Having recently started working with the Advanced Practitioner team, I was keen to get a sense of what the past two academic years have meant for the use of digital learning tools in and out of the classroom at MidKent. I offer an outsider’s perspective, sharing what I have learned from having conversations with staff members from across College departments.
Through the massive disruption caused by the onset of the pandemic last year and ensuing lockdown restrictions, education was forced to implement emergency measures for the continuity of teaching. Staff are rightly proud of how quickly the College adapted to the crisis, emphasising the importance of developing a new level of flexibility in order to succeed over the last two academic years.
What we cannot forget, though, is that the experience students have had is not what they signed up for. That learning at home cannot replace learning in the classroom. What has mitigated this in many situations, and may indeed be a viable alternative in some, is the seamless utilisation of digital learning tools into teaching practice. As one teacher said, ‘We must reassess the whole idea of what we are doing’. Staff have spoken of how class attendance actually improved while teaching remotely, as students demonstrated their own flexibility and willingness to learn. Despite this, students largely missed being in the classroom. One member of staff mentioned how, since we returned to face to face teaching, their students have been coming into College over the Easter Holiday and in their days off.
Students may have experienced some silver linings while working from home: teachers have spoken of how some students have been more comfortable learning in their own private spaces, rather than in the classroom. This cannot be ignored, but does not outweigh the difficulties posed by lessons being forced onto Zoom. ‘Zoom is a meeting room, not a classroom,’ as one teacher told me, and neither is the bedroom or the kitchen.
Staff have also mentioned the inherent communication issues of teaching a class through a webcam: it is simply far harder to respond to indicators such as body language when looking at pixelated faces on a screen, rather than students at desks. Some staff believed that attendance of online lessons was so good only due to the inter-student, and student-teacher relationships having already been formed in the classroom before being forced online.
Teachers said that it is difficult to build these relationships over Zoom, though I was interested to hear the experience of one teacher who spoke of how they would reward their class with a round of the multiplayer game Among Us after the lesson, as a means of sharing a social activity together. Online learning has worked when there has been a high level of interactivity, rather than lessons taking the form of a lecture over Zoom, but of course this applies to using digital tools in the classroom, too. Whether we are working in a physical or virtual learning environment, this environment must be conducive to learning, and remember that digital technology is designed to augment, rather than replace.
Staff have spoken of how the past two academic years have been an eye-opening period, that the necessity of experimenting with new tools to engage students, and enhance the learning experience, has been transformative in accelerating the integration of digital learning tools into teaching practice.
There has been something of a cultural shift. One teacher mentioned how they are now running mock remote lessons with their classes to ensure that if we must again vacate the classroom, online learning will be something which students are already familiar with. As well as preparing for this scenario, it is important to recognise the cultural shift talking place around the move to work from home, how companies have moved to implement long-term remote working. As one teacher said to me, ‘The world of work isn’t 100% in person anymore, so education shouldn’t be either’.
It is clear, though, that there is no one size fits all answer to how to utilise digital learning tools in the physical or virtual classroom. It is not a surprise that departments such as IT which are already deeply embedded in using digital technology, are better suited to remote learning than practical based subjects. What we need is a case-by-case, situationally appropriate approach which can be adaptable to the class, teacher, and course requirements and preferences.
From all the digital learning tools teachers use, from Slido to Padlet, Seesaw to Genially, Nearpod to OneNote, it is clear that both staff and students favour technologies which have a high level of interactivity. Staff have spoken about how valuable they have found the opportunity to work in new ways such as team teaching, and how using digital assessment methods can cut down on marking time, streamlining the assessment and feedback process, for example.
Digital learning tools work when they are accessible, flexible, seamless, and already integrated into students’ learning experience. What has happened through the pandemic is that the crisis has shone a light on the strengths, limitations, and opportunities to improve the ways we utilise tech in College. Staff have often taken it upon themselves to collaborate within their teams in taking a holistic approach in upskilling each other’s digital skills, this being part of the cultural shift to placing even greater value on digital literacy and as cliché as it may be, collaborating to build a better future through embracing this cultural shift.
Simply, digital learning tools cannot replace the classroom, but the crisis we are coming out of has forced us to reconsider what sort of classroom we want to build at the start of the next academic year.
Christian Kitson
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