The Research Topic

RESEARCH 1 and PRACTICE 1 Reflective Entry 1

April 05, 2020.

Engage Learners Digitally in a Lockdown Situation

The whole world has seen drastic changes, in particular New Zealand. On March 26th, the government announced alert level 4 lockdown. Dictionary.com (2020) defines lockdown as “freeze or pause”. Everybody went into panic mode thinking what’s next!

COVID-19 was the only reason behind the lockdown apart from the essential workers because they worked in essential sectors and were allowed to go to work. The Guardian (2020) discusses that “the move came after the number of cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand rose past 100”. 

Teacher’s, parents/ caregivers and children were all asked to stay home. Students' learning became a concern such as to maintain what has been taught and get some new learning done.

After two weeks of lockdown the Ministry of Education decided that they are going to roll out the devices so virtual learning can take place. Jantjies (2020) talks about online learning as an obvious way to keep lessons going especially in times like this. Within 2 days the chromebooks were delivered and I started my Hangout lessons using my school laptop from home. Almost daily I added a short video recording myself using screencastify and a varied plan for teaching. I used a few of their heritage languages in my video to motivate and engage my learners. My Year 4 learners used Hangouts for the first time and they did exceptionally well. Racheva (2017) defines virtual learning as “distance learning conducted in a virtual learning environment with electronic study content designed for self-paced (asynchronous) or live web-conferencing (synchronous) online teaching and tutoring”. (Figure 1).

     

Figure 1 - Class Online Site

Daily turnout on average was around 12-14 learners out of 26. Some whanau also joined in now and then which made the 30 minute sessions interesting. The reason for such low numbers were: few learners didn’t have access to the internet, three never had devices, some were sharing with other siblings, few not so concerned or were unaware about the sessions as there was no way I was able to contact the parents.

Now the challenge was engaging learners. Ministry of Education (2017) talks about Cognitive, Behavioural and Emotional engagement. I wanted all of these three to engage my learners whether they were Māori, Pasifika students or from any other cultural background. For that I utilised 21st Century Learning Design Rubrics from ITL Research which are Collaboration, Knowledge construction, Self-regulation, Real-world problems/ innovations, ICT for learning and Skilled Communication (Figure 2). The 21st Century skills are necessary for students and teachers because it helps “educators identify and understand the opportunities that learning activities give students to build 21st century skills” (ITL Research, 2012). I included activities for learners to do as part of their school-related work which was either asynchronous or synchronous and few involved whanau.

Figure 2 - 21st Century (ITL) Skills

Amidst the lockdown the principal had to reshuffle the classes because of the two pregnant teachers, since they were asked to stay home. So I ended up having 14 new learners from another class whom I never taught this year. I never got a chance to form any relationship, I still don’t know them well and they might be having the same feeling.

During online sessions I noticed that learners were shy to greet each other especially from another class, there was lack of discussion as they were able to see each other on the screen, could be because of recording, lack of confidence or maybe the surrounding they were in. However, our school is a digital school so accessing various sites or activities was easy for our learners and they displayed that very well while on their devices. 

The learners followed given instructions and behaved well. I overtook the lessons since I did most of the talking. Teaching was happening but not in depth use of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Figure 2. TPACK is a framework for teachers developed by Koehler and Mishra (2009) that identifies the different aspects of knowledge needed to learn effectively with technology (Figure 3).

 Figure 3 - TPACK Model

The activities I assigned digitally learners were not able to utilise Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) developed by Ruben Puentedura (Figure 4). According to TKI (MoE. n.d.) SAMR offers a method of seeing how computer technology might impact teaching and learning. Being away from classroom teaching I was not able to see and follow the progress through teaching and learning with technology. This is because apart from eight learners others needed reminders to go to the redefinition stage and few were reluctant.

Figure 4 - SAMR Model

The Ministry of Education has solved the biggest problem by letting learners have their devices and providing internet services so learners can have digital and collaborative learning. Despite sending messages on Class Dojo (teacher) and SchoolLoop (principal) I figured out that by providing whanau with my mobile number they were quick to respond mainly via text messages. 

For me it means I have to continue using my 21st Century Skills that ITL (Innovative Teaching and Learning Research) decided were most important for students and teachers. Keeping in mind that somehow I have to engage all my Year 4 learners digitally in a lockdown situation. The ministry has done its part and our school staff, including me, are doing best for all our learners. At the moment I need to continue engaging my learners digitally utilising TPACK so they can use SAMR and build on or gain new knowledge.

Reference:

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

Jantjies, M. (2020). Kids can keep learning even during a lockdown. Here’s how. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/kids-can-keep-learning-even-during-a-lockdown-heres-how-134434

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/29544/article_29544.pdf

Ministry of Education (2017) http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Teaching-as-inquiry/Student-engagement

MoE. (n.d.).Using the SAMR model. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Teacher-inquiry/SAMR-model

(n.a). (2020). Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/lockdown

Puentedura, R. (2010). SAMR and TPCK: Intro to advanced practice. Retrieved from http://hippasus.com/resources/sweden2010/SAMR_TPCK_IntroToAdvancedPractice.pdf.

Racheva, V. (2017). What is virtual learning? https://www.vedamo.com/knowledge/what-is-virtual-learning/

The Guardian (2020). Support the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/kiwis-go-home-new-zealand-to-go-into-month-long-lockdown-to-fight-coronavirus

TKI. Using the SAMR model. (https://www.google.com/search?q=tpack&oq=TPACK&aqs=chrome.0.0l8.2317j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on).