Corona was as sudden to Konnevesi as it was to the rest of the world even though the set-up for remote learning and teaching is at a good level in the Konnevesi municipality. There are equipment and resources for teachers, and they have been used for a long time to support teaching and learning. Many of the Konnevesi students are also experienced users of these systems and are familiar with them, for example Microsoft Teams and Office 365, the school website and many other applications that can now be utilized in remote teaching.
During the last month, a lot has been learned about remote teaching and how to support students in learning.
What can be done?
- Give easy instructions (step by step) on how students can use their own devices at home because at home, the set-up might not be as good as the one used at school
- Encourage teachers: you already have your teaching skills and your subject knowledge; it is just a question of bringing that to a new way of teaching online
- Show how to increase and encourage collaboration between students through online tools and enable students to work together in real time, which is very important at a time like this
- Give collegial support = sharing advice and ideas on teaching and learning and all the free material that is out there (e.g. useful online groups/sites on social media and excellent online resources)
- Explain how to produce e.g. a teaching video which students can watch again and again or how to record lessons. Using recordings allows students to control the pace of their learning and understanding. They can pause, take notes and think about what they have learned.
We are all learning; it will take time and some things will work and some things will not. Keep it simple and go easy on yourself.