How to Teach Remotely

“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”

- Mark Twain

Teachers around the world unexpectedly found themselves in the position of a plan for emergency remote instruction during the time of pandemic. With very less experience, scant knowledge and time scarcity to prepare and implement an effective remote teaching plan, educators rushed and tried all the best possible ways & techniques to impart learning.

Now still deep into this crisis and unpredictability, we are reflecting and planning for learning to happen continuously in online school even this year. This has brought about a 360 degree shift in the education paradigm in India - which is majorly focusing now on remote learning, hybrid model with the blended methodology of teaching.

Although there are inherent challenges to online learning, and we cannot replicate the offline schooling experience but the educators can use this unprecedented moment as an opportunity to learn how to use tools to develop students’ autonomy, build relevant 21st century skills, and to foster student creativity with technology. Educators can continue to create a structured, engaging, rigorous, community oriented learning experience when teaching remotely.

Some of the effective strategies to teach remotely is as follows-

#1: Set Up a Well-Organized Digital Classroom

Set up learning management system (LMS) such as Google Classroom. Digital classrooms should act as the meeting ground where students can post questions and get them answered by the teacher as well as their peers.

#2: Implement Synchronously Methodology to impart teaching

Synchronous learning on Zoom , WebEx, Google Meet etc. which play an important role in any effective distance learning plan

#3: Provide Asynchronously learning with Pre-Recorded Video & Podcasts

Direct instructions can be delivered via pre-recorded tutorials. Students can watch them at their own time, in their own pace, and can rewind and replay them over again if necessary.

#4: Use HyperDocs to Create Dynamic Independent Studies

A Hyperdoc is technically any electronic document with hyperlinks that takes students to external websites or additional resources selecting tech programs to achieve learning goals that align with the 4Cs (Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, & Creativity), and strategically sequencing daily lessons with the 5Es lesson plan (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) is the key to an effective Hyperdoc.

#5: Use Personalized Learning & Student Engagement Platforms

Personalized programs like Khan Academy, Freckle offer free tutorials and practice problems that can be tailored to meet an individual student’s learning needs. Programs like Newsela and Actively Learn And engagement platforms like Nearpod and Pear Deck allow teachers to choose from a large selection of pre-created lessons, or create custom lessons on their own with built-in formative assessments

#6: Make Student Thinking Visible

The concept of making thinking visible plays a crucial role to enable the teachers to know how and what their students are thinking, and thus move their learning forward accordingly. Visibility platforms such as Pear Deck, Nearpod, Seesaw, Padlet, enable students to post their work and give each other feedback in real time. Similarly, using Google Jamboard, Edpuzzle can be used for this purpose

#7: Use Creativity Apps for Authentic Learning Experiences

Assign project-based learning, immersive tasks for student engagements. Allow students to showcase their knowledge in various ways to develop relevant 21st century skills, by being involved in creating podcasts, digital books, digital comics, graphics design, coding, photography, videos, or webpages activities etc.

#8: Provide Meaningful Feedback

For written assignments, projects, or other work a feedback should be given by teachers which should focus on one specific area of strength and one area of growth. Feedback should be specific and directly aligned to learning targets in order to move student learning forward.

May 12, 2021

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse