Are we all ready for remote teaching? Do we have everything in place?

There is a risk that staff and students at schools, parts of schools or entire school levels may need to stay at home, and it is now that we need to make sure we have the tools to continue teaching the students. Not just the technical tools, but above all a plan and method for how a teacher of, for example, 6-year-olds practically runs remote teaching as opposed to a teacher of 12-year-olds or older. It’s also important that we, without prestige and tender toes, really take a look at whether the platforms and tools we use actually reach 100% of all students (everything else is secondary). Can we share documents, run videoconferences or meetings, chat with both audio and video that reaches everyone — and in case of problems — can these services be reached via a guest link? Can all staff handle this? Can all students handle this?

This post may be updated. If so, I’ll note it here.

Updated: 13 March 2020 - 08:45 - revision 6

Of course problems will occur, as with anything new. And this is a situation few of us have experienced before. Also, I’m not an expert in remote teaching. I’m not even an expert in teaching. But I’ll try to give some tips on how you might think about this, technically. And to actually be able to reach everyone we need to reach.

Current situation — Technical conditions — Not great

According to Lärarnas Tidning’s article from 5 March 2020, half of all lessons are disrupted by technical problems. This is in the classroom, with support from teachers. It concerns everything from platforms to account management and passwords. Many also don’t have access to support, so with that in mind the starting point isn’t great. How do we solve this if students are expected to sit at home? In my view we must strip away everything that doesn’t work. If not, at least make sure there are backup tools available.

IT needs list — scale down and satisfy

The first thing we need to do is see what we really need to be able to run distance teaching. All other IT should be deprioritised. The students’ learning is the important thing. Below I list what I consider most important regarding the technology.

All students must have access to the internet. On paper most do, but not unlimited data for streaming video lessons or running videoconferencing for whole or parts of the day.
All students must have access to their own digital device. On paper most do, but maybe not a device that is theirs to use exclusively. To some extent a student’s mobile phone can work, if they have one.
“Digital classrooms” must work on all devices/operating systems and even if accounts/passwords don’t work. If a student’s account fails (this happens quite often with passwords for students) it must be possible to send, for example, a guest link or invitation code to the classroom. These classrooms should support multiparty video, file uploads, whiteboard, chat and desktop sharing. The alternatives can be a mix of services, but that becomes too complicated for the average teacher.
To ensure accessibility we should think big, well-established platforms that many already know how to use, e.g. Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangout, Slack, Facebook, Zoom, YouTube or similar instead of local platforms that don’t work so well — and additionally have worse support.
If you have password policies that require changing passwords after X days in your systems, help students change passwords as soon as possible (and remember these along with account details) so that passwords don’t expire during a possible school shutdown. It will be hard to help students change passwords remotely if you can’t verify that it’s actually the student who needs a new password.
Think belts-and-braces! The use of the tools you choose will increase massively worldwide, so make sure you have several alternative tools.
Access to information must be open. If a student can’t access communication from their account it won’t work. Use open, public systems that are accessible without passwords for information (for example WordPress blogs). It’s about teaching, not state secrets. Also make sure text can be auto-translated with tools like Google Translate, since parents will need to help the younger children.
Teachers must have access to digital tools with good media capabilities. In the simplest form a computer with a webcam. In the best case drawing tools (whiteboard), a good microphone and a powerful computer to handle this.
Backup internet is needed too, if the local network fails. Mobile broadband can be a good solution.
There will always be a small group of teachers at every school who are so digitally inexperienced that it won’t work. Here a support plan is needed (for example that after-school staff or similar step in and support).

Support, training and methods

To be able to quickly switch to remote teaching we need to create simple guides that can be followed using a “copy” method. No deep dive into how the tools work, but step-by-step click-here instructions. Assume that even the most IT-averse teacher and the youngest student should be able to understand and use the tools (and thus the importance of choosing the right tools). Develop different scenarios with different tools and tell/show how to do them at the different ages. How you should do it - is better than - how you could do it. Many teachers have never participated in, let alone run, virtual meetings or classrooms. Therefore clear examples of methodology are also needed.

Teachers must be trained not just in equipment, but in how to run online classes/meetings best based on the students’ ages. Chat, for example, is not a good tool with 6-year-olds.
Create a lesson template to follow — for example start the meeting, mute all students, explain how they raise their hand, explain rules, start presentation tools that show the lesson content, run the presentation, hold an open Q&A, finish with when the next lesson starts and how they get the link to it.
All lessons held in the classroom should also be recorded so students can go back and watch later or review. We may also be in a situation where many students in a class are at home to prevent the spread of infection, but are otherwise healthy. They must also be able to access the lessons.
Lectures should be able to be pre-recorded by teachers and broadcast in the classroom. Further training is also needed for this.
Everyone must get to test the tools in advance. Once you’ve chosen the basic set of tools, created your support videos and similar, run an afternoon where all staff get to test. Then let the teachers run with the students the next day.
Support must be reachable in all digital channels. There must be self-help guides for all tools and services. For all users. All of this must also be completely public and reasonably translatable with, for example, Google Translate, since parental support will be needed for the younger children.

Tips on tools

Below are some tips on tools that can be used, with a few comments on why. NOTE that many of these tools will be overloaded and therefore several alternatives will be needed.

Zoom | zoom.us

My first choice is Zoom. I’ve had meetings and attended several webinars on this service that have worked very well. Their basic plan is free for up to 100 participants, but with a 40-minute limit per meeting. Many features make it well-suited for distance teaching.

PLUS: Can mute microphones for everyone except the meeting host (the host controls it), built-in whiteboard function, audio/video for all participants, chat (you can choose to let participants only chat with the host), invite other participants by sharing a link (no login required), screen sharing, possible to record the meeting, free (basic)

MINUS: If you can stick to 40-minute meetings/lessons, I don’t see any disadvantages with Zoom.

URL: zoom.us

Youtube | youtube.com

The second option is YouTube to use as backup. Besides uploading videos, making them unlisted and embedding them in any platform or blog, you can (for some accounts) also stream live in the same way.

PLUS: Easy to upload video, easy to stream live video, stable, possibility of unlisted links, free.

MINUS: There are certain requirements to be able to go live, and there are no built-in features beyond video.

URL: youtube.com

Microsoft Teams Live Event

If you run O365 in your organization you can also use Microsoft Teams Live Event. It works roughly the same way as Zoom, but with the downside that many organisations have disabled the ability to make events public. These therefore often require login, so before you choose this you must ensure all students can log in.

PLUS: Easy to create events and meetings, moderated chat (Q&A), possibility to share screen or window, ability to mute everyone

MINUS: Often locked to login in the organisation, requires O365 subscription

Google Hangout

I actually know far too little about Hangout to say anything sensible. However, since it’s Google it must of course be on the list — and since many organisations already use G Suite, Google has started rolling out their advanced packages free to education. More about this at https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/g-suite/helping-businesses-and-schools-stay-connected-in-response-to-coronavirus.

Open source solutions

There are two online meeting platforms I think are really good and recommend. Jitsi and BigBlueButton. You can install both on your own servers. You can also use Jitsi Meet completely free at meet.jit.si if you don’t want to install it yourself.

Communication

Throughout this period it is incredibly important that there is one (1) virtual place where students and guardians can always go to get information. Make sure that place is open to everyone and translatable for everyone.

Got tips?

Feel free to suggest additions, either as a comment here or via social media, and I’ll compile them in this post.