Strategies for Hybrid Learning
@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS
Take a deep breath
For what seems like the 100th time in the last year, we're experiencing a paradigm shift in the way that we approach teaching and learning in the era of social distancing and video-conferencing. Luckily the vast majority of skills and techniques needed to understand and engage in hybrid learning, have already been in use since we started remote teaching a million years ago last March. You'll be surprised at how many instructional tools and strategies that you mastered this past year will continue to keep you afloat for hybrid. While you may be apprehensive to start, take some pressure off of yourself and your students for the first few days or weeks of hybrid. Don't expect to immediately utilize and excel at every new technology made available.
Two Challenges in Hybrid
Alright so half of your rascals are physically in front of you and the other half are still in their PJs on Zoom/Meet. Here are two questions you're probably going to ask yourself:
- How do I get my in-person students and my remote students to see and interact with each other?
- How do I get both groups to see and interact with the same things that I want to show them (whiteboard, PDF, Google Slides)?
Before you get to the following strategies, it would be beneficial to acquaint yourself with the District 113 Technology resource on the new classroom technology. You may also need some assistance for the first few times you try out these strategies. That's OK! The technology staff will be there for you.
Interaction
Option 1: Project your remote students' faces to your overhead projector for your in-person students to see, and point your classroom webcam towards your physical students and share that view for your remote students to see. Students can communicate through the speaker/mic features that also come on the classroom webcam.
Option 2: While Zoom/Meet chat can be sufficient for text-based communications, consider moving over to Google Chat for threaded conversations. District Google Chats are permanent and will auto-save, and every district staff member and student already has an account. Staff could also open up the chat on their phones to keep up with classroom backchannel talk if your laptop attention is needed elsewhere.
Presenting
Option 1: You can utilize your whiteboard and have both groups clearly see your work by pointing the classroom webcam towards the board and sharing the camera view on Zoom/Meet. It might also help to think of the webcam operating essentially the same way as a document camera would. This way your in-person students merely need to glance up to view your work, while your remote students can see through the webcam.
Option 2: Share your laptop screen exactly the same way you would during remote. If you have a PDF, YouTube clip, or Google Slides/Powerpoint you'd like to present, share that window on Zoom/Meet the same way you would during full remote. The only difference is that you are also projecting your screen to the overhead for your in-person students to view as well.
Asynchronous Back-ups
It's also a really good idea just to have a few asynchronous back-up plans for the first few weeks of hybrid learning. Technical difficulties breaking apart your hybrid lesson plan? Feeling frustrated and anxious and lost? Whip out that asynchronous plan and be available on Zoom/Meet or Gmail for questions.
Just remember: everything is going to be ok! It won't be a seismic shift from fully remote to hybrid, and the entire technology staff will be there for you and your students the whole way. Any questions or concerns? Write below!
