Until it was disrupted by a lowly virus in 2019, and communicable disease often shorthanded as “novel coronavirus” or Covid-19 made busing children to a single central location a questionable health practice. Teachers who were pitchforked, unprepared, and sometimes unwillingly, into computerized education got a quick heads up on what they could bring from a standardized classroom and what was simply not possible. Parents, some of whom found their workplace shutdown, while others were deemed “essential” suddenly found that they were in full charge of their children 14 hours a day, seven days a week, instead of leaving a major portion of the training and supervising of their youngsters to the professionals.

Teachers quickly learned that even such simple things as taking roll could be complicated. A child on his or her own at home could log into a class, and then walk away, leaving the teacher talking to empty air. Plagiarism, cheating on tests, and having the book open while taking a test became almost inevitable since hastily improvised home “classrooms” could not be monitored. They learned that virtual whiteboards, while better than nothing, are not a good substitute for giving a child a hands-on response. Could it be that the age of the read-a-chapter take a multiple-choice quiz were dead? What were the possible answers?

One method was to go to require students to develop something.       It might be to create a Minecraft world, write an essay, draw an original picture about an event, or to develop a scientific experiment, accompanied by photographs. These sorts of object productions require the student to actively participate in a way that will show that he or she read the material and that they have some idea of what is involved with the lesson. They are visual, and keep the student engaged. But are they learning? Will reading Sir Cumference and the First Round Table and reporting on it enable a student to calculate the diameter, circumference, and radius of a circle? Will creating a graph of the robin population in the students front yard bring understanding of the complexities of natural science?

Two big lessons from the Covid-19 lockdowns is that few nations are prepared to meet the challenge of educating their youth without public schools, and that what works in a face-to-face classroom does not necessarily transfer to teaching online. Online instructors must be funnier, bolder, more entertaining than the traditional instructor. The biggest lesson is how deeply having children in a supervised school situation from early morning until late afternoon has become embedded in our society, and how one small change can bring it all tumbling down.

The post What’s Next? Lessons From the Lockdown on Traditional Education appeared first on The Tech Edvocate.

One thing that holds true across the board for older students is that most of them have little patience with what they consider to be frills. There are a few exceptions to this thought. These are often students who are intrigued by information, skills, or ideology expressed in an entry level class who would like to know a little more about the topic without endangering their grade level. Since many schools now have a “no extra credit” policy in place, offering this kind of enrichment can be difficult or confusing to the students who are there for the basics.

An LMS offers ways for students to track their progress through the required parts of the course. It can provide a meaningful way to give feedback, as well as a way to offer alternative work assignments for students who need accommodation. In addition, it can provide a means to link students to enrichment or “just for fun” materials or activities that can give the enthusiastic student an opportunity for more in-depth learning.

Most LMS now provide the means for students to engage in guided discussion of a topic, and to offer pages for interactive peer learning as part of the educational process. This works very well for blended classrooms where the students and instructor might meet once per month in a face-to-face meeting. However, where that is not possible, students can also set up voice or video meetings which can simulate those once-per-month meetings.

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits to the non-traditional student is that working students can log on and access the material at any time of day or night. They do not have to meet at a specific time. They can even participate in group discussions or panels by adding their comments. This kind of asynchronous learning grants the ability to manage household demands, work hours, emergencies and even (occasional) to develop some time to just have fun. 

The opportunity to add enrichment materials that might engage learners attention, the ability to track required portions of the course and to be able to see the difference, and to still engage with the instructor and other learners in meaningful ways are all benefits granted by an excellent LMS.

Learning management systems such as these have brought distance education, for example, from a chancy sort of hit or miss sort of instruction that leaves many students floundering to a state-of-the-art instruction method that can be used by people of many different ages from wide-flung locations.

The post How an LMS Can Help Teachers Keep Older Students Engaged appeared first on The Tech Edvocate.

Now, look at it from the other angle. Have you ever tried to learn something—learn with all your might and still come up short? Maybe you were trying to figure out genetics… or your mom’s favorite pancake recipe. Perhaps it was Algebra 2… or how your dad always hit the target just right and made it look so easy. Maybe you were battling one of the two main barriers against deep learning.

What Is Deep Learning?

“Deep learning” is actually a machine term. It’s an AI (artificial intelligence) function. Artificial Intelligence is programs that allow machines to do the things that it typically takes a human to do. 

Machine learning is a field of AI and is defined as when a machine can learn new things through experience without the involvement of a human. 

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. Deep learning takes it a step further. Deep learning actually allows a machine to mock the human brain, allowing it to learn through repeating the same task multiple times, tweaking it each time, depending on the data it receives. Deep learning requires “thought.”

Examples of deep learning in technology include:

• Facial recognition
• Driverless vehicles
• Chatbots
• Virtual Assistants
• Medical Research
• Translation

How Does This Apply to Students in the Classroom?

Deep learning is the learning we receive through the higher levels of cognitive work found in Bloom’s Taxonomy. These are analyzing, creating, and evaluating. When learners travel these paths, they are repeatedly working with the material they have learned until it has become part of their thought patterns. In this way, these facts become part of their learning process, which can be drawn upon at later times.

What Are These Barriers?

Although we want our students to use deep learning with every piece of material we give them, it seems that there are barriers against them achieving that goal. Let’s look at the two main barriers and how we can overcome them.

Lack of Interaction

The first main barrier against deep learning is the lack of interaction. I believe that there are three reasons for this. One, sometimes, our students do not lend themselves to interaction. Sometimes they just don’t feel well, or they are having an “off” sort of day. Then, there are those students who just refuse to interact regardless of the day or hour.

Secondly, there may be a lack of interaction on the side of the educator. To up your game in the area of interaction, put yourself out there. Be animated. Really get into your learners’ shoes. Get to know them. Get one-on-one. Give them individual time. This is what our students need—now more than ever.

Lastly, there is a lack of interaction due to remote learning. When we are teaching our students from several miles apart, it can be challenging to have that teacher/student interaction that fuels learning. However, it is vital if you are going to drive deep learning.

Lack of Motivation

The second main barrier against deep learning is a lack of motivation. Unless a learner wants to learn about a specific subject, they do not seem to be motivated in any way.

It is the educator’s job to fix this, and there are so many fixes. You must get them excited about the topic. 

• Make it applicable to them or something they love. 
• Use something they like to teach it. 
• Show how fun the subject is.
• Use games to teach the principle.
• Let them learn through debate.

There are so many other great ideas.

Conclusion

When students learn through deep learning, they remember the material longer and can recall the material more easily. When you work to overcome these two main barriers against deep learning, your students will be able to access deep learning. They will better understand the material, and their grades will rise.

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