Giving Compass' Take:

• Paul Emerich France, writing for EdSurge, shares three mistakes to watch out for while teaching in the distance learning world during COVID-19. 

• How can schools support educators to mitigate these problematic practices? What do schools need from donors to innovate and perform effectively during this time? 

• Check out this survey that reveals obstacles and successes for distance learning. 

If there’s one thing everyone can agree on from this past spring, it’s that distance learning is challenging. Undoubtedly, much of this was due to the fact that teachers had limited time to move their entire curriculum online, and few were trained to carry out what was essentially emergency remote instruction.

But this wasn’t the only reason.

Distance teaching also shone a light on problematic practices that were never effective in person, either. And trying to re-create them in a virtual environment didn’t make them any better. As many schools resume remote instruction this fall, watch out for these three mistakes you may be making. More importantly, give yourself the liberty to try out some of the alternative approaches that can help make distance teaching more sustainable and effective.

Mistake 1: Too Much Passive Screen Time 

If your first step in technology integration is making a list of apps to download, you may want to reconsider your approach to technology. Using technology effectively in any environment—education or otherwise—necessitates a human-centered and needs-based approach. We must first ask ourselves, What am I trying to accomplish? before turning to Which technology tools will help me accomplish my goals?

Mistake 2: Too Little Time for Dialogue and Discourse 

Learning is a social process, and as a result, we need to offer ample opportunities for students to be collaborating with their peers and speaking with their teachers about what they’re learning.

Mistake 3: Conflating Work Completion With Learning 

Completing worksheets and answering questions isn’t learning. Having spoken with countless parents after remote learning wrapped up in the spring, I heard over and over again how remote learning too frequently entailed completing stacks of worksheets or swaths of pages in a workbook.

Read the full article about mistakes during distance learning by Paul Emerich France at EdSurge.