Before I get into this I wanted to state that a lot of what follows has come from either my experience or from the amazing community of teachers around the world that have shared their own thoughts on how to utilise technology during times of difficulty. the community of educators worldwide is simply amazing.
So lets get started
Distance learning is not something you just switch on. It simply isn't that simple, if it was, many more people would have been doing it years ago.
So where to start if you haven't already.
Tip 1
Take a check on what you already do use that could be made online. What tools are teachers familiar with? Video conferencing apps, Seesaw, Showbie, Google Classroom, Edmodo etc. These may be used to some extent already in the school but not yet as home learning.
Tip 2
Distance learning is the same as in school learning by as much as its not just about sharing content. You still need to allow for consolidation of skills, questioning to develop understanding and all the other things that good teachers do daily.
Thats why technology only works in the classroom if the teachers use it well, so the same applies in using it online.
Tip 3
Support staff, this may feel like a huge leap for many, so work together to create resources, offer advise and make sure colleagues don't feel quite so isolated.
So what about the tools or approaches to get you going?
There is no particular order to any of this, I'm just going to break it up into sections based on approaches.
Lets start with sharing of content.
One approach that is being used widely, (and something that schools using tech effectively have been doing for some time) is the use of screen capture of teaching. This could be as little as capturing what you might have written or modelled on your board in the classroom but instead doing it in a digital format so it can be captured and shared. think of how you model a maths problem or how to punctuate a piece of writing.
There are many ways to capture this;
Screen Record on the iPad is built in and can be accessed through the Control Centre.
Go to Settings, Control Centre, Customise Controls and make sure its on. then slide a finger down from the top right of the screen and tap to start recording (tap and hold to switch on microphone to add a voice over too)
If working on a laptop or desktop, Quicktime allows for screen recording.
There are also many other applications you can download that will do the same thing.
Okay so we have some content, now what?
You now need to think about how you get this to your learners. (I can't make assumptions here about level of access learners may have at home but you do need to consider this when choosing your method)
Seesaw, Showbie, Edmodo, Google Classroom, Teams, Schoolwork etc are all platforms that allow learning to be structured in a 'classroom' environment online. They all offer their own approaches but all allow you to share content to your class and have the facility for learners to interact, with text discussions, adding their own video, you can even use it to assess work and track progress. you can find out how all of these apps and programmes are supporting distance learning by searching online or follow the links above to their support pages.
The process though is that you engage learners and build in questioning to support understanding, as you would in the class, obviously there will be some issues around visually seeing a learner stuck but they are still able to see the learning (this could help understand learner needs in the long term when back in school)
We are utilising EdPuzzle as our solution in Higher Ed, our reason is the ability to build questioning into the video to ensure long pieces of content have moments of reflection built in, rather than just watching a video.
Okay so we have looked at some basics around dissemination of content, what about Live learning?
By this we mean utilising video conferencing tools like Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, Teams etc. these tools allow you to host your session as you might in the classroom, you can interact with the learners and answer live questioning. There are some considerations here (from experience of hosting these). Consider using the features such as mute and the panels that allow questions in a chat box. The reason is that if all of the class start asking questions at the same time it gets very noisy. Highlight that you will be monitoring the chat to answer questions or in some tools there is a hands up button learners can use to get attention.
Also many of these tools allow you to share your screen, again this allows modelling of what you are describing, in fact, learners probably don't need to see you and actually focusing on the content clearly is probably easier for them anyway.
One top tip to follow is that although the learners are at home, consider how they are dressed whilst potentially on a video call and also what is in their surrounding area.
Now lets look at ways you can check progress.
There are lots of apps and programmes, again used very effectively in the classroom by teachers, that can be used online to help learners check understanding of what is being delivered.
Kahoot, Socrartive, Quizlet are just some tools that teachers should be familiar with. We are not talking moving entire exams online here (though you could prep practice tests in this way) but more a summary of learning to allow you to check on parts that have been missed. Again a quick search online will give you extra advise on set up and use if these are new to you.
When creating these quizzes, make sure you utilise the multi media opportunities to support your learners, add in images or video to help with the understanding, accessibility is a big focus here and that goes for all created content. Make sure you consider all learner needs when making any resource.
The last thing to highlight is that these methods do require learners to have access to digital tools at home, in many cases this is fine and students will at least have access for lots of the things you do. But if they don't, consider how setting tasks that are analogue can still support learners. You can utilise social media streams or the school website to at least get some information to parents that might only have a smart phone.
A good approach here is to utilise any home learning activities you might have already planned or consider what practical activities learners can do in their own homes (there is also an opportunity to make learning authentic here)
On that note you also need to start considering what happens when they do return to school. A recent chat with Craig McNeil in Hong Kong highlighted this very point. he was talking about his approach but he was very clear on what you do next, how do you assess the impact of distance learning and what gaps in learning may have occurred?
What about making learning resources?
Something that may prove useful (again depending on the access learners have) is to create learning journals that allow learners to work on projects over time. I have created a few of these around STEM and many more educators have done the same thing. Not specifically designed for distance learning but an opportunity to support learners and have them create their own journal of learning which will show progress, The other great thing about these resources is the ability to add in accessibility features such as video or allow users to use built in features such as text to speech or use the Look Up function.
Here are some links to some of these resources that might help get you started.
Series of So you want to guides (some more focused on this topic than others)
Example of a coding booklet used to journal classroom work but idea is the same for other things
Plants booklet looks at a series of activities that are carried out over time but all connect to learning around plants