Any IT/Digital Lead in a school will tell you how difficult it is to enact meaningful change. It’s not because of a lack of willingness and/or competence from staff but more due to the fact that digital skills are a long way down the list compared to the importance of English, Maths, Reading etc. Being given the odd staff meeting to highlight/discuss a digital strategy or run through an app/software is the best you can normally expect. Most of a school’s digital development occurs at break times or lunchtimes when there is a technical problem or you recommend using an application as a means to reducing workload. Staff tend to nod their heads, recognise the value in what you’re showing but generally stick to what they know best as they haven’t got the time, or patience, to try something new. Digital change tends to be slow and steady and never at the speed the IT/Digital Lead wants it to be. Nor is it ever fast enough to keep apace with the real world. After all, educators live in their own special bubble and rarely are they put at the forefront of society.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that.
For most teachers in the UK, the evening of Wednesday 18th March 2020 will be remembered as the day the profession entered the disaster movie equivalent of a ‘mass panic’. Boris Johnson had just announced that schools were to close for the foreseeable future and remote learning was now a ‘thing’. As most of us were running around like headless chickens wondering what on earth remote learning was and what it would look like, a school’s digital strategy now became a key focus. And with it came what all educators are renowned for: adaptability, flexibility, resilience and hard work. It’s part of an educator’s DNA and so the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t going to phase the profession. It was just something different, something that needed a bit of planning but ultimately something that best served the needs of our students. Almost immediately, all educators responded with a WW2 land army type attitude and put aside their own fears and indifference to technology and digital skills.
Ultimately, each school would end up doing things differently. It’s long been a frustration of mine that we all work in the same profession with the same goals for our students and the same national tests (Boo!) to contend with and yet, given that there are 20,832 (a lot I know, I checked) Primary schools in the UK, we appear to have 20,000+ different curriculums and ways to deal with things. But this time it was right. There wasn’t sneering coming from the academy down the road at the school that printed off hundreds of worksheets, bundled them into envelopes and then hand delivered them to their community. Likewise, there wasn’t a reverence and awe at those schools that jumped on to Zoom straight away to deliver live lessons. The digital divide, that we all knew about, was front and foremost at every schools’ pandemic response and they reacted accordingly.
What we did see, despite our different remote learning offerings, was a coordinated, committed and enthusiastic response. Staff did what they always did in a crisis (let’s face it there have been many), they rose to the occasion and continue to do so today as Lockdown 3.0 takes hold. Those same staff, who previously ‘feared’ technology or were afraid of breaking things, forgetting how to do things and wouldn’t/couldn’t ask for help were now at the front of the digital skills queue eager to learn how to use Google (other software providers are available) apps and tools to deliver content to our students. Likewise, other staff stood up to act as digital leads and provide support where needed. If someone needed a reminder on how to record a video or insert an image into a Google Doc then there was always someone to help them. Straight away, irrespective of whatever remote learning plan was offered, school staff were in it together and they were sponges when it came to learning new digital skills and apps/platforms.
In our school, as well as offering print resources, we immediately developed a Google Site to use as our Online Learning Portal. The great thing about Google Sites, although some staff may have initially disagreed, is the depth of digital skills it encompasses. You can simply add text boxes to add content or embed YouTube videos and a myriad of different document types. It’s perfectly set up for people of different technical abilities and you can use as much or as little as you like. This calmed that initial sense of panic and in record time we had, like other schools, put our classroom lessons online. Remote learning was now live and, although we were soon to be baffled by references to hybrid, asynchronous and synchronous learning, it worked for our students. No matter what route schools took they created a system that worked for their students and parents.
That aside, what emerged, and continues to thrive, is the desire to progress up that digital skills ladder and the groups and people that facilitated it. There are simply too many to mention and I apologise in advance to all those that I made use of that I now forget.
Let’s get the elephant out of the room by first mentioning the equally loved and loathed @OakNational which appeared out of nowhere to offer a bank of digital resources and lessons, designed and delivered by teachers. We’ve always been able to rely on BBC Bitesize and the pandemic proved no different. But it was the desire for some to offer free access to content that was previously behind a paywall that made a real difference. White Rose Maths, Zoom, Pear Deck and Google Meet , to name but a few, enabled schools to not only deliver high quality and engaging content but also to meet virtually with students and staff. Suddenly, ‘You’re On Mute’ and waving stupidly at the end of each lesson became the norm.
But the ability to signpost staff to other outside training was the biggest factor for me. Organisations such as @leoacademies (led by @TechMissC & @grahammacaulay) offered a range of online training on Google Tools, Seesaw, Choice Boards etc. Whereas @lgfl offered a range of online training on different learning platforms, Microsoft and Google, as well as many other things, ‘Nice & Slow’ training sessions from Short & Suite gave new learners a gradual introduction into a variety of digital tools. The excellent @CanopyCIC showcased how to use digital tools in each curriculum subject and education staff up and down the country could now participate in @CompatSch community meetings. Daily virtual staffrooms led by @C_learning_net and @paulmfarrell (they’ll be celebrating their 200th event on 25th Feb) gave everyone the opportunity to jump into a Google Meet and ask questions without fear and their 24hr Global Staffroom saw educators from around the world showcase their digital skills and how to use them in the classroom.
In short, teachers and leaders alike, consumed everything on offer and there was always a ‘beginners guide’ to a digital tool should anyone need it. There was something for everyone and there was always a recording to consume if time didn’t allow a live participation. Online PD became a daily ritual for most educators as they sought to improve their online delivery and offering to their students. Even if they didn’t have time to master it immediately, it opened doors to activities/approaches to use in the future. Schools and educators now became outward thinkers, collaborators and sharers of content and knowledge.
The emergence of @globalgeg and their inspirational leadership team of @abid_patel, @Steph_EdTech, @pertuzluisfer, @mrshowell24, @BonnieChelette and @LesleighAltmann quickly became an online phenomenon and resulted in the Google Junior Training Series, Beginners’ Guide To GSuite and the Google Educator Support Series. All of which, including the Google Classroom Video Series, provided video tutorials for teachers, parents and students alike. And thanks to GlobalGEG members such as @emmabpass and her excellent book The Hybrid Teacher: http://bit.ly/hybridteacher we now knew the difference between hybrid, asynchronous and synchronous learning! Wellbeing was a key focus too with the advent of the Global GEG Staffroom: Mental Health Matters (initially three times a week but now on Sundays at 8pm).
But it wasn’t just limited to that. Educators could now serve their own professional development needs instead of having to wait to be given the time out of the classroom. Be it, Google Certified Level 1 Bootcamps hosted by Global GEG or the many PD opportunities by the likes of EdPuzzle, WeVideo, Flipgrid or Kahoot. Thanks to @badgedtech and https://sites.google.com/view/badgedtech/ there was literally a place to find them all. Staff could now indulge their digital needs and gain recognition and rewards for it. From a personal perspective, it enabled me to become a Google Certified Trainer and participate in the first virtual Google Certified Innovator academy (#VIA20). Opportunities which I probably wouldn’t have had time for previously or even become aware of if it wasn’t for the connections I’d made online.
A number of providers like WeVideo, EdPuzzle, Loom and Screencastify offered free upgrades for educators and many still do. And we even managed to get some free devices from the Department of Education too…albeit mostly after schools had welcomed students back!
For those of us who had previously dabbled with Twitter once in a while, it now became a daily PD reference tool. For many it acted, and still does, as a form of instant messenger as questions are tweeted out and within minutes a myriad of responses are offered from one man and his dog or an edtech giant with 100k followers. Social media is often derided as a negative entity but Twitter, along with the thousands of Facebook edtech groups, has shown how worldwide collaboration and support can work successfully during a pandemic. But more importantly, it has removed barriers for many diving into this world for the first time. It’s not a cliche to say that everyone is welcomed and first time users can confidently ask questions and be supported. Likewise, the most experienced edtech enthusiasts are learners as well as contributors.
In short, educators have never worked harder or more consistently to serve the needs of their students. So in June/July 2020 when Lockdown 1.0 came to a close there was much hope for the future for digital skills in schools. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to do anything about it.
When Lockdown 3.0 (schools remained fully open during Lockdown 2.0) was announced, with less than 24hrs notice, the education sector simply shrugged its shoulders, rolled up its sleeves and said ‘Here we go again’. But we didn’t rest on our laurels, we strived to improve. Most schools now offered live lessons through Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom or Zoom and now the difference between asynchronous and synchronous learning came to the fore. We now knew where to go to find a suitable app or resource for a particular lesson, we had a bank of video tutorials we could watch to remind us about the features of Jamboard etc but more importantly we made connections online with other educators and facilitators. The kind of connections where you can just email or DM someone a tech question and guarantee to receive a quick answer. We’d long become familiar with the Chrome Web Store and knew which extensions and add-ons we could make use of to enhance an online activity or make a synchronous or asynchronous lesson that little bit more engaging.
Educators are no longer in the digital dark ages and just reliant on their IT/Digital Lead for personal and professional development. Not only have we adapted to online/remote learning but we’ve learnt to reinvent our teaching skills for the digital age and, dare I say it, I think we’ve done a great job of it. Our confidence and competence with digital skills have skyrocketed since that first panic set in on 18th March 2020. Don’t get me wrong, we know we face a huge uphill task to narrow the digital divide but, for once, there is a positive vibe around the future of technology in education and it’s one all educators deserve credit for.
Thank you so much to Stuart for his fantastic guest post today – I have definitely discovered a whole new host of technology that I know I can look into! I hope you all enjoyed exploring how our tech use can be adapted within the classroom after our experience of remote learning!
Emily x
Teaching Isn't B&W 