Online Learning Support: Technology Integration during the 2020 Pandemic
During the unexpected Online Learning event of 2020, the Technology Integration Team at ISNS worked together to create a support website for teachers, students, and parents.
It went through several revisions, and often served as a starting position for support rather than a end. Here we share an overview, lessons learned, and advice for future projects.
Topics on our Site
Initially, we thought the site would be full of ideas for new Apps and Websites that we love and wanted everyone to use!
Then, as we interviewed and worked with our community, we found that everyone was OVERWHELMED, and needed support on baseline tech. Video conferencing, connection issues, privacy settings – these became our new top topics.
Technology Standards
During OLL, these standards changed from being encouraged in the classroom, to being our community’s sole method of communication.
Ways to Reach Out
Highlighted on our front page with buttons and colors, we put a focus on ensuring people knew who to contact for help. At the top of the page? A simple “Help Me!” button.
Video Conferencing
The TI team worked together to evaluate several video conferencing platforms. Lori’s evaluation of Zoom.cn is what we selected for the best student experience.
OneNote and OneDrive
ISNS used these programs during the school year, and relied upon them during OLL. Our student community absolutely SHINED in that they supported each other on WeChat when problems arose.
SeeSaw Standards
We put SeeSaw on overdrive! Parents as teaching assistants, and kids using this tool as their primary go-to for activities.
Troubleshooting
WeChat, Email, Zoom, Skype: we remained open to all forms of contact, so that any member of our community could get help quickly.
Videos Guides
We created visual guides for the most common scenarios. Some that we predicted, some that we responded to mid-day!
We also posted videos that Principals and Supervisors identified as excellent resources to be shared across all staff, bringing everything to one home for our staff.
What the ISNS Community Said
TI Team Reflection
Custom Graphics and Written Guides for Teachers
Though much of our support was live, we also created guides and curated graphics for a website that teachers could reference when needed.
Zoom and.... ?
Together we shared out to the ISNS leadership team to determine the best conferencing software for our students, and then broke out as individuals to inform our teams about the Learning Management software best for different situations. ManageBac, SeeSaw, and OneNote were supported by Lori, Jennifer, and James separately to give teacher’s the best software for their situation.
Custom Content
In addition to selecting apps and training teachers, students, and sometimes parents, we also occasionally helped with custom lesson plans that integrated these technologies.