As promised, from April 13th, Luna is offering students who want to stay at home the opportunity to nevertheless join in with their class. We totally understand our students' & parents' concerns...and we also really understand that others really do need to get out of the house - which for now, is relatively safe here. We will provide our students with their classes 'live' online, as long as we have 24 hours' notice to do so - we found out today that we need a lot more preparation time & logistical care....a lot of things we cannot do at the last minute.
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| Cardboard box + Thomas track = cheapo interactive whiteboard! |
As long as needs be, we will provide this opt-out/stay-in service, and at no extra cost. We are sharing an audio of these classes via Edmodo, as well as other asynchronous homework tasks/games/projects and add ons.
We know an online class is no replacement for the flexibility & warmth of a a face-to-face class...we are going to find it really hard to replace game play for example...we will instead introduce a favourite free app & give our class members a challenge therein. We are lucky; most of our students have pretty good wi-fi, plenty of memory space on their smart phones/tablets, parental support. Chance to share/learn & extend everything we do and build on all the good ideas we've been having for years! It really strikes me that there is going to be such a conversation to have soon about digital poverty on top of actual financial poverty.
BIG moan I have now = why do publishers only produce large flashcards - back in the day, playing card size was the default & perfect for all manner of games, and cheaper/easier to manage. And now, would fit half a dozen under an iOS device >> be able to gamify.
Little other moan - I have to stop biting my fingernails!
Last moan - at Luna we only ever give students homework AFTER we have taught something, or occasionally in a flipped learning scenario as in "we'll be doing this next week"...what the hell have Japanese school teachers been doing since closure in March?
- Delivered or learned how to deliver a single class online? Been given training/log in/security training in how to do this?
- Mastered or even tried the #EdTech to deliver above?
- Written a single email or message to any student/class via any app/online learning system/LMS?
- Learned how to use/apply an app? Shared that/assignment within?
- Been given a budget to buy/master an app & enroll a class eg Class Dojo?
- Been allowed to take a PC/laptop home & do anything from there?
- Attended any webinar or used SMS to ++ on professional development?
- Figured out how to use/install a webcam/mic?
- Figured out how to connect their iOS device to an online meeting & share that screen?
- Justified the need to actually go to school when there are no kids there?
- Checked in on their students' mental well-being?
- Provided online homework (boring as all fuck that it is) provision?
I think I could go on...
My point really is, we will not be going back to school as usual. We won't at Luna, and as a parent I will not accept it at my children's schools. Will you?
