Reflections on Distance Learning during Covid-19 Lockdown and Level 3.

During the Term 1 holidays which were brought forward due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I along with most teachers across New Zealand began planning with trepidation for an up-coming, indefinite period of distance learning with my new entrant class.

Why the trepidation you may well ask? My class Te Kakano did have an existing online learning site which they share with the next class up Te Pihi, however this was not fully utilised and students were just learning about handling devices and how to access and use some learning programmes. From the isolation of our homes the two teachers from Te Pihi and myself sort to create a site which would be easy to navigate as well as reflect the nature of our in-class learning. The three of us met through hangouts and conversed often as we organised and sorted out errors. It continued to be an eight week learning curve in which I applied knowledge gained throughout the Manaiakalani  Digital Fluency Intensive training and new skills I developed through online research and youtube videos. It was great to be able to have access to Manaiakalani Trust tutors who were invaluable with their help. Here is the link to the Te Whare Kiwi learning site.

Four or five days a week I made myself available to meet my students and their whanau via Google Hangouts. I enjoyed these times although student attendance varied from between 2 and 7. On an average only 4 students would attend despite numerous emails and messages to parents. We organised devices for students who didn't have them but this did not increase the rate of participation. Those students who had ongoing whanau support continued to grow their learning which is evident on their return to school. These students read the weekly PM online books chosen at appropriate levels and parents read the individual goals that had been set up for each child, and encouraged this learning.  The learning site worked well for these students only.

The Positives

Online learning provided

• opportunity for learning to continue at home in a real life context
• parents got the opportunity to be engaged with their children and see what they were learning
• the opportunity to observes learning interests, strengths, weaknesses and progress, and to see where support was needed
• me the opportunity to explore the possibilities of online teaching/learning, some of which can continue in the classroom to develop independence and student agency
• me the opportunity to discover what works well and what doesn't with early learners

The Negatives

• the frustrations of getting and staying connected with young learners. This required much communication with whanau, who for a variety of reasons had difficulty connecting regularly to class hangouts and supporting their tamariki with learning activities provided on the learning site.
• On return to school a large gap is evident between those students who were being supported at home with online learning and those that weren't.  
• Parents who never or rarely connected with online learning had problems with learning packs not arriving or the content being too difficult.

Moving Forward

• Parent eduction around connecting and usage of class site to access learning. There is a need for parents to feel confident about connecting, navigating the class site and blog, and helping students with online learning.
• Better use of the site to share and support in-class learning and home learning
• Better use of the class blog to share learning on a regular basis