Croeso/Welcome
Welcome to the Ysgol Harri Tudur/Henry Tudor School Digital Learning website. Here you will find useful information and resources for Digital Learning at home, using Google tools and features, and all other things digital that we think may be of interest.
At Ysgol Harri Tudur, the main portal used for online teaching and learning is Google Classroom as it has been developed and configured with safeguarding, child protection, information security and GDPR as primary considerations. Any of the Google suite can be used as long as due regard has been given to safeguarding issues. The school website includes a range of advice, guidance and support on many aspects of Google, including how to guides for the range of services on offer. All pupils and staff have a Gmail account and should know their login and password.
By using these main portals, online safety is maintained for staff and pupils. They also ensure consistency for all involved as these have been used in the classroom for a number of years.
Should you have any problems whilst working from home visit the "Virtual Help Desk" page as there are many guides and demos there that may help you out.
Blended Learning
What can you expect?
There are many different types of blended learning models but the main traits remain the same as defined by the Oxford Dictionary:
"A style of education in which students learn via electronic and online media, as well as traditional face-to-face teaching"
The teaching and learning is both synchronous (takes place at the same time for the teacher and pupils) and asynchronous (takes place at a time suitable for the teacher/pupils). In order to be successful, a blended learning model must be meaningful, enhanced, motivating and engaging for all pupils.
Online Delivery
Some tasks may require direct teaching and support and be more suited to face-to-face lessons. Tasks which do not require significant teacher input or that can be done offline, away from screens, are best completed at home. This may mean the order of course topics/units may need to be altered.
Teachers will have resources such as presentations, videos and web links which can be shared easily using Google Classroom. There are also many resources available online which pupils can access such as Scholar, BBC Bitesize, etc. These useful resources should be used as part of the blended learning model.
Paired and group work can continue during remote learning by using the collaboration tools. This allows more than one person to contribute to documents or presentations.
Checking on pupil progress is important to monitor and track understanding and progression. Google Forms, Kahoot and Quizlet are just some of the tools that can be used to set up quizzes, polls and mini-tests. They are self-marking, allowing teachers to analyse results by class or individuals.
Providing regular feedback on the work that is produced is a key part of the blended learning model. There are many ways feedback will be provided, from adding comments to Google docs through to using Loom or Mote to give audio or video feedback.
Live Lessons – Synchronous Teaching
Live videos can be used within Google Meet. The teacher can share their desktop with pupils during a meeting, allowing a presentation to be delivered, with the teacher talking to pupils. The chat area is monitored for any inappropriate language/comments.
Pupils should switch their screens off and mute their microphones. Teachers can then invite pupils to speak, if they wish, by asking them to unmute their microphones. This cuts down on background noise which can inhibit others from hearing properly. Teachers can keep the webcam and microphone on, if they wish, but they can also just use the microphone on its own. If using the webcam, it is important to be aware of your surroundings and have no personal items in view.
Recorded Lessons – Asynchronous Teaching
This will be the most common format. Recording lessons is a useful tool as these can be shared with pupils online and can viewed when convenient, this is especially useful in households where pupils may be sharing a device. They can also used at a later date to remind pupils of prior learning. Below are a few ways teachers may record lessons:
PowerPoint to Video
Existing PowerPoint files can be converted to narrated videos or automatic PowerPoint shows. Applications like Loom are excellent for this. A step-by-step guide is available to help.
Prezi is an effective tool for delivering recorded lessons – it works in a similar (but more interactive) way to PowerPoint.
Online Screen Recording
There are free online screen recorders that can be used to capture your screen such as Screenapp, Screencastify and Loom.