Blended Learning

Blended Learning Resources

This is a collection of blended learning resources and ideas to assist teachers.

St Colmcille's CS Blended Learning Policy

Our blended learning policy grew out of a consultation process with staff, students and parents in Sept-Oct 2020. We also worked in conjunction with a research group set up by the ACCS to learn from the experiences of other schools. The policy aims to provide a whole school approach to the at 3 key scenarios that could occur:

The Blended Learning Policy also looks at the most effective ways we can support the continuity of effective student learning based on what we have learned during the school closure in March - May 2020.

Online Class Planners

To assist students working from home while their movements are restricted, it is important to for them to be able to find out what has happened in the class. One way to do this efficiently is to make your class planner a shared document or publish it to the web. Here we look at two examples using Google Docs and Google Sheets.

Google Docs

A good option if you're more comfortable with MS Word or Google Docs. 

Google Sheets

A good option if you're comfortable with spreadsheets.

Tip: It can be easier to share by using the "publish to web" option and sharing the web link.

Accessing your planners

One of the easiest ways to access your planners on a PC or Mac is to make a bookmark folder in your bookmark bar. 

Full details here.

Pre-recorded Lessons

Pre-recorded lessons were the highest rated teaching tool by students in our surveys. These can take a variety of different forms and we explore some examples below. Students felt that a short pre-recorded lesson combined with a self-directed assignment was a very effective combination.

Screen recording using an ebook

In this example, the teacher uses the ebook resources to illustrate a maths concept on the computer, her voice explaining the concept is captured by the screen recording software.

In this example, the teacher brings variety to the student learning by asking the students to pause the video at and complete some practice questions on their own. You can see this at 08:16.

Screen recording using a PowerPoint

In this example the teacher talks through a PowerPoint presentation. Students rated this as much more effective than simply giving them the presentation to read. Some nice touches include clear learning intentions (01:00) and posing questions for the viewers and pausing to encourage them to actively engage in the lesson (01:30).

Recording a solution on your phone

Sometimes it's easiest to work off a sheet of paper and just record this on your phone. A gooseneck phone holder is an excellent tool for this, there are many options including this one. 

A top tip for this is to lock the focus of your phone camera so that you hand movement doesn't cause the focus to keep adjusting. 

This video was shot on a very standard phone and then uploaded directly to YouTube. 

Using Showme

A maths lesson done on the showme app on an iPad with a stylus pen.

Creative Project Ideas

Projects can also work very well for remote teaching and help develop key skills that are harder to explore in individual lessons. Here are some examples that have worked well. 

1st History - Build a Model of a Medieval Castle

This is a first year history project on The Middle Ages. Students were asked to make a model of a medieval castle. They then had to video themselves describing the different features of the castle. I asked them to use the app iMovie so they could edit the video as they wished. The students then uploaded the video onto an assignment on Google classroom.

​I used the mote feature on Google classroom to give the students oral feedback on this project. 

1st Graphics - Design a Car Charger

This project ran over 4 lessons. The project was to design an electric car charger and the main learning aim was to explore freehand sketching skills. The full project outline was provided at the beginning but each lesson had a milestone and students had to submit this work, this was very useful in keeping everyone on track.  Between day 3 and 4, the students work was collated in one presentation so they could see everyone's work.

Students voted via Forms based on specific criteria to choose the best designs. This was to encourage reflection on their work and how to improve as well as celebrating their achievements. 

​Day 1 - Research ideas and assemble on a mood board

Day 2 - Sketch 2 draft designs

Day 3 - Choose a design and create a final sketch

Day 4 - Evaluate your classmates work and vote for the best work in different categories.

Feedback

Feedback is one of the most useful and yet most time-consuming aspects of remote teaching. In discussions with student focus groups in autumn 2020, students explained the difference between acknowledgement and feedback.  

Students felt that having their work acknowledged was absolutely crucial for all work submitted. It didn't matter if this was a single line or common to all students.  On the other hand, they felt that detailed feedback was very important for certain kinds of work. Students also commented that there were situations where detailed feedback was not required and the students felt that in those cases teacher time can sometimes be better spent on lesson creation.

Since March 2020, we have explored different ways to provide feedback to provide feedback on remote assignments. Here are two videos explaining the iPad stylus and Mote for voice feedback.

Useful links

PDST Post Primary Resources

​https://sites.google.com/pdst.ie/blended-learning/home

#edshareie

Here is the link to the secondary school padlet that lots of generous teachers across Twitter added to in March. ​

https://padlet.com/amanda_jolliffe2/o09qn0bdumf7