Tēnā koutou kātoa!

I want to start this month's newsletter with a huge shout out to all of the teachers and parents out there who have worked so hard to provide a safe and encouraging environment for all of our learners during this period of lockdown and school closures. 

This week New Zealand has moved to level 3 of the COVID-19 response, meaning we're no longer limited to a complete lockdown as we were in level 4, and schools are allowed to open for students but with significant restrictions on how they operate. With five weeks of 'remote learning' now under our belts, many educators are beginning to ask questions about how some of the positive experiences gained from teaching and learning remotely may be carried over into a 'new normal' once schools are eventually able to welcome all of their students back. These are indeed interesting times, and an opportunity to think in depth about some of the changes we'd like to see made in our education system. 

Earlier this month I was interviewed by Michael Barbour, Associate Professor of Instructional Design for the College of Education and Health Sciences and Fellow for the Centre for Innovative Learning and Teaching at Touro University, California. You can watch our interview below...

Michael and I have worked together for the past decade, both face to face during his visits here to New Zealand and remotely as we've each pursued our shared interests in virtual schooling. Michael keeps a fabulous blog called Virtual School Meanderings where he maintains a huge collection of links and resources to do with virtual schooling. I heartily recommend it. 

Online Teaching and Learning COVID-19 Special Issue

I've been privileged to have been a member of the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand for more than 25 years, having served most of that time on the executive. FLANZ publish regular editions of the Journal of Flexible and Distance Learning (JOFDL) and this week released a special issue to support the education community worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic by making available a collection of high impact, previously-published articles on online and eLearning in a single issue. You can access this issue online to read a collection of articles from some of New Zealand's leading distance learning specialists and researchers.

Lessons from Schools in NW Arkansas

For the past two and a half years I've had the privilege of working with a group of dedicated educators from NW Arkansas who came to visit NZ back in 2017. Since then I've travelled to work with them on a couple of occasions (and was booked to travel there again in May before COVID-19 hit!) and maintained regular contact from a distance to encourage them in their efforts to transform what they are doing in their schools. In the past couple of weeks We've had some really interesting Zoom sessions, sharing stories of what they've been doing during the school closures in their state. I've written some of the key ideas that emerged in some of my blog posts this month. In Transition Forward I noted some of the discussions about the lessons being learned from teaching remotely, and identify some key words the group agreed they'd like to remove from their vocabulary! Rising to the challenge pays tribute to these teachers for their ingenuity, resilience and innovative mindsets, while Learning Gain records some key points of our discussion about the need to think less about learning loss and the things our students are missing out on, and think instead of what they are gaining and the new opportunities that are being exploited. These are all great stories that have heaps in common with stories I am hearing from colleagues around New Zealand. It is important that we capture this thinking and don't allow it to fade from our memory (and experience!) once our schools open again.

Interesting links...

Here are some links from various lists and groups I belong to that I've found interesting this month, so thought I'd share them here:

• School-led learning at home - a fascinating paper from the team at Evaluation Associates that reports on a survey that sought the views of parents of Māori and Pasifika students on their experiences of the first week of school-led learning at home under the COVID-19 lockdown.
• Four Core priorities for Trauma-informed distance learning - a really interesting piece from the team at Mindshift, reminding us of our duty of care to our learners and our teachers who may be feeling stressed or anxious through this time, with some practical advice on how to address this.
• Education is Over - a challenging, if not controversial post on Medium by William Rankin offering perspectives on the need to use the opportunity to re-examine the structure of our modern education system.

Join my online workshop on Future Focused Schools

I'm running a 90 minute online workshop titled Future focused schools: aligning strategies to realise positive change through CORE Education on Tuesday 5 May, from 10.00 - 11.30. If you're keen to learn more about how to make your school or classroom programmes more Future Focused, simply click on the link above to join the group - there are still spaces left. If this time doesn't suit I'll be running the same session later in the year - check details on the website.

More from my blog...

Some other posts from my blog this month that may be of interest are...

• Learning Remotely - a personal story of the school that two of my grandchildren attend, and the ways in which their teachers and the community have worked to support learners and learning.
• Beliefs and Assumptions - a reminder of how important it is that before we simply 'transfer what we do face to face onto the online environment' that we challenge the beliefs and assumptions that inform these behaviours.
• Of Forests and Trees - thinking about issues of equity and how these have been exposed during the lockdown period, 

That's it for this month - thanks for subscribing to my site - please feel free to pass the link to others in your network who you think may find it useful.

Working online with your staff

I have worked in the field of distance education for more than 25 years, and can provide a range of services to your school and staff online. If this is something that interests you please feel free to contact me at derek@futuremakers.nz.