In Term 1 of 2020 everyone’s world was turned upside down. With the onset of Covid 19 our realities swiftly shifted, up was down, and we all had to learn how to live and learn differently. This was particularly evident in our educational settings.
Before we knew it our school; a place of activity, group work and play, entered the online realm, and teachers were faced with the question – how do we take all that we do at school and bring it online?
We moved quickly to create engaging and accessible activities for our students, whilst also placing student interest at the heart of our development. We worked hard to create programs that all students could access, whilst also taking into account the difficulties that many of our students would face during this difficult time.
Just as we were all getting a handle on this new way of teaching and learning it was announced that we would begin our transition back to face-to-face learning. Again we were faced with a question, what would we do with our new online programs?
One thing that did become abundantly clear throughout this period was the difficulties some of our students have regarding digital literacy and their ability to engage with online content and resources.
The English and Languages faculty decided that we would be responsive to these newly emerging challenges and continue with some of our online programs and activities in the classroom, in an attempt to develop these digital literacy skills. We would continue to set up our classes in the same manner as we did when we were online teaching and learning, but be there in the classroom to offer students support in accessing this. Of course we now have the added benefit of engaging in meaningful discussion with our students and explicit instruction, but we also have this great opportunity to guide them through digital learning.
We strongly feel that these are essential skills to develop for our students and we are excited that we now have a platform through which we can do this. Should we ever be faced with a situation such as this again our hope is that our students will feel better equipped and confident in the realm of online teaching and learning.
Ashleigh Kerin
Head of English and Languages