TheFlippedScientist

Over the lockdown one of the rages of edutwitter was the Bitmoji classroom. Even I gave it a go.  Basically, a Bitmoji classroom is a virtual environment featuring avatar versions of the teacher u sing the Bitmoji app to create these avatars. Tools like Google slides are then used to build the classroom backdrop and hyperlinks created for the images. Learners can then move through the spaces virtually, clicking on a bookshelf image to get topic notes, for instance, or on a whiteboard to follow a link to watch a video of a scientific experiment.  Social media was abuzz with teachers who were obsessed with creating Bitmoji classrooms.  One can see why, as Bitmoji classrooms offer a way for teachers to create a sense of familiarity and connection with new students remotely. However as time went on, dark clouds emerged. Not all was well in the Bitmoji classroom universe. Over the last few months, strains of doubt and even outright rejection started entering the zeitgeist. Tha...

It almost seems a cliché to state that the first half of 2020 has been unprecedented. Yet the reality of this statement is all around us. As I write these words, the world is collectively reeling from the devastating impact of COVID-19 and still, we are unsure when things will return to more sense of normalcy. One consideration is how our wellbeing has been affected by these recent events and how we have tried to mitigate the effects. The World Health Organisation defines wellbeing as:   “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”   The year 2020 has certainly tested our ability to maintain all the aspects of this definition. The global pandemic has meant we have faced a completely new paradigm that has made life challenging in a variety of ways for both teachers and pupils. My personal experience is one that demonstrates this perfectly. In February, I looked at global media reports on the virus as it sp...

With recent events in the United States with nationwide protests against the death of Floyd George while in Police custody, there has been a clamor for educational reform to make education more equitable for minorities and marginalized groups. One approach to make education more equitable is to provide additional support for those minorities in order to attain more equal educational outcomes.  We have probably all seen the graphic below illustrating the differences between equality and equity. Equity involves providing sufficient resources as needed to remove an inequality so all have the same outcome. However, with equity in education comes a paradox: the education system must treat individuals unequally in order to create equality of outcome. This can be contrasted with equality of opportunity, each individual is granted an equal opportunity to pursue their own unequal outcomes. Historically speaking, equal opportunity has resulted in the liberty of the individual take, for ...

So it has been three months in lockdown and teaching online both synchronously and asynchronously to my learners. So what have I learned? Well one thing is that I started to hate online digital learning.  Now, don't get me wrong, digital technology is one of the most significant and consequential disruptions to education that started in the 1980s. It further transformed the educational landscape with the advent of the internet, where it became easier and more available and ubiquitous. The web transformed digital learning. But as my inbox fills with special offers from Edtech companies with promises to transform my teaching. Digital learning is in danger of becoming a sacred cow, so obvious its promises, that critically examining it seems to be the modern-day equivalent of being a Luddite .  Everyone knows that the use of digital technology in learning improves student outcomes right? As a tool digital learning has the.power and potential to improve learning efficiency and effe...

As we move more into online learning, how can we try to effectively maximize the learning of our learners? What does the research say? Here I have listed some evidence-based approaches to maximize the impact of your online teaching based around the science of learning research center  at the University of Queensland. Use of Images, Text and Voice Over Research on how learners learn has shown that a combination of relevant visual images and speaking to the images as prompts greatly enhances learning.  In comparison learners presented with heavy text in presentations with speech leads to poorer learning outcomes. Just as we enjoy watching Netflix, the combination of images and voice far exceeds learning achieved through just information being spoken or seeing the images alone. I n contrast, presenting text-heavy online presentations in combination with speaking to these slides, is detrimental to learning. Think about when you are listening to two people at once. You ca...

Last Tuesday, I got the news that my school was going to shut down until at least the 31st March due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is now spreading throughout the globe. This caused many murmurs in the staff as the full realization that teaching was going to move completely online in 24 hours.  So what tips and hints have I garnered in the week of teaching completely online? Here are a few of my thoughts. My first piece of advice is that y ou are no good to your students if you do not take care of yourself first. This is a stressful time. Teachers all over the world are staying with friends or family. Many are responsible for their own children on top of preparing online lessons. You need to care for yourself and know your limits, try to minimize screen time and take time for yourself. Reach out to your line managers when you are overwhelmed and work together to share the load. If you are in a leadership role, make sure you ask your teachers about their situation and ask yo...