Online & Blended Learning for All, Like It Or Not

The time has arrived where there is no argument about the place of technology in education. We need to rely on tech to help everyone with delivering education from a distance as we are sheltering in place and we need to do so in an intelligent and effective manner without just bumbling through a Zoom video conference for an entire class period. Be available for question, but don't expect students to sit there and listen to you lecture for even 20 minutes, much less an entire 70 minute period as is the length at my school.
I've pasted the tips here and then again below with examples and additional explanation.

Distance Learning Tips for 9-12 Classes

Here are some quick tips to help you in designing the online experience for both you and your students. If you find it easier to read I have a google doc here with these tips laid out. Formatting gets weird in Blogger sometimes.

Try to keep your online experience as similar to your class experience as possible so that the routine online feels as similar to class making students more comfortable and likely to fall into their similar routine.

Review the overview of class together and provide short examples of anything new before taking questions on the work planned for the day.

Zoom may not be the best method for all of your instruction. For new skills and new concepts/tasks try either making a short screen recording to post to YouTube as a video or finding one online that someone else has made for students to reference as they engage in independent work. 

In each video start & end by referencing a guiding question (conceptual) and a contextual question (computational/specific to an example of the concept). 

Embed short formative quizzes in your curated videos using Edpuzzle. These can be multiple choice questions (MCQs) with order of answers randomized or free response questions (FRQs).

Remember to provide students with some wise freedom and independence. Seeing your face talking for 70 minutes straight will be exhausting for everyone.

That being said, have a deliverable for the end of each lesson to assess their work and keep them accountable. 

Balance live and asynchronous instruction. If you like having things more planned creating videos with built in assessments ahead of time provides the live experience with the planned experience that may suit you.

Do something unique to you here and there. Add a background and teach as if you’re in your classroom (if you have a pic of your classroom) or step it up and be teaching from Hogwarts with a high res pic.

Distance Learning Tips for 9-12 Classes w/ examples explanations

Here are some quick tips with examples/explanations below some.
Try to keep your online experience as similar to your class experience as possible so that the routine online feels as similar to class making students more comfortable and likely to fall into their similar routine.I start my Digital Design classes with attendance and then a meaningful art share.Online I will start this same way and use my shared screen to create this experience.

Review the overview of class together and provide short examples of anything new before taking questions on the work planned for the day

Zoom may not be the best method for all of your instruction. For new skills and new concepts/tasks try either making a short screen recording to post to YouTube as a video or finding one online that someone else has made for students to reference as they engage in independent work. When possible avoid videos longer than 10 minutes as students will likely lose interest. Finding a cool video with an application of the concept you're going over can be a great hook to get students rolling.I prefer sharing to YouTube and then embedding in a blog or linking directly as there are often other similar videos that are suggested and students around the world can benefit from what I post.

In each video start & end by referencing a guiding question (conceptual) and a contextual question (computational/specific to an example of the concept). This can help students see the context of the learning objectives you are addressing as well as the specific application of the concept or skills. This also makes the video you create more useful when students go back to review for a summative assessment saving you time and reinforcing the concept.

Embed short formative quizzes in your curated videos using Edpuzzle. These can be multiple choice questions (MCQs) with order of answers randomized or free response questions (FRQs).I like to have one MCQ & FRQ per video usually the MCQ coming midway and the FRQ at the end. These should require the video to be watched in order to answer, but not be too hard given that a skill may just be introduced.

Remember to provide students with some wise freedom and independence. Seeing your face talking for 70 minutes straight will be exhausting for everyone.That being said, have a deliverable for the end of each lesson to assess their work and keep them accountable. This could be in the form of a short video response, answering Edpuzzle questions, a google form or any other number of ways to allow you to assess their work in an asynchronous manner.

Balance live and asynchronous instruction. If you like having things more planned creating videos with built in assessments ahead of time provides the live experience with the planned experience that may suit you.

Do something unique to you here and there. Add a background and teach as if you’re in your classroom (if you have a pic of your classroom) or step it up and be teaching from Hogwarts with a high res pic.