My Journey in Distance and Online Learning

    My experience with distance learning goes back to my high school years in the early to mid '90's.  I decided to take a few of my grade 10, 11, and 12 courses via correspondence instead of in-person in the classroom.  The choice of assignments to complete and the flexibility in time of completion is what drew me to taking courses via correspondence.  The classes were not online, rather the material was sent via Canada Post.  In university for both my undergrad degrees, I did not take any classes online, all were face-to-face in the classroom.


    About 4 years ago I started using Seesaw in my classroom.  My purpose for using it was so that students could create a digital portfolio.  I am not a fan of the pizza box portfolio and found binders to be a bit cumbersome during the student-led conference so I wanted something that required very little storage space and more engaging for students to add their work to.  I cannot remember where I had heard about Seesaw but thought it would be the perfect tool.  I had to purchase some tablets for my classroom so that students could use the app to add their work or to complete tasks on Seesaw.  the Seesaw portfolios were a perfect way for students to share their learning with their families.  I also was able to incorporate some basic digital citizenship lessons that focused on keeping each others privacy by only accessing our own Seesaw portfolios.


    It wasn't until I started my masters degree that I experienced full online learning.  I have taken one course that was considered blended - some face-to-face days with an online portion.  The tool that I have the most experience using is, of course, Zoom.  I had never used Zoom until I started this degree; however, it is a relatively easy tool to learn.  There are features that I have not used before this class, like the stamp feature that we used during a presentation, but feel relatively comfortable using Zoom.  I have used it outside of school as well for meeting with friends during the pandemic.  


    When our school closed and we were given the direction to go to online learning, our school division offered some professional development geared toward learning some of the tools used for online learning.  I know that what we were really doing was something closer to emergency response teaching but the professional development was very welcomed.  Although I had experience using Seesaw in the past, I joined a session to learn more about it.  I was so glad that I did as my experience with it was limited to teaching students how to add to their journals. I learned how to upload tasks for students to complete and to make short videos for instruction.  I also joined sessions for Google Meet and Screencastify.  I did use Google Meet for the online learning/emergency response teaching but I did not use Screencastify.  I found that the short 5 minute videos that I could record via Seesaw were sufficient for my purposes.

    I was not aware of all of the different tools that could be used for online learning until our Tools for Online and Distance Learning presentation.  It is honestly overwhelming.  I am grateful for the professional development that our division provided; however, they kept the list of tools to a limit as well.  I assume because of the shear amount of tools that can be used and the multiple uses of each tool.  For example, Seesaw can be used for communication, facilitating student learning, and for demonstration of student learning.  I am currently teaching in the classroom; however, we are told to be prepared to go to online learning at some point this year.  In my division K-2 teachers are strongly encouraged to use Seesaw and have a subscription for it; grades 3 and up are strongly encouraged to use Google Classroom.  Seesaw subscriptions are not given for teachers teaching higher than grade 2.  I currently use Seesaw as an alternate way to communicate with parents.  My intern has also posted some small homework assignments on Seesaw as well.  This works perfectly as at our school homework can be sent home, but it cannot come back to school.  


    Now that I am more aware of the variety of tools available to use for online learning, along with my limited experience with emergency response teaching, I think that I am more prepared to go into online teaching if that were to happen.  I will still have a learning curve, but my new knowledge of what is out there to use will allow me to better choose the best tools.  One website that will be helpful for choosing tools is this Common Sense Education site.  It links to reviews for each tool and describes what each tool is best used for. I would like to try Talkingpoints for communicating with families who have English as a second language.

Comments

  1. I definitely feel you. I feel much more prepared if we were to go back to distance learning due to this class and the knowledge I have got from it. I still think it will be a learning curve to get started. One huge thing I learned was to keep it simple and to find the tools that work for you. As well, one thing I would try to do better would be to keep it simple and explicitly teach the expectations of online learning. I am also interested in Talking Points. That was one app I never had heard of before and it would be very beneficial for building relationships with families.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing. One of my first 'teaching' jobs back in the day was corrected correspondence classes for sask ed. I'd get the assignment package and correct the papers and submit the grade and send back ... was very interesting. Nice reviews of the tools you use.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is interesting to compare your experience from high school distance education and how things have changed with online learning. I have just started using Seesaw this year as more than a communication tool, and I find the community of educators on Facebook and Twitter great for ideas and support. I enjoyed working on our presentation over the last month, but it is definitely overwhelming. Good luck with the rest of your year!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Kristina! Like you, I really appreciated the PD my division offered to help us navigate our way into the online learning world. I was also able to find some PD of my own and learned a lot. I definitely feel more prepared to take my class remote, than I did in March. Still a lot to learn, but at least I feel like I can manage it so much more. I also use Seesaw, mostly for communication purposes. I know there is so much more I could do with it, but Teams is my main focus right now. I wish Talkingpoints had been around when I was teaching in Toronto. So many of my families spoke languages other than English. This would have been a tool in my toolbox for sure. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog