As the federal government continues to recommend that Canadians stay at home during the COVID-19 crisis, students across the country are trying to adjust to their new distance learning situation. For many teens, the past few weeks have been overwhelming. How can teachers and parents/caregivers help them navigate this stressful time? To start, we can be supportive and positive. We can show empathy and perspective. To help teens stay engaged and motivated to learn at home, we can use the educational technology available to us in a thoughtful and innovative manner.

Most teens are experiencing high levels of stress trying to manage distance learning during the COVID-19 crisis.

How Much Online Learning Is Required?

It depends on each province’s mandate. Ontario’s Ministry of Education, for example, has set guidelines for the number of hours students should spend learning at home:

• Kindergarten–Grade 6 → 5 hours per week, or 1 hour each day

• Grades 7 and 8 → 10 hours per week

• Grades 9–12 → 3 hours per week for each semestered course and 1 hour per week for each year-long course

These hours may not seem like a lot compared to regular in-school hours. However, teens may get easily overwhelmed as they’re trying to learn new technology during self-isolation and keep their anxiety in check. They aren’t able to ask teachers or classmates a quick question in real-time. Their parents may be busy trying to meet their own deadlines while working from home. Teens may be dealing with non-school issues, too, such as having a part-time, public-facing job or worrying about a parent who’s a healthcare worker. A teen’s mental health is vulnerable right now. As Erica Potter, a drama teacher at Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School, says in an Ottawa Citizen online article:

“ …we know that our students are probably having a real tough time as well, and we don’t want to create any additional stress that they might be feeling. Hopefully, having school, and teachers, it will bring back a bit of a sense of routine, but we’ll tread very lightly because everybody is in a different situation.”

Erica Potter
Drama Teacher at Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School

Getting Creative with Online Learning

Since teachers aren’t in classrooms with their students, they’ll need to think outside the box when delivering lessons. Below are a few ways to get creative and innovative with online learning (and still meet curriculum expectations) while the physical distancing order is in place.

1. School Talent Shows 

In-person talent shows have been cancelled. What happens to students who would have participated and been graded on their performance? Try hosting the show online. Encourage students to post a video of their performance on Instagram. Or host a live talent show on Google Hangouts and invite students and parents/caregivers to offer support.

2. Field Trips

Along with so many other public events, school field trips have been cancelled. With Live Learning Canada, teachers and students can take fascinating virtual field trips to museums, zoos, concerts, historical sites, laboratories, and more. Subject matter experts deliver the interactive lessons that feature destinations from around the world.

With Live Learning Canada, students and teachers can take a virtual field trip to destinations around the world, such as this live concert. (Source: https://livelearningcanada.com/live_streaming.html at 15 sec mark.)

Communicating with Students and Parents/Caregivers

It’s important for teachers to keep in regular contact with students and parents/caregivers during this unprecedented time. Try to check in often—ask how they’re doing and how their online learning is going. Encourage feedback on your lessons and show you’re there to support them. These days, teachers are getting quite innovative in the ways they choose to communicate. One user-friendly option is the Edwin Ecosystem, a resource that school boards across the country have free access to until June 30. It can be used to easily integrate various communication and education apps, such as Google Classroom, Google Meet, Edsby, Pear Deck, and We Video. Simon Flint, an educator and member of the Edwin Classroom Success Team, describes in the video below how he uses Edwin Collections to communicate with students and build online resources.

Sample screen of Simon Flint’s Edwin Collections. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=P1o3isSC6R0&feature=emb_title at 3:34 minutes.)

More Apps to Help with Remote Learning and Staying Connected

Below is a short list of other digital resources that could prove helpful as you navigate this uncharted territory of 100% learning at home—and teaching at home.

• Kahoot! is a popular platform where teachers create multiple choice quizzes that students answer on their tablets or computers.

• Knowledgehook is an interactive math platform that provides diagnostic assessments and sends feedback about a student’s progress to teachers and caregivers.

• ClassFlow enables teachers to create engaging, multimedia lessons that they can share with students via various digital devices (e.g., tablets or smartphones).

• Classcraft is a story driven role-play gaming software that teachers and students can use together.

• Canvas enables students to submit assignments, view their grades, and explore course content. Students and teachers send and receive messages and contribute to discussion boards.

Additional Help for Students

Many teens are experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety as they try to tackle online learning and deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Besides providing support and empathy, what else can teachers do? Try holding a Daily Pep Talk (live stream or recorded). You could also work with your staff to create a collective video to demonstrate that you are still a community, and that everyone is working together to help each other get through this crisis. Teachers at Stratford Elementary School in Prince Edward Island put together a video to say how much they miss their students, and also show them what life is like in their own homes:

Suggest to parents and caregivers that they watch your Daily Pep Talk with their child. It could be a good way to show their support during this difficult and stressful time.

. . . . .

Managing distance learning during the COVID-19 crisis can be overwhelming for everyone at times. But if we work together to keep teens engaged and motivated—while also considering their mental health and well-being—we will get through this. Please share your experiences in the comments section. Thank you, and stay safe!

REFERENCES

Miller, Jacquie.
“Two million elementary, secondary Ontario students head back to school — online.” Ottawa Citizen, April 6, 2020. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/two-million-elementary-secondary-ontario-students-head-back-to-school-online/

As the world grapples with the Coronavirus pandemic, educators are forced to rethink how they can connect with students who are now learning at home. Students across the country are forced to rethink how they learn as online learning becomes their only option. Many students don’t have reliable Internet access or the necessary digital devices, which is forcing school boards to think outside the box. It may not be smooth at first, but we will all adjust as social distancing measures are mandated from coast to coast for the time being.

Teachers and students are quickly learning how to adjust to a new normal for the remainder of the school year due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

How Can Educators, Students, and Caregivers Cope?

In a word? Together. Whether in elementary or high school, one hundred percent online learning is new for teachers and students alike. There will be bumps, but we’ll manage if we keep the lines of communication open. It’s important for educators to relay to parents and caregivers that they should not stress about becoming teachers themselves. Parents and caregivers need to monitor how much time their child spends online so as not to overwhelm them. Children should go online each day to find out what is expected of them, spend time completing required assignments, and then get back to family activities, such as playing games, watching movies, and baking.

“There’s really no expectation [that] overnight, parents are going to morph into teachers. Don’t put that pressure on yourself.”

Kate Winn
Education expert, teacher and parent to two daughters in Grades 6 and 8
from an article on Global News

It’s important for families to spend time together and do activities.

What Digital Resources Should I Use?

With so many digital tools available, it can be overwhelming to figure out the right education technology for your needs and the needs of those in your community. It’s also impossible to make the transfer from a face-to-face classroom experience to a complete online classroom experience—in a matter of weeks—without a few hiccups! Having said this, there are two superior digital resources worth considering: Pear Deck and WeVideo.

Remote Learning with Pear Deck 

Many educators across all disciplines are using Pear Deck to create engaging, media-rich lessons that students can participate in—either in a group or individually—while learning at home. Pear Deck integrates with tools that most teachers already use, such as Google Slides and Microsoft. You can insert text, images, and drawings into ready-made slide templates. (Hint: you can also add or delete text, or images, to the template.) You can include questions about the content of each slide and ask students to respond in a variety of ways: typing in a text or number response, dragging and dropping, choosing from multiple answers, or sketching an answer.

By creating online lessons in Pear Deck, teachers can assess students’ understanding with different types of questions, such as multiple choice.

You can view your lesson in Teacher or Student mode. In Student Mode, you can go through the lesson as a student, answer the questions, and then use this as your answer key. In Teacher Mode, you can see which students are answering which slides. (Hint: you can have two browser tabs open and be logged in as a student and a teacher.)

We recommend turning on an excellent feature called “Student-Paced Mode,” which allows students to go through the lesson at their own pace. You can also publish Pear Deck Takeaways—a record of each student’s work. You can leave comments in the document for students to review and respond to, as well as share it with parents and caregivers so they have an idea of how their child is doing. To discover more about how to use Pear Deck for online learning, visit Resources for Distance Learning on Pear Deck’s website.

Students Can Get Creative with WeVideo 

WeVideo is an online video editor that millions of students are using around the world. The Education platform enables them to creatively communicate their ideas using the editor’s massive library of templates, images, audio and video clips, backgrounds, and sound effects. They can write text and captions, import files, and record voice overs for their videos. The interface is easy-to-use and there are several tutorials to help students get started.

Students can use WeVideo’s huge library of templates, images, audio and video clips, backgrounds, and sound effects to make engaging online presentations.

Below are short examples of how students—and teachers—are using WeVideo:

• Book Talks: A teacher and two students discuss a picture book—and the teacher hilariously disappears into the story.

• Science Videos: A student created this informative video about Earth’s Connected Ecosystems using video clips, text, photos, and music.

• Historical Documentaries: To explain their understanding of an historical event, a student uses voice-over as she writes text and draws sketches on a whiteboard. (Humour included!)

You can also encourage students to use WeVideo to create podcasts, a video scavenger hunt, game shows, and stop motion/Claymation. To show your students that you’re embracing the medium, too, you may want to try creating and sharing your traditional learning resources in WeVideo. WeVideo has put together ideas on how you can incorporate the following lesson elements into your class’s online learning: Learning Objectives, Prior Knowledge, Academic Vocabulary, Questioning, Modeling, Closure, Assessment, and Independent Practice. 

. . . . .

Offering online learning support so students can learn at home is a new concept for most teachers, students, and parents/guardians. We understand that it may seem overwhelming. We are here to help support you. You can do this!

We want to thank educators everywhere for helping to ease students into learning at home as they embark on this new online learning journey during this unprecedented time in history. Stay home and stay safe.

REFERENCES

Collie, Meghan.
“Coronavirus: Parents don’t have to be teachers, but learning doesn’t have to stop.” Global News, March 18, 2020. https://globalnews.ca/news/6694643/coronavirus-homeschool-kids/

Lang-Raad, Dr. Nathan.
“Learning resources to make online learning successful.” WeVideo Blog, March 11, 2020. https://www.wevideo.com/blog/for-schools/learning-resources-to-make-online-learning-successful

On January 15, 2020 in Halifax, N.S., Nelson announced its partnership with Mount Saint Vincent University’s Faculty of Education to deliver Edwin, the digital learning ecosystem to all MSVU undergraduate and graduate Education students. This partnership continues an Edwin Pilot Program which has already delivered nearly 3,000 Edwin devices to Nova Scotia Grade 6 students.

Dr. Antony Card, Dean of Education at MSVU, welcomed Cathy Montreuil, Deputy Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, and Nelson CEO Steve Brown to a panel of educators who are using Edwin to level the learning playing field. Each shared insights about what this newfound equality in the classroom can do…

“So socioeconomics should never be a barrier to education. Education is a right.”

Steve Brown
Nelson CEO

“I often remind people, in education when we start arguing ‘this, or this…’ and turn things into dichotomies, we’re wrong. This isn’t about ‘technology or paper.’ It’s about both.”

Cathy Montreuil
Deputy Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development

“Edwin does things differently so that our teachers can do different things.”

Al Reyner
Instructor and Edwin Pilot Lead, Mount Saint Vincent University

Talk to us about how to initiate an Edwin Pilot Program, and what it can do to transform your classroom.

A topic that’s been in the spotlight lately is diversity in the classroom. More and more, educators are expected to teach a room full of students—all with different personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles—and ensure that each student feels included, understood, valued, and respected. Is it possible to successfully create an inclusive classroom learning environment?

We rolled up our sleeves, combed through research articles, brainstormed and came up with several ideas we’d like to share, including ways educational technology can help foster an inclusive classroom learning environment.

The Inclusive Classroom

1. Recognize that Diversity Exists in the Classroom

It goes without saying that it’s important to recognize that each classroom student is a unique individual who learns differently and at their own pace. But it’s not only learning styles that may vary among students. Your classroom is likely to be made up of learners with different ethnicities and religions, and who come from homes with varying household incomes. Recognizing that student diversity exists is the first step towards fostering an inclusive classroom learning environment.

2. Encourage Discussions About Diversity

Give students the opportunity to share who they are and what they feel makes them unique. It can be as simple as setting up an activity where one student interviews another. They can ask questions about the student’s family culture, home language, stories, and traditional foods, clothing, and music. If a student speaks a different language at home, encourage them to teach their classmates a few basic phrases, such as, “Hello” or “How are you?” or “Thank you!” Learning a new word or phrase in a different language each day will help foster a feeling of inclusion for everyone in the classroom.

Encouraging an open dialogue about diversity in your classroom helps to promote acceptance, and according to the Scientific American  article How Diversity Makes Us Smarter, people think harder and are more creative when they’re in a diverse group:

“Decades of research by organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers show that socially diverse groups (that is, those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogeneous groups.”

3. Mix Up Teaching Styles

As mentioned earlier, students generally learn differently and at their own pace. Some are adept at gleaning information from a book or online article. Others prefer to digest information via images, instructions, and diagrams. Still others retain information better through listening or doing.

How can you appeal to each student? If you’re teaching one of Shakespeare’s plays, for example, you could provide the following options to your students: read the original text; look at artwork or a graphic novel; listen to a recording; or act out scenes with other classmates. Doing this gives students the chance to learn in the way that’s best for them and demonstrates to other students that there are different ways of learning.

4. Use Diverse Teaching Materials

Whose voices are being represented in your teaching materials? Use materials that feature a broad range of perspectives. Include authors of colour, different genders, nationalities, and age. Choose authors who speak different languages and who have varied upbringings. Presenting a variety of stories shows students that every voice counts and that every voice matters.

How Educational Technology Can Help

1. Provides Access for All

Technology improves equality in learning. If students use computers in the classroom or library, they have access to digital resources curated by educators. Technology in the classroom can help bridge the digital divide of students from low-, middle-, or high-income families. All students can become familiar with the technology that will help them succeed outside the classroom.

Digital divide
the economic, educational, and social inequalities between those who have computers and online access and those who do not

Students working together on multiple devices.

2. Breaks Down Language Barriers 

There are many digital programs that can translate words on a web page into the language of your students’ choice. These programs are especially helpful for ESL students or students with parents whose first language is not English, for example.

3. Encourages Different Ways of Learning

Educational technology offers students the opportunity to learn their own way. They can read articles, watch videos, listen to interviews, or take quizzes and participate in online discussions about a topic.

A student listening to an e-book.

4. Presents Different Perspectives 

The Internet is a vast resource of information brimming with a multitude of perspectives. With educational technology at their fingertips, students can safely research a given topic, such as the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, from varying perspectives. Through online articles, personal accounts, diaries, letters, quotations and videos, students can consider the perspective of vested parties, such as the federal government, Indigenous peoples, and immigrant workers from China.

5. Allows for Individual Thought 

A student researching a topic online by themselves is able to form their own conclusions. They have time to think critically about the information they’re reviewing without being influenced by other students. When asked for their thoughts during a class discussion, they are more likely to present their own opinions because they have not been affected by “groupthink.” As defined in this article  on MiddleWeb, groupthink happens when…

“…people are afraid of the consequences of sharing their real thoughts and feelings. When this happens and people withhold their ideas, there is a danger that the decision won’t be the best one or the most innovative or creative. It also indicates a low level of trust in the group and a fear of conflict. People start to feel that it’s better to be quiet, go with the flow, and not challenge each other.”

Student studies while at home.

How do you address diversity in the classroom with your students? How do you use educational technology to foster an inclusive classroom learning environment? Do you have any tips on classroom management that work for you? Please share your experiences in the comments section.

REFERENCES

Phillips, Katherine W.
“How Diversity Makes Us Smarter.” Scientific American, 2014. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/

Aguilar, Elena.
“Leading Teams: How to Avoid “Groupthink”.” Middleweb, 2016. https://www.middleweb.com/29414/leading-teams-how-to-avoid-groupthink/

Elrick, Lauren.
“4 Types of Learning Styles: How to Accomidate a Diverse Group of Students.” Rasmussen College, 2018. http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/types-of-learning-styles/

In our first article for the professional learning community, we’re excited to share our thoughts and ideas about all things edtech with you. Together, we can ponder the future of education, and hear your thoughts on teaching strategies, student engagement, classroom equity, digital solutions, and so much more.

Many of us can remember a time before the Internet when we didn’t have a vast collection of knowledge at our fingertips. Today’s students, though? They were born into a digital world with the ability to access information from the World Wide Web every second of every day from anywhere. We’ve watched students use their tablets, laptops, and smartphones to read articles, watch videos, play games, create stories, socialize with friends, and yes, to learn. There’s no denying it, the Internet has transformed—and continues to transform—education for students and teachers.

Access for Everyone

The Internet has the ability to equalize learning for all students around the world. It doesn’t matter if they live in an urban area or a rural community, or if their household income is high or low. All students can participate in the same multimedia lessons on cell division, quadratic equations, or the history of Canada—many of which have been created by educators to meet curriculum learning outcomes.

Teacher and students working and collaborating.

In the past five years alone, online learning has exploded with thousands of educational videos appearing on sites like YouTube and Khan Academy. Wikipedia is also getting into the moving pictures business, giving users the ability to upload their own videos on a subject. It’s incredible that students can choose from such an immense library of online videos, but what’s most important is the need for high-quality, vetted content linked to curriculum.

Collaboration and Communication

Online learning can increase collaboration between educators and students as well as students and peers. Your class can use wikis and cloud-based apps to share information they’ve discovered, post comments and questions, upload assignments, and reflect on their learning. As well, group work can take place outside the classroom, virtually. Distance, or the inability to physically get together after school, is no longer a barrier to collaborative work.

High school students working remotely on an assignment.

As Neil Selwyn, a professor in the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, states in the article “The Internet and Education” on OpenMind:

“The participatory, communal nature of many social Internet applications and activities is aligned closely with the fundamental qualities of how humans learn, not least the practices of creating, sharing, collaborating, and critiquing.”

Connectivity

Because the Internet connects people from around the globe, students have access to knowledge and experiences outside their geographical location. As described in Purdue University’s article “How Has Technology Changed Education?”:

“Students in a classroom in the rural U.S., for example, can learn about the Arctic by following the expedition of a team of scientists in the region, read scientists’ blog posting, view photos, e-mail questions to the scientists, and even talk live with the scientists via a videoconference. Students can share what they are learning with students in other classrooms in other states who are tracking the same expedition.”

They can then bring this new knowledge back to their classroom and discuss their understanding in small groups.

Personalization

In a traditional classroom, teachers decide how to deliver curriculum content, which often includes lecturing, photocopied handouts, and notes on the board. These methods are still very popular and useful. However, when students go online, they have the opportunity to personalize their learning in a way that works best for them. From our experience, what works best is when students use online tools that have been created specifically with the learner and educator in mind. Students can explore curricular content and dive deep into topics that pique their curiosity. They can then bring what they’ve discovered back into the classroom and share their ideas with their teacher and other students.

Educators and the Internet

While the Internet is transforming how students learn, it is also influencing the professional development of educators. For example, if you really want to attend that science seminar being held in Nova Scotia, but you live in Manitoba, distance is no longer a roadblock. You can still participate—thanks to live and recorded webinars.

The Internet is also a hub for educators to connect and collaborate with each other. Online teaching communities, such as The Edwin PLC for Teachers, give you the opportunity to ask questions, find answers, and share ideas and best practices. Many online communities also encourage teachers to upload resources they created for their classrooms.

Educator attends live webinar.

This article has barely scratched the surface of the World Wide Web’s impact on educators and students. We’d like to know what you think about online learning in your classroom. Does it enhance student engagement? How? Tell us your thoughts and experiences in the comments section. Share this article with your fellow educators! We’ll keep busy creating content for you— our creative, dedicated Professional Learning Community—so stay tuned for more.

REFERENCES

Selwyn, Neil.
“The Internet and Education.” In Change: 19 Key Essays on How the Internet Is Changing Our Lives. Madrid: BBVA, 2013.

Purdue University.
“How Has Technology Changed Education?” https://online.purdue.edu/blog/how-has-technology-changed-education

Courage and trust level the playing field

The very first Edwin Classrooms discovered that a digital learning platform could empower the core practice of teaching, and educator Kate Pellerin of Riverside P.S. reminds us that Edwin “takes some of that management side of teaching and lets me focus on a lot more of that connection side.”

Now, St. Julia Catholic Elementary becomes the first school in the Dufferin-Peel board to adopt the Edwin Pilot Program, and they welcome us to Mississauga to witness how Edwin is already transforming classrooms today. Educator Karla Cinapri encourages educators to “put your own fears aside,” and let students benefit from the additional responsibility and seamless collaboration.

While Edwin has strengthened student voice and choice, St. Julia Principal Brian Diogo notes the courage it takes allow a one-to-one classroom become a two-way street:

For us as educators to allow our fears to prevent us from providing these kids with the things that are so natural to them is not fair. We have to have a bit of courage. And we have to figure out that these kids are going to teach us.

The Edwin Impact Forum brought together ministries, boards, & districts from across Canada join in to share how Edwin is transforming their classrooms. Edwin is readying our kids for the future through a platform that promotes inquiry & equity for all.