Lockdown teaching

Yes, that Covid Lockdown. What are the learnings I have taken from teaching through lockdown? Working in a digital learning environment, I was quite confident that most of the 'digital component' would be easy enough for students to pick up. Generally that was the case, however what did go awry  was the students not understanding the written instructions given. I tried a number of different things to allow students to understand their instructions.

The most wide ranging strategy was to create video tutorials showing how to do tasks (Light and Sound inquiry unit with video tutorials showing how to complete tasks). Another wide ranging strategy was to simplify the language used in written instructions. Finally small group or as close to one on one support as possible was provided through video meetings where I held tutorials.

Lockdown taught a lot about existing procedures, how much of instructions our students actually comprehend and retain, and helped establish better work flow procedures.