Penultimate webinar in the EL Specialist online course on Using and Creating Blended Learning Classrooms webinar: What do you do when your school closes?

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Learning2gether Episode #442


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On Monday 9 March, 2020 English Language Specialist Vance Stevens hosted a webinar as the next to last live event  in the course on Using and Creating Blended Learning Classrooms on the topic of “What if your school closes?” Officially, it was the 7th office hour of the course, intended to explain or to help anyone with how to set up some kind of portal or activities in their own Blended Learning Classrooms. But for this one, Vance invited special guests from Hong Kong Suzan Stamper and Bonnie Calanchini, both of whom returned from their Chinese New Year holidays at the end of January to find that their schools were declared closed until further notice, and that was 6 weeks ago.

This webinar will be especially relevant if you are in the position of having to jump like a lemming into teaching online, since it focuses on this one particular ramification of the COVID-19 outbreak relevant to the course on blended learning, where schools have been forced to close in so many countries worldwide, and teachers have had to suddenly transition from developing blended learning classrooms all the way to going totally-online in one challenging leap.

Teachers caught in this situation are doing what they can to engage students at a distance in the curriculum, and Bonnie and Suzan came online to discuss with us how they and their colleagues have managed this leap after their respective schools were closed weeks ago.

  • Bonnie Calanchini, a American teacher who works (from home now) at the Canadian International School of Hong Kong as an Inclusion Specialist, primary level.  Her school has been closed since Chinese New Year in January, and she and her colleagues are going into their 6th week of home learning. Bonnie’s take: “I can say that my school is doing a fantastic job implementing distance learning and the kids are responding well.”
  • Suzan Stamper teaches at Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education where she’s a Senior Lecturer of English and the English Language Support Leader. Her school made the sudden announcement to go online in February, and it is expected that classes will be online until at least after Easter. Suzan’s take: “Going online at the tertiary level has raised challenges for students and teachers.” She notes that her school faces unique struggles with teaching adults at the tertiary level, and teachers have had to go online with little preparation.

We were also joined by Don Carroll in Japan and Nergiz Kern in Turkey, with a cameo appearance from the course beautiful assistant Bobbi Stevens, on YouTube at https://youtu.be/B7R3lZqPcuI

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Show notes and Zoom chat logs

Screen shares by Vance during the webinar

Julia Hollingsworth. (2020, Feb 29). Millions of children across the world aren’t going to school [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/28/asia/remote-school-education-intl-hnk/index.html

Seesaw –

Classin – https://www.eeo.cn/en/

Second Life – https://secondlife.com/

Zoom chat logs

Nergiz Kern : Hi Vance and all. I’m in Turkey right now, but teach mainly Chinese Uni students in the summer in the UK (pre-sessional courses).
Barbara Stevens : classin is at https://www.eeo.cn/en/
Barbara Stevens : Hi Nergiz, welcome to our course.
Suzan Stamper : Yes, that is the link for Classin
Barbara Stevens : Our sons who are teaching in Qatar have been told today that they have to stay home and teach online starting tomorrow…no notice
Barbara Stevens : I wonder how art and music teachers are teaching online.
Barbara Stevens : I think that online teaching part-time and then part-time class attendance makes sense. That would help the environment as well if students don’t have to drive to school each day. But still have the classroom experience.
Nergiz Kern : I agree Barbara, that would be ideal.
Barbara Stevens : I wonder if cheating is easier for online learning.
Suzan Stamper : A clever student response:
https://mashable.com/article/wuhan-kids-app-coronavirus/
Barbara Stevens : Marijana Smolčec just shared this on Facebook:
https://www.theedublogger.com/teaching-online-school-closures/
Suzan Stamper : @Barbara – Thanks for the link
Barbara Stevens : Bye everyone. I have enjoyed listening.

2020-03-09marijanapost

Kathleen Morris. (2020, March 8). Resources for teaching online due to school closures [Blog post]. Retrieved from
https://www.theedublogger.com/teaching-online-school-closures/

Our theme for Week 3 in the course on blended learning is focused on how so many countries are trying to contain a global pandemic in part by delaying the start of school terms, putting teachers worldwide in the position of having to set up online learning for their students on short notice, or at least give serious consideration to the possibility.
http://workshops2020.pbworks.com/w/page/138718179/Blended_Learning_Classrooms_Week3


Posted on Facebook by one of the members enrolled in the Schoology course on Creating and Using a Blended Learning Classroom

Announcements of this event were made on these Facebook Groups

Also announced here:

The text of the latter announcement read as follows:

The webinar coming up tomorrow is interesting if you are in the position of having to leap like a lemming into teaching online since it focuses on one particular ramification of the COVID-19 outbreak relevant to the course, where schools have been forced to close in many countries worldwide, and teachers have had to suddenly transition from developing blended learning classrooms all the way to going totally-online in one challenging leap.

So on Monday March 9 in Zoom at 13:30 UTC we look forward to welcoming two teachers in Hong Kong, Suzan Stamper and Bonnie Calanchini, when they will discuss with us how they and their colleagues have managed this leap after their respective schools were closed weeks ago. Suzan incidentally, has been a longtime participant in Webheads in Action.

The event coincides with #Learning2gether episode 442 and you can find bioblurbs of our guests, the link to the zoom room, and the time of the event wherever you are in the world here:
http://workshops2020.pbworks.com/w/page/138675954/eLearning_Archive#UpcomingWebinars

All are welcome. You don’t need to be enrolled in the course to participate.

After the event

2020-03-09tweet

Same text, more characters added, and posted on Facebook

Video and show notes from yesterday’s #learning2gether episode 442 webinar in the #blended2020 course on Using and Creating Blended Learning Classrooms can be found here: https://learning2gether.net/2020/03/09/vance-stevens-hosts-penultimate-using-and-creating-blended-learning-classrooms-webinar-what-do-you-do-when-your-school-closes/. The discussion lasted for 1.5 hours and ranged from how teachers are coping with having to go suddenly from f2f to online due to #caronavirus #COVID2019, through portals they might use, including SeeSaw, Classin, and Second Life. Thanks to Suzan Stamper and Bonnie Calanchini in Hong Kong, Don Carroll in Japan, Nergiz Kern in Turkey, and beautiful assistant Bobbi Stevens in Malaysia, for taking part in this stimulating and informative event.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the course, let us know


Earlier webinars and “office hours” from Week 3 of this course

Announcements of the final 5 events in the course were made on these Facebook Groups

Here is the same thing in soft copy …

In my role as an English Language #ELSpecialist I have started a 3-week course on Creating and Using Blended Learning environments, #blended2020 on Twitter, http://workshops2020.pbworks.com/w/page/138546024/Create_Your_Blended_Learning_Classroom

If you are free Tue March 3, Thu 5, Sat 7,  Mon 9 or  Wed 11 at 1400 UTC and are in the mood for a conversation in Zoom about blended / flipped / online learning, or digital storytelling, or portals where these activities take place, I hope you will join us in one (or more) of the events described on this page, http://workshops2020.pbworks.com/w/page/138675954/eLearning_Archive

At the link above, you will find Zoom links, times where you are, and also archived recordings of past events in this series, and links to their blog posts.

There are over 40 people registered on the Schoology site and consistent participation but not that many turning out for the online webinars and “office hours” which I am holding every other day at 1400 UTC between now and March 11. You can still register for the course if you want to, but it’s not necessary and you are welcome to attend the live events as guests

The events are informal, tailored to whomever appears, and though I have been quiet here lately, as you can see from the most recent posts at https://learning2gether.net/, #Learning2gether has been hopping. Hope to see you soon at one of these upcoming events.

Sat 7 March 1400 UTC Blended Learning Classroom Week 3 DIYLMS – Office Hour 6

The 6th office hour in the course on Creating and Using a Blended Learning Classroom was intended to help anyone with DIYLMS (do-it-yourself-leaning-management-systems) how to set up some kind of portal or activity in their own Blended Learning Classrooms. Of course the instructor, English Language Specialist, can help with any other aspect of the course to date.

Present: Hala Salah Abbas, Rita Zeinstejer, Vance Stevens

The meeting was in Zoom. Here is a recording

https://youtu.be/vYscFdxRz2w

I uploaded this video at midnight to YouTube without announcing it anywhere and when I work up in the morning I found this comment on it.

Thu 5 March 1400 UTC Blended Learning Classroom Week 3 Digital Storytelling & DIYLMS – Office Hour 5

The 5th office hour was intended to help anyone with the Week 2 materials on Digital Storytelling or with DIYLMS, how to set up some kind of portal or activity in their own Blended Learning Classrooms. For the first time in the course, no one attended today’s office hour.

Facilitating in a quiet online space can be disheartening. Why is no one responding? Am I doing something wrong?

But then this appeared, extracted from a DM on Twitter in such a way that it disguises the sender:

A million thanks for this! Good timing 🙂

Tue 3 March 1400 UTC Blended Learning Classroom Webinar – Weeks 2 and 3 Digital Storytelling and DIYLMS

The 3rd Webinar for the course on Creating and Using a Blended Learning Classroom is intended to help anyone with the Week 2 materials on Digital Storytelling and presage what’s coming up in Week 3 on DIYLMS, do-it-yourself leaning management systems. Once Week 2 issues have been addressed, the webinar will focus on the materials here:
http://workshops2020.pbworks.com/w/page/138718179/Blended_Learning_Classrooms_Week3

The video is here on YouTube – https://youtu.be/jlr9saLeFQM?t=120


Earlier events

Sun 1 March – Jeff Lebow drops by Blended Learning Classrooms to discuss how he creates his DIYLMS: Told as a digital story

https://learning2gether.net/2020/03/01/jeff-lebow-drops-by-blended-learning-classrooms-to-discuss-how-he-creates-his-diylms-told-as-a-digital-story/

Tue 3 Mar 0100 UTC Minecraft Monday March 2nd at 8 PM Eastern time

VSTE Place sign (1).png

Tonight we will have a tour of villages in 1.15 on VSTE Space. We will show you what we have discovered, how we are trying to keep villagers safe, and welcome suggestions!

One thought on “Penultimate webinar in the EL Specialist online course on Using and Creating Blended Learning Classrooms webinar: What do you do when your school closes?”

  1. Pingback: Final webinar for Blended Learning Classrooms with Vance Stevens, Sharon Graham, and Jane Chien | Learning2gether

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