Tag Archives: Online Learning

Working weekend

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I’m at school putting the final touches on a presentation I have to give tomorrow. The presentation is to the Ministry as part of a quality assurance process for provincial online schools. I find that working at my workstation with multiple displays makes this kind of work much easier than trying to do it at home.

The hard work is done, all I’m really doing to the presentation now is redacting personal identifiers of any students for privacy, and checking my math on the stats I’m sharing.

If you were to give me a grade on the prettiness of this presentation, I’d probably get a failing grade. A lot of the slides are dense with words and information. However, I’ve been assured by the ministry that it’s the story I’m telling that matters, not what the slides look like, and I think our team is telling a pretty compelling story about how we support a few of our most vulnerable kids, as examples of the supports we have in place.

That said, when telling a story, it’s easy to miss key elements or not recognize how they connect to more universal supports we offer. So, we will tell the stories, the slides will make the connections to evidence requested… and that means we’ve got some dense slides to share.

As an online vice principal and principal for the last 15+ years I’ve seen how online schools can be a great choice to get extra credits for a multitude of good reasons, and I’ve seen students come to us as a last resort when nothing else is working. For the students who come to us by choice, we do an amazing job getting them what they want. For those that come to us out of necessity as a last choice, we might be less successful statistically, but each of those statistics is a student, with their own stories and challenges, and we don’t forget that. These students take much more of our time, and resources, and we do everything we can to help them. It is these efforts I hope to share with the ministry tomorrow. And so the stories are what matter most… but the slides will (dense-as-they-are-with-information) demonstrate the evidence and details we are asked to provide.

A quick road trip

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Later today I head to Kamloops for an all-day meeting tomorrow. The principals of Provincial Online Schools are meeting. We connect with the Ministry of Education in the morning, and spend the rest of the day addressing concerns and supporting each other. While there is an option to connect online, it can’t be understated how valuable it is to meet face to face occasionally.

I’ve shared this before, but it’s an important point: I have more in common with these principals than I do with all my colleagues in my school district. Online learning has different funding rules than regular schools; Different approaches to learning and support of students; Different demands at different times of the year. We also have very different needs for support, and a lot of times we look to each other for that support.

Sure, we are a group that are comfortable connecting online, and we do that often. We even have a WhatsApp group where we ask questions and support each other. But there is something really special about getting together face-to-face a few times a year. And while that meeting usually happens a bit more locally for me, it’s my turn to put some travel time in.

It will be a short, overnight trip, but it will be worth it to connect with my long distance colleagues.

First Choice, or Last Resort

As the principal of our district online school I hear a lot of stories about kids not wanting to attend school anymore, and so they are looking to try online learning. A former, retired principal of a nearby online school, Brad Hutchinson, had a quote about this. He said that, “Online learning is a school of first choice and last resort.”

When a student takes an online course because they want to: they want to upgrade, or they want to create room in their school schedule for another elective, then our success rates are very good. When a student comes to us as a last resort because nothing else is working for them, our success rates are awful.

It’s so hard as a principal. Every time they come as a last resort they, or their parents, believe this is the best choice. But a kid who won’t attend school, or won’t do work for a teacher who is right in front of them, is very unlikely to do school for a teacher that is on the other end of an online course, and not in their faces reminding them of the work that needs to be done.

We try. We offer supports. We even occasionally see some initial results. Then we don’t see anything. Another powerful quote about online learning came from a former ministry employee, Tim Winkleman, and this is one that I say a lot, “No pace is not a pace.”

When nothing is being done, when students choose not to proceed, or feel they can’t, then that’s simply not progress. It’s hard to be a school of last resort where regular attendance is not expected. It’s hard to see students give up on trying when they feel like this is their last chance to find success in school. It’s also really hard to tell a kid or a parent who is desperate to avoid other school options that this is a bad option to try.

There have to be some better last resort options out there for kids who struggle to attend school regularly… I just don’t know what those options are?

New learning paradigm

I heard something in a meeting recently that I haven’t heard in a while. It was in a meeting with some online educational leaders across the province and the topic of Chat GPT and AI came up. It’s really challenging in an online course, with limited opportunities for supervised work or tests, to know if a student is doing the work, or a parent or tutor, or Artificial Intelligence tools. That’s when a conversation came up that I’ve heard before. It was a bit of a stand on a soapbox diatribe, “If an assignment can be done by Chat GPT, then maybe the problem is in the assignment.”

That’s almost the exact line we started to hear about 15 years ago about Google… I might even have said it, “If you can just Google the answer to the question, then how good is the question?” Back then, this prompted some good discussions about assessment and what we valued in learning. But this is far more relevant to Google than it is to AI.

I can easily create a question that would be hard to Google. It is significantly harder to do the same with LLM’s – Large Language Models like Chat GPT. If I do a Google search I can’t find critical thinking challenges not already shared by someone else. However, I can ask Chat GPT to create answers to almost anything. Furthermore, I can ask it to create things like pro’s & con’s lists, then put those in point form, then do a rough draft of an essay, then improve on the essay. I can even ask it to use the vocabulary of a Grade 9 student. I can also give it a writing sample and ask it to write the essay in the same style.

LLM’s are not just a better Google, they are a paradigm shift. If we are trying to have conversations about how to catch cheaters, students using Chat GPT to do their work, we are stuck in the old paradigm. That said, I openly admit this is a much bigger problem in online learning where we don’t see and work closely with students in front of us. And we are heading into an era where there will be no way to verify what’s student work and what’s not, so it’s time to recognize the paradigm shift and start asking ourselves new questions…

The biggest questions we need to ask ourselves are how can we teach students to effectively use AI to help them learn, and what assignments can we create that ask them to use AI effectively to help them develop and share ideas and new learning?

Back when some teachers were saying, “Wikipedia is not a valid website to use as research and to cite.” Many more progressive educators were saying, “Wikipedia is a great place to start your research,” and, “Make sure you include the date you quoted the Wikipedia page because the page changes over time.” The new paradigm will see some teachers making students write essays in class on paper or on wifi-less internet-less computers, and other teachers will be sending students to Chat GPT and helping them understand how to write better prompts.

That’s the difference between old and new paradigm thinking and learning. The transition is going to be messy. Mistakes are going to be made, both by students and teachers. Where I’m excited is in thinking about how learning experiences are going to change. The thing about a paradigm shift is that it’s not just a slow transition but a leap into new territory. The learning experiences of the future will not be the same, and we can either try to hold on to the past, or we can get excited about the possibilities of the future.

Culture of change

Connecting with colleagues in the world of online learning, I realize that we live in a unique world of change. If I ask most school principals that work in traditional schools about student funding, and funding policy, few would know much in this area. If I followed up with audit questions, many would know even less. But in over a decade of working in online learning. I’ve dealt with audits and funding policy changes, and constant shifting of expectations and goal posts… and so have my online colleagues in different districts.

Many of them wear several hats (I’ve run 2 schools for years, and 3 schools for a year and a half.) Some are Vice Principals, some are district principals. Some are responsible for alternate students, others adults, still others both. Many got a good dose of ‘other duties as assigned’ especially during the pandemic. Most saw dramatic increases in students because of the pandemic.

Change, change, change.

When I’m around this group, I’m connected to people that know my job better than almost every principal in my district. I hear about the challenges they face and I totally get it. And more than anything I see dedicated educators who face constant changes and are always thinking about the impact of those changes on kids.

It’s really special to spend time with people who understand how to not just cope with change but to strive in it.

Conferences 2020-21

I love going to conferences, but I end up valuing the time between sessions, when I talk or interview smart – people I know, or reflect on what I saw with friends and colleagues. Essentially, I try to tap into the wisdom of the room, and not just at the front of the room presenting.

As conferences move online, I’m not interested in hopping into a virtual room to watch a presentation, and then repeat this again and again… I want time to debrief, to connect and have conversations, to discuss ideas in pairs and small groups. I’m not just talking about a 5-10 minute breakout session in an hour long presentation, I’m talking about scheduled time to ponder, discuss, and apply what I’m learning to my context, with people I work with.

The way I see it, digital conferences need dedicated collaboration, discussion, and reflection time built right into the schedule… Digital meeting spaces scheduled into the day. There needs to be opportunities for conversation, serendipity, and reflection.

The spaces between the sessions needs to be recreated in digital conferences so that conference goers can connect and share their thoughts and ideas outside of presentation sessions. We need public learning spaces, recreated hallways, coffee shops, and courtyards.

Do you know of any online conferences trying to do this?

Questions about September 2020

I was speaking to a friend that teaches at a university and she said about 30% of students that would normally come to her university next year are requesting a one year deferral, and taking a gap year. If that’s happening at universities across the province, and the country, that’s going to have a devastating impact on universities. Also, what are these students going to do next year? The two most productive things that students do in a gap year are work to save money, and travel (get some life experience). The job market is not going to bounce back quick enough, with unemployment at some of the highest levels in years, and most countries aren’t going to lift travel bans any time soon.

So what are all these gap year students going to do?

I wonder about the mental well-being of students who are not going to school, can’t get a job or travel, and are home and idle?

What can we do to support these students?

I also wonder if all of our colleges and universities will survive financially with such a decrease in students and revenue?

Will a percentage of high school students also stay home? Will there be a spike in high school students wanting to take online courses rather than try blended courses with teachers unfamiliar with this form of delivery?

Will private school students and their families decide that they should just go to public school rather than pay expensive tuition for an online experience?

We are headed into some very unknown territory and the impacts to what schooling might look like for September 2020 and beyond may not unfold in ways that we are expecting.

Missed opportunities

Here is a quick look at how we are doing with this thing called remote or distance learning. While things are good, I think we should have been more prepared for maximizing this ‘opportunity’, rather than just being more prepared to cope with it.

Background: Since returning from China in 2011, I’ve been a leader in Coquitlam Open Learning, the district’s ‘Distributed Learning’ (online) school. That year my Principal, Stephen Whiffin, pitched the idea for Inquiry Hub Secondary and I got to co-found and lead this innovative, blended learning school. I’ve been directly involved with integrating technology into learning as a leader for over a decade, and this has been an integral part of my role for 9 years now.

Current State: Over the past several weeks my staff of teachers have definitely struggled far less than most teachers.

For my online teachers very little has changed other than they are working from home, and assessment practices had to change in some courses. We have always provided testing and support blocks at our schools, and supervised assessments have been key to validating authenticity of work done at home.

For Inquiry Hub, every class was already on Microsoft Teams, and/or had a class OneNote, and/or had digital resources shared in Moodle. Classes moved digital, but there are still many opportunities for students to connect online, have meetings and discussions, and continue with lessons and assessments as if we were still in the building.

So, the transition to remote learning has been smooth. Great… But what are we missing?

The online school: We are continual entry, and so my teachers, at any moment, have students starting the course, doing their final assessment, and everything in between. As a result, they almost never run synchronous lessons. So while I previously mentioned two great ‘Learning Experiences‘ my teachers did with students, these are exceptions rather than the norm. And as I mentioned above, assessment changes needed to be made, but I’d say the changes we made were not really groundbreaking or norm-changing. We are doing a good job, but we aren’t pushing any boundaries.

For Inquiry Hub: We’ve really had a smooth transition, kids are still getting a lot of support, and we have, as a staff, had daily meetings that always touch on two things: How are kids doing/who needs support? And on professional development and planning for some great integration of courses working in edu-scrums for next year. This is exciting work, and it happens in the background while teachers are working smoothly to maintain a continuity of learning for students.

So what’s missing? Where are the missed opportunities?

  • Relevance: what have we done to connect and relate the global experience to what we are learning in class?
  • Service: What could our students be doing to support their community?
  • Assessment: What a great opportunity we have to rethink our online testing and personalizing it for our online learners?
  • Community: What more could we do to build community ‘in’ our schools, both for students, and for families?
  • Well being: How could we better support the kids we know are struggling, and also identify and support the kids who are struggling that we don’t know about?
  • Course delivery: What opportunities do we have for students to learn in different ways?
  • Inquiry learning: How could we leverage support for students inquiries when there are so many homebound experts in different fields that would love to help students out?
  • Supporting colleagues: How have we shared what we know and do well with colleagues that are struggling with the transition?
  • I wonder if we wouldn’t have innovated more if the changes required were more drastic? Have we missed too many opportunities with a smooth transition? Will we be further ahead when things return to normal, or will things go further back to normal than they need to be?

    • Attention in online delivery of classes

    There are some pretty funny and creative ways that students are avoiding class now that it is online. Here are some fun examples:

    1. A video of a student using a video of himself on his phone, ‘paying attention’, set up with a tripod in front of his laptop’s camera.

    2. This kid has different priorities:

    3. And Zach, who is known for his video magic, has fun with Wi-Fi challenges.

    All joking aside, it’s harder to hold a group’s attention for too long in an online setting, compared to having a ‘captive audience’ face to face. It becomes a matter of thinking this through thoughtfully, or literally ‘losing your audience’. Remember Bill Nye The Science Guy? I don’t think he ran any segment of his show for longer than 3 minutes. There were quick lessons interspersed with flashy examples and experiments. Compare that to a 40 minute lecture with a teacher, and compare that to a 40 minute lesson online?

    Here are two simple questions to ask:

    1. What is being done to engage the learner?

    2. What is the learner’s experience?

    I’m not saying we need to entertain like Bill Nye, but I am saying that if we don’t think of the end user’s experience, we are going to see our audience’s attention dwindle.

    Assessment vs Testing

    One of the interesting things that has arisen out of remote learning, due to the covid-19 pandemic, is that the idea of having supervised testing has become problematic.

    This isn’t just the case for teachers new to online learning, I run the district’s online school and until now we have relied on supervised tests to ensure there is some consistency in work handed in. For example, a student might only hand in high quality essays because of considerable tutor support, or even intervention, and that would show up when the student does a written test in a supervised environment. Note: this isn’t just an issue with online learning, anyone can have a tutor help them ‘too much’, but rather it’s something that any teacher might have to consider when they can’t see who is doing the work.

    Math is a challenge in the same way. Homework can come in that is 100% correct, but without help at home a student might only have enough understanding to achieve a 60% in a supervised test. But then again, maybe they can get over 75% based on understanding, but time limits and test anxiety make the test itself a less than ideal demonstration of understanding in a subject.

    I’m making two points here:

    1. Supervised tests have been used to ensure integrity of work.

    2. Supervised tests create a less than ideal environment for ensuring understanding of learning.

    So where does that leave teachers, teaching remotely, when it comes to assessment of learning, without opportunities for supervised testing?

    One suggestion is to focus more on competencies rather than content. My online math teacher would typically spend over 10 minutes marking a single test. What if, instead of marking this test, she watched a student video of that student teaching her how to solve a challenging question? What if an English teacher watched four or six students debate a topic, while other students followed along, note taking in a public, digital discussion forum? What if students did a timed problem solving challenge where they all got to collaborate, but they had to put their answers into their own words?

    What if we assume that students will get support, have access to their notes, and can’t be fully supervised, how does and should that affect our assessment practices?