Remote learning in the time of crisis education

As millions of schoolchildren — and their parents — knuckle down to home schooling, Dorothy Lepkowska, EDUCATE’s communication lead, looks at the advice for schools and teachers on how to set work and what the expectations should be.

All over the country teachers, pupils and parents find themselves in an unprecedented situation. Parents are being expected to provide some form of home tuition, under the expert guidance of schools, which are still facing the challenges of opening for the children of frontline workers. What could possibly go wrong?

The first thing to do, is not to panic. While school closures have been timed to connect seamlessly into the Easter holiday, there is a strong possibility that schools will be shut well beyond the Spring break. This is a marathon and not a sprint, and the chances are that we are all in it for a longer haul.

Schools appear to have taken various approaches to setting work for students to do at home, ranging from setting work daily that can be downloaded and printed out as worksheets, to organising a time-table resembling that of a typical school day, to using digital conferencing platforms for face to face interactions between the teacher and students.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association for School and College Leaders, said schools needed to approach the organisation of home-based and in-school learning, in three phases.

“In Phase 1 we need to get ourselves to Easter and provide some semblance of education for two groups of pupils: the children of key workers and ‘vulnerable’ pupils. The latter include the children of key workers, as well as those with Education, Health and Care Plans, who receive free school meals, who have special needs, and those who you would worry about leaving in their homes for days and weeks on end.”

Mr Barton said phase 2 might involve keeping provision going over Easter, which was “wholly uncharted territory” and schools would need to be mindful of the respite both staff and students would need at this time. Phase 3, which will come after Easter, would see the need to develop “a more joined-up form of provision, with collaboration across schools and colleges, strategically deploying teachers, teaching assistants and other staff with a programme of learning that we’ve had more time to plan.

“If that sounds vague, it’s because it is. But my guess is that local headteacher groups, or their existing locality partnerships, will try to work together to create a sustainable service for children and young people.”

Technology has huge possibilities for aiding home learning, and hundreds of tech companies have offered their resources and services free of charge for the duration of the shutdown. These include school VLEs and school apps on to which work is set and can be submitted, to engaging “whizz-bang” tools that offer learning through games, quizzes and simple experiments and can be accessed on home devices.

“Over-reliance on technology can disadvantage young people who come from less well-off backgrounds.”

Learners’ access to this myriad of EdTech resources will vary, however, and schools need to be mindful of what is possible. Rose Luckin, professor of learner centred design at the UCL Knowledge Lab and founding director of EDUCATE, the global digital accelerator for EdTech companies, urged caution.

She said: “There are great things that can be done with technology, especially that driven by artificial intelligence, which can provide engaging individualised education for students of all ages.

“However, not every area of the country has stable and reliable broadband connectivity, and the availability of laptop, desktop and smart devices care also vary from one home to another. Over-reliance on technology can disadvantage young people who come from less well-off backgrounds. Furthermore, schools — especially primaries — may also not have the technical support to make this work effectively.

“So, schools need to think carefully about relying too much on these tools.”

Peter Taylor, deputy head for teaching, learning and CPD at Levenshulme High School, in Manchester, said the school was mindful of finding “a model of equity that works for who should be here in person, and who should work remotely”.

“Our VLE has always been a key teaching and learning tool and continues to be that,” he said. “We have been working hard to upload further and accessible content but have stressed also the importance of ‘instructional teacher’ guidance and to consider the way in which we can evolve/develop as we go through this phase the use of technology, for example, using video blogs to accompany content as another level of guidance for students.

“We will be adding a well-being area to the VLE to support students and family alongside learning, with apps that offer help and support in these circumstances.”

“learning online and independently is a skill that children and young people will not learn overnight.”

Mr Taylor said one of the challenges was to ensure that vulnerable children, who did not fall into the official categories of needing to be at school, were catered for in terms of access to services and home visits as a way of support.

Former teacher Prof Helena Gillespie, an online educator at the University of East Anglia, said schools needed to be mindful that learning online and independently was a skill that children and young people would not learn overnight.

She said that offering “small, bite-sized” pieces of work were ideal for primary pupils to take around half an hour, up to a total of two hours work during the day.

For all students “it’s best to try to get into a routine for everyone as soon as possible” and not to expect children and young people to “do a full school day of learning independently”. And not all children would have a conducive environment at home and might be sharing space with home-working parents and siblings of different ages.

Schools also needed to remember that many parents were having to manage working from home, with helping and supporting their children with their schoolwork. Young people also needed time to keep in touch with their friends, via platforms such as Zoom or Facetime, and it was an opportunity to spend time doing arts and crafts, cooking and learning life skills from their parents.

Sue Cowley, a teacher trainer and author of Road School: Learning through Exploration and Experience, said: “Some parents will appreciate a routine, and by all means send out a timetable and offer them resources and/or lessons, but bear in mind that other parents will not have the capacity to cope with insisting that their children do work just at this moment. Make it clear that everything you send home is completely optional and is an offer of help rather than in any way compulsory.

“It will do children absolutely no harm to direct their own learning for a while. We need to get our priorities in order. It’s essential that we do not put additional pressure on families, just because we feel like we should be doing something. It will not be sustainable either for families or for teachers to try and achieve ‘school but at home’. Most parents will be perfectly able to figure out what their own children need at this difficult time. Pause, go slow, take a deep breath, and help them stay calm.”

How schools can advise parents who feel out of their depth

The uncertainty that marked the week prior to the government’s decision to shut down schools, and the measures heads and governors needed to take to prepare for that eventuality, means that most will have had little chance to consult with parents about how best they can support their parents during this time. They might now find families are contacting them for advice and guidance.

“‘Every family will have to find its own rhythm, and this might take a couple of weeks. There shouldn’t be any pressure for them to “get it right” from the start.’”

Ellie Bedford, who lives in who has home-educated her daughters, aged 11 and 13, from the start of their school lives, said: “Every family is different and some work better with routine, while other will need to be more fluid because of their circumstances. Every family will have to find its own rhythm, and this might take a couple of weeks. There shouldn’t be any pressure for them to “get it right” from the start.

“It will also take children a while to get used to being in a non-institutional setting, but this should get easier in time. It is a huge shift in dynamics for everybody.”

Ms Bedford urged schools to be cautious of trying to replicate a school timetable for home. “It’s not realistic to aim for a 9am-3pm school schedule,” she said. “There are no distractions at home, no moving from classroom to classroom or waiting for the teacher to come around to the child if they need help. You have more time to help them directly. A full day’s work can be achieved in just a couple of hours.

“Lots of families do well with little routine but might like some structured work from the school to do in the morning, leaving afternoons free for creative time and children to pursue their own interests.”

Indulging children’s own interests, for example by setting a choice of themed or project work, is less likely to need heavy input from parents or carers. “It’s a good opportunity to encourage self-learning. It is amazing what young people can do, without help and heavy input, if they have an interest in something. They quickly and naturally become independent learners.

“It also a great opportunity to explore the arts, learn an instrument, learn to sew or bake, using YouTube. All of this counts as education and helps to foster a love of learning.”

Author: Dorothy Lepkowska, Communications Lead

A version of this article was originally published by SecEd on March 25, 2020.