Twenty-one and over and over

So most of another week has gone by and online learning chugs ahead. Three plus weeks and I have learned so much about why they are going to learn so little. Here are some notes as this chunk of time comes mercifully to a close.

So far we have been told to reduce the workload on students (after initially being told to ramp it up) and to abandon the notion of traditional assessments and grades (after initially being told that grades and assessments would continue). Now we are all about engagement and connection, so the student who sits quietly, or who turns his video or audio off runs the risk of being penalized for being himself. Grading based on involvement (even tacit engagement) is not only flawed, but inconsistent with the grades earned over the balance of the year. And trying to assess if a student should change placements is even more difficult.

Loud classes get louder as all volume is normalized -- there are no whispered conversations and I can't yell over people. Encouraging a classroom debate is difficult because people have trouble hearing each other, or if there is any lag, they step on each other and points don't get across. Forcing a mute can crush the spirits of students; there are no subtle methods of correcting over-exuberance.
Distracted classes get more distracted as the requirement to look at at least one screen is a real stumbling block, but even moreso, being surrounded by the trappings on one's home field, including family, is too much temptation. We can't make them sit at a desk in a secluded, quiet room. They don't all have that capacity.
Quiet classes get quieter. This puts more pressure on me to fill the space with talking and this leads to more lecturing. Then the cycle increases -- the more I am willing to talk and not abide empty spaces, the less likely a quiet class is to interject and pick up the conversation. Part of this is compounded by the call for "flipped" classrooms, in which the students are given a video to watch during off hours (something we may or may not be supposed to be doing) so that class time can be used for practice or demonstration of something or discussing. But this just ends up becoming an asynchronous lecture during which students can't ask questions. And if the practice is online, questions are equally difficult to ask so the entire process gets thrown back markedly.

Lecture during synchronous meetings ends up winning the day because silence cannot be supplemented by body language or physical proximity. There can be no "side conversations." A teacher must continually prove that he is watching all students or else they try stuff and it is tougher to be that hawk, knowing what every kid is up to at all times (a skill necessary for managing a live classroom).

Presentations are harder to give feedback on, and can't command other students' attention in the same way. They take more time and are more prone to tech issues. They also don't assess understanding in the same way as traditional assessments. I haven't tried "break out rooms" because, for one thing, I'm not sure that I can maintain a view of all other students when I'm sequestered with one small group.

How much time am I spending? Ultimately, more but that might be because I'm in a happy rut. I have to create new assessments and retool how I schedule and implement each class. Plus, the use of multiple formative assessments means more grading and a different mode of feedback. Turning every half conversation into an email or text-based message increases lag time and makes it harder for a student to revise and review and then resubmit. If I can stand over a student, point out a mistake, and then have the student fix it in writing in a matter of seconds and have me look again, then that is much faster than reviewing an email submission, trying to communicate an idea in writing, send that back, then have the student rework something in my absence and send it back. Repeat. A much longer process.

It is harder to monitor their secondary screen practices. They are gaming and interacting with others and there is very little way I can check. I am, effectively, taking attendance repeatedly, seeing who is leaving, coming back in (wrestling with technology vs. not really caring), turning video or audio off and on. Trying to maintain a flow is really tough.

Don't get me wrong -- through it all, I'm getting the hang of this, at least a little. My students are getting work, doing work, and engaging with me. But it is different, and as much as I think I am making it work in a limited fashion, I am not being as effective as I could be in a traditional classroom and I don't think I ever could be.