When Boris announced there would be a partial closure of schools, almost every one I knew jumped on the internet learning bandwagon. And, to be honest, there wasn't really a viable alternative that could be rolled out within the two days notice we'd been given. What school has enough textbooks to give every child their own copy? (Don't answer that, I don't want to know how the other half live).
I assumed a role that had never existed previously - I was now Director of Distance Learning for my department. It was my responsibility to make sure every single child had access to the resources. At this point (14 hours after the announcement) no one really knew what the closure was going to look like. We were told key worker's children would be in, but not what a key worker was. We'd been told vulnerable students would be in, but we'd already sent a lot of our vulnerable students home so they didn't get sick. It could very easily have been shambolic. Thankfully, my department are the Dream Team.
We got all the students into the computer rooms, rotating them each period over the remaining two days. I set up Google Classrooms for each year group and it was decided every child in, for example, year 8 would do exactly the same thing each week. Each member of the department would be responsible for one year group, and they would make sure the work was released for the week ahead on Monday, and the students would have until the following Monday to do it. (We reflected on this, and after Spring Break, moved to a system where they would be set work each day according to their regularly timetabled lessons - turns out people, regardless of age, find it very hard to structure their day when time no longer means anything).
Immediately, we hit problems:
"Sir, I don't know my password" "okay, password for what?" "for the computer" Oh. Off to SIMS we go, look it up, give it to the student, sorted.
"Miss, what's my email?" "I don't know your email, have you tried your username followed by @[school].org.uk?" "oh yeah, it works now".
"Sir, how do I save?"
"Miss, it wont open.
"Sir, It's not working"
"Miss, it wont let me"
"Sir - "
"Miss-"
It was incessant. These children, who grew up fully immersed in technology, couldn't use a computer properly. And I can't blame them. We all assumed that they could. Because, why wouldn't they? The majority of them have a phone in their pocket. Most, I'd say, have a games console at home, or a tablet, or both. We just assumed that they could use a computer. Only I don't think we ever really taught them how. It would be as if we took someone who commuted by bicycle and entered them in the Tour de France. I spoke with a colleague who teaches in a primary school and they told me about six-year-olds making movies on iPads, and eight-year-olds coding (which are both pretty cool) but very little about how to use a computer. How to utilize a search engine appropriately. How to troubleshoot when things go wrong. Now, I may be entirely wrong about what children learn about what used to be called ICT in primary, and I will admit that I don't know what the secondary computer science curriculum covers, but based on the children in front of me, something, somewhere, is going wrong.
To try to make the students a little more comfortable with the idea of distance learning, we set them a few simple tasks to help them get the feel for their new learning environment. At least we thought they were simple. Create a Google Doc. (Half the class opened Microsoft Word). Use a search engine to explain what this keyword means. (Not one child actually clicked through to read a webpage, they just copied and pasted the preview of the first site that came up. A lot of them even left in the "see more" link at the end.) Hand in your completed activity using the "hand in" button. (Cue 15 students asking how to hand it in.)
I wondered how much of the problem is that young people don't see technology as a place for learning. We've all seen how excitable they get when you take them to the computer room; is it because they know they can doss about a bit, watch a sneaky YouTube video, play a few rounds of an 8-bit fighting game against their mates, look up their ends on Google Streetview? I wondered if part of the solution was to help students see technology as a tool for learning, as well as a tool for entertainment and socializing.
As we move back into the classroom, we have to understand that nothing will be the same. We will need to bring technology into our classrooms. This is something that will cause a lot of the teachers I know a lot of pain! It is almost harder to get the teachers on board than it is to get the students. When we get back into our [regular] classrooms, I will be incorporating the use of laptops into my regular lessons. My students will be producing work digitally whilst in my physical classroom. This will give me the opportunity to teach them digital learning skills, but also help them to link the use of technology with learning. We need to teach students how to use technology to learn, because at the moment that's a skill that they are lacking. We wouldn't tolerate having students in our class who couldn't work out where to put their book when told to pack up, why do we tolerate having students who don't know how to submit work online? Whether you fully embrace the use of technology in the classroom, or if you prefer a more traditional approach to education, this is no longer something we can shy away from. We have to be ready in the event of another catastrophic event that forces the [partial] closure of schools - be that a continuation of this pandemic, or another pandemic, or a natural disaster, or even heaven-forbid, significantly increased terrorist activity. We cannot allow students, who have physical access to suitable devices, to be held back because we haven't taught them how to use them appropriately. (Ensuring all students have physical access to suitable devices is a whole 'nother kettle of fish).
The questions continued through the partial closure. They varied from the ever helpful "Sir, it doesn't work", to "It wont let me download it", to the perennial "Sir, what's my password?". I put lessons on YouTube, I sent out Loom links, but every solution created another problem. Ah well, at least it kept me busy...
Author's Note: This post is based purely on my observational experiences coordinating online learning for a single department in a single school in London. I'm sure that other schools, and even other departments have had different experiences, but I'm also sure that we can't be the only school where these issues have been raised.