Due to a two-day school closure immediately preceding our spring break and subsequent to many earlier cancellations of after school activities, our school finally asked teachers to conduct classes online on Friday April 9th. Given the current political instability in Thailand, the onset of virtual classes on Friday had been preceded by many messages (or warnings to those teachers not yet ready to go online with their classes) from the school's administrators to be ready to continue learning online via PantherNET (the school run Virtual Learning Environment) in the case of a school closure. The day had arrived.
With equal amounts of excitement and trepidation I began to rethink my day's lessons and outcomes for an online medium. Using PantherNET daily with my students, I felt well prepared in the midst of the warnings of a school closure to seamlessly continue my classes online. As it was the last school day before spring break, I as had most teachers (to the chagrin and likely detriment of our overburdened and stressed students—the majority of our students?) had planned to give summative assessments in my classes Thursday and Friday (we see each class every other day for 85 minutes). On Friday I was to have seen my EAP 10 classes and on Thursday (the 8th) my Foundations Physics 9 and Communications classes. By SMS, the school website and email, teachers, students and parents were informed Thursday night and Friday morning that learning would continue online K-12 via PantherNET. Whether this would be retroactive for Thursday's missed classes was not clear to me; however, wanting to try out various options for continuation of learning online, I posted work for both my Thursday and Friday classes.
'Real' (f2f) Class Plans
Foundations Physics: (1) Section Quiz, (2) Return and reflect on Lab Activity Note, (3) Lab Activity
Foundations Communications: (1) Return and discuss 2 formative language assessments, (2) Graded Discussion
EAP 10: (1) Summative Vocabulary Quiz, (2) Collect final draft of group drama script (with earlier drafts and conference notes)
Biology In-class ESL Support: (1) Help students with language accessibility of unit exam
Virtual Class Plans
Foundations Physics: (1) Read over new Lab Activity CD "Question", "Help" and "Resources" files (students have CD of physics 9 labs); (2) Work through additional practice problems in "Assessments" file to review and prepare for section quiz to be given on the 21st (as spring break is an assessment/assignment free week)
Foundations Communications: Correct 2 formative assessments (grammar pre-test and vocabulary word map) and complete a second word map
EAP 10: Write a short composition using their vocabulary words
It's notable how radically I had to rethink my day's lessons for an online medium. While I felt learning did continue online for those students who submitted the work (only 20% or 2 out of every 10 students after posting the work over a week ago!), it was not the scope or sequence of learning I had planned before school was closed. Learning did continue online, but learning that entailed additional practice of 'old learning' and preparation for 'new learning' with all summative assessment of learning postponed until 'real' school reopened again after spring break. I made these choices to not introduce new learning and to not assess old learning as (1) I assume virtual school will be a one off two day affair (rightly or wrongly we will see on the 19th); (2) I am concerned about academic honesty taking a test online; (3) I am not confident when I am in the classroom again on Monday that students will have gone on PantherNET and completed the work / learning assigned there; and (4) it would take longer than I had and tools and experience my students and I lacked to do more.
Switching between a 'real' and a 'virtual' classroom does not seem to me to be a switch that can be easily made day by day. In preparing a lesson, the medium of instruction matters greatly. As teachers we were given a couple of hours the morning of the 9th to get lessons up on PantherNET for students to access. Were we able to post lessons (instructions, resources, links, etc.) for up to four classes in a couple of hours? "Yes." Were they of comparable quality (scope, sequence) and effectiveness as what we had planned f2f? I daresay "No". So why is such a quick switch between a 'real' and 'virtual' class lesson difficult? As with other K-12 online teachers (See Going Virtual: Unique Needs and Challenges of K-12 Online Teachers, a Boise State University national survey of 884 K-12 online teachers designed to identify the unique needs and challenges of K-12 online teachers)—albeit my online experience was only of two days—I found technology tools, facilitation, online content development, digital etiquette, assessment, leadership (management), special needs to be a challenge.
These seven areas posed unique and specific challenges. In terms of technology tools, my students and I were challenged to hold our planned graded discussion online. We could have used on online video chat for our discussion but neither the students nor I have yet to utilize such a tool for such a purpose. As a summative graded assessment I would first want to practice holding a discussion via an online chat prior to grading any such discussion. We could have also held our discussion on a forum or chat (sans video) but that would affect what is graded /the unit outcomes as body language, voice and pacing are found on the discussion rubric. As I stated earlier, it's not a simple switch between 'real' and 'virtual'. It could be done, but would require more than an hour to prepare and conduct and assess.
As for online content development, the Foundations Physics 9 course has an online CD of labs and activities (a CD lab textbook). However, conducting the labs require equipment such as motion detectors, interface, and probes that students do not have at home. Again, the labs could be adapted so that the set up could be done out of materials found in most households; however that would again conceivably affect unit outcomes and require more time than we were allotted.
In terms of digital etiquette and assessment I did worry about academic honesty and having students take and submit the Physics 9 section quiz online and the EAP 10 vocabulary quiz online. Both tests were designed to be given under traditional testing conditions; students were to have no access to their notes, books, electronic dictionaries, the Internet or other people. I could have set out conditions to ensure comparable testing conditions for the students at home as they would face at school (See Harvey Hinsz' blog on the same topic), or I could have rewritten the test so that the testing conditions would fit the students being at home with access to all the above help; however, I chose to postpone the test and give the students additional practice. Again without previous experience giving tests online and without the time to prepare a test designed to be given online, I changed the scope and sequence of my unit lesson.
As for assessment and special needs, the planned student-teacher conference and discussion of the Foundations Communications students' word maps continued; however, given the level of English of the students, a face to face discussion with the teacher is the most effective means of providing such feedback. Written feedback was already provided for each student's word map; yet, students at this level often have difficulty understanding teacher feedback (whether due to conceptual or syntactic understanding of written feedback, familiarity with editing marks or even teacher handwriting itself). While I did scan and post each student's word play with my handwritten feedback on PantherNET for them to revise, I know I will have to go back in person and explain parts of my previous feedback as students at this level are greatly aided by teacher-student one to one discussion and feedback.
In terms of management, my students were unprepared to find a lesson on PantherNET. My students typically access PantherNET for resources and a copy of their homework as assigned in class. PantherNET is a supplement to our class, a place to go to find a copy of resources and homework given out in class. As a result, only 20% of my students have completed the assigned lesson after a week (the due date set by the administrators is Monday the 19th, recognizing that students may not have known there were lessons waiting for them on PantherNET) . Just as it's hard to switch a classroom from a 'real' to a 'virtual' classroom in a day it's hard to switch an online tool from a 'resource room' to a 'classroom' in one day. All of these challenges were further compounded by the fact that students did not know school was going to be closed (that they were switching from a real to virtual classroom) so some students did not even have the materials they needed for their Friday virtual classes at home with them.
The day came. A virtual class. Two days...a start. What have I learned? Lessons are designed for a 'real' or a 'virtual' class, rarely will they do equally fine on both. An effective online unit should be designed for a virtual class from the onset...looking at assessments, outcomes, activities, and instruction. We (students and teachers) are all creatures of habit and while we can expect the unexpected we are never prepared for what we expect. ~James A. Michener
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