so busy. It's weird that in a season when so many things have been cancelled so we can keep distance, I have felt as busy as ever.

Pivoting online has meant extra work in some ways, and different work in others. Working mostly from home has been good, overall, but it means a lot of distractions from my kids and my dog.

As you can see, he is very distracting to me as I work from the couch.

I've been wanting to blog more during this time, to capture my thoughts and feelings and document them somehow for the future. I've been wanting to write more words of encouragement to folks who are new to distance teaching, since that's something I know a bit about, and have things I could share.
I've been wanting to take time to write about things other than the current pandemic crisis.

But here I am, about a month since my last post, and feeling a little glum about it.

Truth is, I've realized I'm in a season of lament. I am grieving things that feel "lost."

This doesn't mean I haven't still felt deep joy as well. But I am lamenting the state of the world, and the state of our country, and the state of my own situation.

Teaching at a Distance: Keeping it Human

I'm thinking a lot about my students right now. I miss them. I've done distance office hours both yesterday and today, and it was so, so good to be able to hear them, see them, and communicate live for a little while, even if at a distance.

I'm grateful for technologies that allows so many different avenues of communication. One of my research interests is social presence. There are multiple different definitions for what "social presence" is all about, but one that I really like is, "the degree to which a person is perceived as a 'real person' in mediated communication" (Gunawardena, 1995).

How can I do this? How can I share a sense of myself as a "real person" in my communication with students? How can they share a sense of themselves as "real" with me and their classmates? There are lots of different ways. Videoconferences are a great way to connect. But lower tech tools--even good ol' email--can also be great ways to connect. How can students perceive me as a real person? The affordances of a particular technology matter, I think. But even more important? My tone, and the way I use the tool to communicate. Basically, I'm working with the belief in mind that my students are real people, whole people, and the way I communicate with them matters.

Teaching at a Distance: Human Connections

Today is day one of our emergency distance learning adventure.* As I'm writing this, it's about 2:30 in the afternoon. So far, so good.

I've had about half a dozen emails from students so far today, mostly just checking in to make sure they understand what is expected of them for the work this week. One shared a concern for a grandparent who is ill--not COVID-19, but a broken hip and related complications. I've had a couple of colleagues check in to see how I'm doing, which was really nice and thoughtful of them. (Last week was a crazy busy week for me, helping many folks figure out new skills and strategies for engaging with their students from a distance. Don't get me wrong; it was a good week...but I crashed on Friday night and rested well over the weekend.)

As much as I'm working on helping my students keep learning--and my colleagues too--I recognize that am learning things throughout this process as well. Here are three things I've learned already:

The Emergency Pivot to Online Teaching and Learning

So.

Here we are.

This is a fascinating time.

It seems to me, based on what I'm reading online, that most colleges and universities in the US, and many (most?) K-12 schools have either already made the decision to suspend face-to-face meetings, or will very soon.

You might think, given my field (Educational Technology) and my particular interests in that field (Online Teaching and Learning, Social Presence Theory, Technology Integration, and Social Media for Learning) that I would be cheering for this whole scenario.

Honest answer: I'm a little worried about how this is going to go.

I say this because I know how much work it takes to teach online. It's not less work in any way than teaching face-to-face. And especially at the beginning, when you're first learning how to teach online, it might very well be more work--perhaps substantially more work.

And I also recognize that I'm biased in all of this, because I actually really like teaching online, and for folks who aren't already on-board, it's going to be even more challenging.

So.

How are we going to do this, folks?

Well, this post is just a place where I figured I'd share a few initial thoughts and resources. This is just my take on things, and a few ideas I've gleaned from other places and Twitterfriends. But if you're suddenly thrust into teaching online, and find any of this helpful, please feel free to run with it, okay?