So, your school has decided to re-open face-to-face learning following CDC guidelines for social distancing. This means students will be in the classroom and you as their teacher, will need to share documents with them, assign learning tasks, and assess their understanding. Your students will also need to share documents with each other, collaborate with each other, critically think, and create.
What does this look like while maintaining social distancing?
In the physical environment, systems could be set-up to maintain social distancing easily by having two trays, one for getting documents and the other for turning in completed work. While possible, it isn’t sustainable as it would take a lot of time to have each student go up one by one to collect and or turn in assignments. As for collaboration and having students working together, students really can’t work in a small group collaboratively while also maintaining social distancing. This where technology comes in.
There are fantastic platforms available that not only help teachers assign work and collect it, but also enable online collaboration which will be physically devoid in a socially distanced classroom. If we don’t want our classrooms to digress to outdated pedagogical practice of 100 years ago, we must ensure that we give our students the opportunity to collaborate on projects, communicate, critically think and create. Technology is the answer to this problem in a socially distanced classroom.
If we decide that we do not want our classrooms to digress to lecture, note-taking, quizzes, and tests and want our students to actually be in a learning environment that enhances their 21st Century skills then we need to ensure that the learning environment, even when socially distanced, support the following:
- Support Creative Communication (Students should be able to make things with their device, such as presentations, videos, podcasts, webpages, image editing.)
- Support Computational Thinking (Students should be able to use their device to support activities that help them think logically, such as coding, data collection, and analysis, representing data in various ways, developing descriptive models, flowcharts and mind maps, etc…)
- Support Knowledge Construction (Students should be able to plan and conduct effective research)
- Support Collaboration (Students should be able to collaborate with others in their own learning environment but also outside their school walls)
Google Suite for Education
GSFE is a fantastic set of tools that enable teachers and students to create, communicate, collaborate, and critically think. GSFE provides schools a plethora of tools that enable all of the above. These include, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawing, Sites, Forms, Jamboard, Classroom, and Meet. To learn more about these fantastic tools have a look at this resource.
Office 365
Microsoft also has an online suite of tools that offer the same features as Google. These include tools such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Drive, Teams, Sway, and many others. To find out more about these tools check out this resource.
Both of these platforms support the creation of a more meaningful learning environment and can help prepare our students for the world they will enter, especially when trying to maintain social distancing. Another great feature is that they all work on various devices. Which leads me to my next point.
In a socially distanced classroom, students should be able to bring their own devices.
That’s right! If your school doesn’t have enough computers or for some reason, they still have computer labs, a 1:1 computing environment is essential for creating an exceptional learning environment for our students in a socially distanced classroom. If students have devices at home, let them bring them. Just think at some of the ways technology from home could help maintain social distancing.
- A phone can take a picture of a paper-based assignment to turn in. No touching needed.
- A picture can be shared with teachers and others in the classroom easily using the above-mentioned platforms or with SnapDrop.
- Assignments can be assigned, completed, and turned in without anyone getting close to each other.
- Students can, create, collaborate, and communicate while maintaining the proper 6 feet distance.
There are many apps that can support the types of activities that we will need our students to participate in while also keeping them physically separated. I have written many blog posts in the past about using technology in the classroom. However, with our current situation, I believe these posts are even more relevant to educators. We need to ensure that we are creating the best learning environment for our students while also practicing all of the guidelines that will help keep us all safe. Below are links to many of my previous posts. I hope you find them useful as you prepare for re-opening your classrooms.
Improving Learning
Making Thinking Visible with Technology,
Extending Classroom Discussions with Technology,
Using Technology to Extend Speaking Practice in a Language Classroom.
Resources for your Classroom
Video Creation and Editing
Screencasting on a Chromebook,
Graphic Design, Photo Editing and Art
Gravit Designer. Photo Editing on a Chromebook, Photo Creation, Poster Creation, Meme creation and educational use, Drawing & Painting on a Chromebook.
STEM and STEAM
Audio and Podcasting
Audio editing on a Chromebook, Podcasts on a Chromebook,
Language Arts
Interactive, Non-Linear Stories,
Screencasting and Google Slides for Authentic Language Project,
Math
Organization, File Conversion
Printing Comments on a Google Doc,
What to do with too many browser tabs,
Integration with Android Phones,
Thank you for reading
Dr. Shannon H. Doak