HSDC

Advanced Practitioner Simon Bond has taught in FE for 13 years and is currently a Sport and Health Science Lecturer across Level 3 vocational provision and adult education. Simon is currently undertaking a PhD thesis on audio-visual feedback in vocational assessment.

See Simon Bond’s presentation about his Reflective Exploration

Simon focused on his 10-week course ‘Introduction to Teacher Training’ and his 35-week ‘Access to Health Science’ for adult learners.  In particular, he focused on difficulties in communication and submission of work caused by the wide range of digital skills of his learners that had consistently proved problematic in previous years. His learners ranged from 19 to 50 and beyond and were from a range of professions and backgrounds.  They had varying levels of knowledge and understanding of using devices and storing and accessing information online, yet they were expected to use online systems for their course from the outset.

“This assumption that people of a certain age are digital natives and can use technology both proficiently and for its desired purpose is not one that I agree with, nor is it present in the adult classrooms in which I teach. The need for induction for those considered digital natives is not because they are unfamiliar with the technology or digital requirements, it is more to do with their ability to use it for educational purposes that may be outside the realm of what is normal for them.”

Simon created an intensive digital induction session for their first lesson, covering the key applications they would be using in their course. This included a set of prompt slides and embedded videos with step-by-step instructions to guide learners to log on, navigate the Google waffle menu, create and share documents for collaborative work, organise drive folders, pin to taskbar, download apps and complete and submit work through Google Classroom. The aim was to get all learners to a point where they were confident with the most common uses and applications of G-Suite for Education. He also encouraged students to help their peers along the way when they saw others struggling.

The varying level of digital skills of learners made working through the induction session at the planned pace difficult, but overall, Simon felt the induction sessions were a success:

“The Induction was welcomed by all adult learners as they felt happier with expectations, uses and modes of communication from week 1.”

• The induction led to less questions and problems arising about common issues compared to previous years, saving teacher time and enabling faster progress in lessons.
• It also allowed development and discussion of slightly more advanced uses and application of digital skills as the weeks progressed when the opportunity arose.
• In subsequent weeks, it became clear that the induction had enabled the more adept individuals to embed digital practices into their work.
• The structure of the step-by-step guides allowed learners to revisit and recap their learning.
• Involving the more confident advanced learners in supporting their peers was a success and helped alleviate some of the time pressures of fitting the digital induction into one session. However, Simon felt that this success relied on the dynamics of the group: “I can imagine with quieter groups or groups who have not gelled or have differing characteristics this may prove difficult.”
• Digital skills of those who were weakest still proved problematic and time consuming on the shorter 10-week course, suggesting that more prior preparation was needed.

Pre reading and digital activities are being considered to help with future short courses where digital skills are key to the programme from the outset.

Learning points:

• It is important to recognise that even though learners are on higher level courses such as Level 3, they may still have skills gaps when it comes to use of technology for educational purposes outside of their normal usage.
• Investing time in a digital induction covering the applications that learners will be using and how to create, edit, save and submit work can save teachers time in the long run, reduce disruption caused by digital skills gaps and help learners to make better progress.
• Use of those with more advanced digital skills to provide peer support to those who are less confident can work well – but since it cannot be assumed that learners will automatically feel comfortable with giving or receiving peer support, it may need facilitation.

Teaching and Learning Coach and Google Educator (Level 1), Helen Hitchings, has been a Lecturer in Animal Care for 17 years and has 30 years of industry experience in veterinary practice. Her special interest is in the 14-16 age group, engaging reluctant learners and those from low socio-economic social groups.

See Helen Hitchings’ presentation about her Reflective Exploration

The problem Helen wanted to solve was to help her Level 1 learners develop the digital skills and confidence they would need to be able to take an online exam in 2022:

“Our Level 1 learners all have to undertake an online exam in 2022 and their lack of digital skills is currently a barrier to them achieving success with this exam.” She also wanted to be able to use online resources in teaching Level 1 courses where currently all courses were paper-based.”

Her Level 1 learners had a variety of SEND challenges. Although fluent on their phones they struggled with using Chromebooks and PCs. Helen identified that when we refer to “digital natives”, especially young people, they are in practice mainly “phone natives” who are not familiar with using other devices.

For the project, Helen focused on three different Level 1 groups

• A group of full-time students from age 16 to 25
• A group of Year 10 part-time students aged 14 to 15
• A group of part-time Year 11 students aged 15 to 16.

Helen found she had to start from scratch teaching students to use first PCs then Chromebooks. Initially, a significant proportion of the class could not access their password for the college network. Emails had been sent to home email addresses and students had insufficient data allowance on their phones to retrieve them. The students who were unable to access the college network became quite despondent.

Helen patiently and systematically worked through the issues:

“The learners were initially frustrated by the unfamiliarity of PC layouts. They struggled to cope with the change from mobile device to PC and had to be shown some basics – such as what the enter key does and using a mouse to navigate.”

At the next lesson:

“I was surprised at the difficulty caused by merely switching to Chromebooks from PCs. Some students struggled to use the trackpad and some even struggled to find the on/off button. I felt a sense of achievement after the lesson as all students had managed to complete the task by the end.”

Once the students could log on and use both PCs and Chromebooks, Helen concentrated on familiarising them with the basics of Google Classroom – setting a variety of tasks which enabled them to work increasingly independently and support each other when they hit issues. It was notable that students felt a sense of achievement in being able to overcome barriers and make progress with these online tasks.

Helen noted the following successes:

• Getting the whole class to take part in a Kahoot Christmas Quiz on Chromebooks
• Catering for a hugely diverse range of abilities
• Seeing students had logged on and completed work from home
• Having to ask students to stop and log off because the lesson had ended
• Hearing a student exclaim that he had “slayed the IT demon!”
• All students except one passed their online exam

“Now that the groups are competent and confident with Chromebooks, my colleagues have been able to use online resources with them too. L1 Google Classrooms are now a thing in our department, for the first time we’ve had students completing work after lessons!!”

Learning points:

• For Entry and Level 1 learners who lack digital skills and confidence, it may be appropriate to book an IT suite to start with and have a member of IT staff on hand to help sort issues like password access. If using PCs or Chromebooks, factor in the need to teach students the basics of how to use the devices.
• Issues with learners forgetting usernames and passwords or being unable to access them in the first place can be overcome by temporarily giving staff access to class usernames and passwords.
• If setting a self-directed research task, preloading links to peer-reviewed, trusted sources is advisable.
• It is worth planning a starter activity if learners arrive early/on time so that they can be productive and get extra time on the device whilst waiting for their peers.
• In an ideal world, it is useful to find out about learners’ previous histories with using digital resources to prepare appropriate activities and plan for contingencies.

Richard Hughes has taught for 16 years on Entry Level 2 courses through to A Level in areas such as VFL, Health and Social Care, Sport and Public Services.

See Richard Hughes’ presentation about his Reflective Exploration

Richard focused on his Foundations for Learning course working with SEND learners. He wanted to offer a simple collaborative tool to encourage students to answer questions:

“Having previously used Google Jamboard (which was a great experience), I found that Jamboard was open to abuse and became a distraction and disorganised very quickly. I want to explore an alternative, low maintenance but equally effective way of communicating with a low-level academic group.”

In class, Richard helped his students to set up a collaborative Google document for recording answers to questions which would be easy to monitor without being distracting. He produced a landscape table with boxes for each student to write their name in and take ownership of (see below).

(Click to open)

In his box on the table, Richard replicated a question posed verbally to the class, giving time to allow students to digest the question and consider their response. Students could then place their answers within their cell. After a careful and rigorous explanation of the use, including some stringent rules, Richard felt the students could see the benefits of using the collaborative document. It also became a repository of answers, allowing students who missed the session to catch up.

“The primary impact was that the questions were answered, and in many cases, the answers given were well beyond my expectations. A secondary impact was that it allowed those who had severe speech needs to engage and express their answers in real-time – I think a first for some!”

Some students found it difficult to keep track of their work so in the next session Richard showed them the highlight function to keep track of their cells as they expanded with content. Students quickly picked up the highlight function. Again, the answers were of a high calibre – there was evidence of peer support and retrieval.

At the next session, Richard created a new collaboration box for each lesson instead of creating data stamps within cells to reduce clutter for each session.

Some students posted irrelevant images into their cells, which Richard was able to deal with quickly because the document was so clear and simple.

What worked well:

• The table created structure for answering questions.
• It was easy to set up and manage but needed concise instructions.
• It provided a starting point for students who struggled with Q&A activity.
• It enabled direct and indirect collaboration.
• The approach supported a wide range of needs with nuanced tweaks.

What did not work well:

• Initial complaints of cells shifting when being filled with content.
• It was open to abuse, but this is a potential risk with any collaborative online document.

Learning points:

• For lower-level learners, creating a simple table structure in a shared Google document may be more appropriate in gaining contributions and maintaining clarity than a more sophisticated system like Jamboard.
• Enabling learners to write answers, rather than speak in front of others can help those learners who lacking verbal skills and confidence to contribute.
• The simplicity of the approach makes it easier to address copy-cat or inappropriate answers.

Tam Jenkins teaches learners aged 16-19 on Early Years courses. She teaches the Cache Childcare Level 1 units and a lot of the course requires learners to undertake online research and createdigital posters and leaflets

See Tam Jenkins’ presentation about her Reflective Exploration

Tam focused her project on using the Canva graphical design app to help those students who were disengaged with using digital devices to develop skills in creating and editing high quality resources that they could feel proud of:

“When working in the childcare setting learners will need to communicate effectively with children and parents. The standard of creating displays, newsletters and leaflets and posters is currently poor.”

Tam worked with her Level 1 learners to log on to Canva and create first a poster and then a leaflet using online templates and tools in Canva.

In the first class, Tam introduced the Canva app to her students and found a great variety of confidence and ability in using the app. Some needed a lot of reassurance and guidance. Tam concluded that she would produce a step-by-step guide for future introductory classes.

At the next session, Tam asked the students to produce a leaflet or poster on Canva for display in a nursery school, using information they had previously researched. Some students struggled to log on and retrieve their work from the previous week and were reluctant to use the app. Tam concluded that this task would work better with smaller groups of learners to be able to provide support more effectively.

Tam then worked with a small group of four students to produce a leaflet on Canva. This worked well and students started to help each other to troubleshoot problems and develop their skills. Tam also learnt about some features of the Canva app from the students. As the sessions progressed, the level of independent use of Canva began to increase and the students were mostly able to work independently. Once they started to progress, students showed pride in their work and there was opportunity for positive reinforcement. There was increased focus and interaction in active learning tasks. The students started to apply their new-found knowledge to other applications.

Learning points:

• Perseverance is important when faced by initial reluctance from students to engage with new digital tools.
• The templates in tools like Canva can be a good starting point for activities. However, there are a lot of templates in tools like Canva and students can be overwhelmed with choice, so it is important to pre-select or support students to make choices.