Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.. a bit of ‘old school’.

Covid 19 and the lockdown that followed threw a curved ball if ever there was one and for me, student engagement was a mixed bag of tricks.  My colleague Linda Rubens and I each have a level 2 English Viewing class, which we have had for a number of years.  This year we decided to have a shared Google Classroom which has helped enormously with the management of 56 students between us.  The story of lockdown, however will fill another chapter.

Our post-lockdown classes have been focussed on text connections.  This requires the students to write a report on the connections they have made over four visual texts.  These connections usually have to do with themes, setting, characterisation to name a few. So we watched our first two “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Hurricane”.  All the resources and tasks were on Google Classroom and we expected the students to work through these in order to gather the material they would need for their reports. Self -directed learning at its best, or so I thought.  I watched in consternation as my class spent four and a half hours wasting time.  They had just reverted to some old, bad habits – chatting, and doing nothing until the teacher hovered over them and then it was the ‘pretend’ game. I had to do something!

Fortunately, Linda had noticed that her class was doing the same so over a weekend she dug out some worksheets that we had last used in 2015.  Well, we printed these off and set the booklet this created as a test. The students were notified through a message on Google Classroom and so the first lesson of the week began with desks separated (level 2 lockdown requirements). I was amazed at the compliance of the students. They sat down and began writing in silence for the whole hour and a half and they continued for the week.  It was weird to say the least but, they seemed to like the change of writing their responses and then digitising them.

Pedagogically, I am reminded of the importance of occasionally doing something different.   These students have had BYOD since 2012 and eLearning for some has not been without problems.   When I interviewed the students about having to write out their “notes” and then put them into a report on a doc, they found that they enjoyed the experience.  A few of them had the grace to admit that this stopped them from ‘wasting’ time.

An investigation into blended learning will show that courses are designed in such a way that enhance the teaching and learning experiences for students by combining a range or a mix of delivery modes. I believe that we have developed our own unique style of engaging and motivating students and this latest development with this class is working for this particular assignment.

 

To some, it would be interpreted as being ‘old school’ and possibly obsolete.  Not so. This kind of blend has involved combining the best of online and  face-to-face and non-digital modes.  They do complement and supplement each other.