To think live video lessons aren’t all they are cracked up to be

[Alex15]

During the last lockdown it seemed like people were almost obsessed with them and while they are good there are other forms of Homelearning the are also good and they really aren’t the silver bullet people claimed they were?

I'm pleased our school is doing them. They work very well for our situation, keep us in some sort of routine and DD interacts well with the learning, her teacher and her peers. I can see why they don't work for everyone though.

[quote Countdowntonothing]@Lougle

How can you take a register if you know half the class aren't online because their parent is using the only device to wfh? Or they have no tech and are still waiting for the government to hand out laptops? Or are sharing a laptop with a sibling but the sibling is using it at that time?

Can't really mark them absent for that! [/quote]
Well the school offered devices and put out a notice that they had noticed that some people with more than one child had only requested one device. They said that it was essential that every child has a suitable device, and they didn't want children taking their parents' devices, so urged parents to come and borrow a device for each child where necessary. So I guess they feel justified in taking a register. Having said that, our SIMS app has attendance disabled.

@Countdowntonothing this lockdown is driving an even bigger wedge between those lucky enough to have devices and good wifi and those who don’t. Makes me worried and sad. We need to vaccinate and get our kids back to school.

My kids primary has a good balance I think. They register and then they can chat and see their friends , then there are a mixture of live lessons and then set work . It’s nice they can all see each other and these kids love seeing their teacher as well .

Can't really mark them absent for that!

My secondary school is making us give negative points for those who don’t attend tutor time (live) or submit their work the same day.

I’m really angry with it because most of these children are sharing devices or don’t have an adult to help them get on the system. Luckily we are not doing full live lessons yet.

Disagree, oldest in online lessons much of the day, he's seeing his teachers, interacting with them and his peers and being 'taught' In the last lockdown, his form tutor called once. Youngest is still at primary, the format wouldn't work but they do 30 mins together each morning, watching him fly through his worksheet after just seeing his teacher makes me happy. Videos just aren't the same. Can't stand the recorded videos where the teacher asks the pupils name and 'asks' questions - I'm eye rolling hard and so is my 7 year old. I'm the same with online fitness, I'd rather do it live in real time any day.

I enjoy teaching live lessons via Teams. I have my camera on with a fun background. I talk through what we are going to be learning, they do a quick recap activity. I ask lots of questions to keep kids involved, I can follow what they are doing on OneNote. I also share my screen so they can see exactly what they are doing. I use my tablet for annotations. Lots of online games you can include. I try to work at a slower pace and have plenty of extension work so kids can move on. They can contact me via chat if they don’t want to speak.

They’re a joke.
We get half an hour per day

As a parent they're so inflexible! As a teacher I prefer to be in contact but not the whole lesson....I'd like the to go off and apply what they've learnt then msg me any problems. I think you can have the best if both worlds. My older girls have the full school day online....it's shit, especially trying to fit in other things like online trombone lesson!

Ours are really good and usefull. They give dd structure to her day and allow me an hour to get ready for work.
The 2.30 one is lovely as they can ask questions and talk about anything they have struggled with and allow dd to see her classmates and teacher.

They’ve made a massive difference to us this lockdown. DS (secondary) has a full timetable of Teams lessons following his usual timetable and it’s been seamless with no problems. DD (primary) has three group live lessons a week and they have made a massive difference to how she feels this time round- so much less isolated. And both those things have made it so much more possible for me to work from home.

If anyone tried to take them away I’d be so gutted.

My kids have been attending school virtually with Zoom lessons since March. It's been great. They can ask questions in real time just like they could in the classroom, they get to work collaboratively and show their work and get immediate support/feedback as they're trying to work things out.

It also stops one of my kids from procrastinating as much as they otherwise would and means I don't have to develop a routine for them and police/support it. But they're y7, can't see that working for infants or even less mature juniors.

The school provide a chrome book to any child who wants or needs one so everyone has their own device. Fortunately for their class it seems space issues aren't so problematic they stop anyone accessing, though I can see that won't be the case for everyone.

For the people saying the teachers record/say what the lesson is then the parents still have to help-it makes me laugh. Teachers don’t just stand up at the front, teach, then sit and relax for the rest of the lesson. They help the children too. That’s why it’s a tiring job.

@Spanglebangle

I disagree. My DD is 9 and just being able to see and talk to her teachers and classmates on the live lessons have made a world or difference to her mental health. She still feels like part of a group and it's been brilliant for her.

Same for my DC. It's been so much better than batches of worksheets. They can now full in and submit assignments/lessons online, so much less dithering. DC is 9 too.

It's because private schools did them to justify fees and suddenly they became the 'gold standard'.

It plays into parents naturally worries that their child is missing out.

My dd is 9 and has register 9am then prayers, English, maths and then a topic lesson all live on Microsoft teams then gets on with a follow on activity for each one. It’s working well but keeping the 19m old quiet and out of sight is hard. She has to wear school uniform and be up and ready and normal times and it’s giving her some normality, I’m grateful for it.

It is a million times better this. Lockdown, I am wfh, the teacher takes them for about 40 mins at 9,11 and 3 and is available to talk individually. Having the teacher talk through the work has absolutely made my job easier. I had such a headache last time after each day trying to do both teaching and my own work. It was horrendous.

Don't know how it impacts sahms but as a wfh mum it is much better.

DH teaches GCSE and A level, his school have been using live lessons since April and he is really getting into his stride now. I can hear him having a bit of a laugh with the older ones and he has a wall of fairy lights behind him to liven things up. The other day he asked if there were any questions and one kid said " My Mum said are you single sir?"

www.gov.uk/government/publications/whats-working-well-in-remote-education/whats-working-well-in-remote-education

Dd is year 6, and she's got quite a few prerecorded lessons on the school website. They can't do live lessons because a) all staff are in KW bubbles happy the time, so are busy and b) there are plenty of children in the school who do not have their own device that is capable of using teams/zoom. Dd would hate live lessons anyway and would certainly not appear in front of the camera or speak in a live lesson, she barely copes with talking in an in person lesson at school so online is a step too far for her. She much prefers being able to decide what time she does each bit of work. We've agreed on maths and English done by lunch every day, and one or two other subjects in the afternoon depending how long/interesting they are.

I don't want to bed tied to her having lessons at specific times, as she needs to work around when her dad and I are busy. We can manage to get her started on a task when we reach natural lull times in our own work, but it wouldn't always be possible to help her get set up on a live lesson if we were busy at that time. She's mostly fairly self sufficient, but does need help with the technology at times.

My teens are doing very well with live lessons, but both their schools seem really sensible about it. They are not doing 7 hours a day, both do about 4 hours of live lessons with breaks/lunch and built-in exercise and wellbeing activities, which is about the right amount. Most lessons are live but if a teacher can't do one, they do a pre-record video and set tasks, so that breaks it up. They get some interaction, one through Teams, one through chat. Both are on schedule learning GCSE work, get themselves up and in front of the laptop at the right time.

I've been delighted at how well it's worked out, much better than just leaving them alone like last year, that was demotivating and they struggled to keep the structure of a normal day/sleeping shifted, now they are 'at school' from 9-10am (both don't now start early) and it's great for me too! This is for older teens though, I can't imagine it working with primary age.

Not in the UK but I know the BBC are offering lessons in TV. I'd stick my kids in front of that then take the afternoon off.

It works very well for dd3 (y12) at a great school.

Rather less good for me. I teach a year 4/5/6 class in a small primary. In class, I give different inputs for maths in particular while the others do set tasks. Sometimes we all come together. Hard to replicate on line. Also, as others have said, there's a real difference between what access different children have. I'm available all day to answer questions or set up mini sessions to explain. Oh I don't knpw. I try my best and it's knackering so I hope it's helping.

DH teaches GCSE and A level, his school have been using live lessons since April and he is really getting into his stride now. I can hear him having a bit of a laugh with the older ones and he has a wall of fairy lights behind him to liven things up. The other day he asked if there were any questions and one kid said " My Mum said are you single sir?" @Serin that's really funny. I think learning to teach online is a huge learning curve- one issue is teachers over-estimate the amount that can be done, some of my dd's A level one hour classes take her 3 or 4 hours to complete the work. Another is confidence on camera which comes with time. My dd's school also has a good system where one teacher teaches and one mans the chat/interactive side. They only teach each subject once to all the students doing that topic, so everyone doing history does that one class, this frees up the other teachers to teach in school or to help with the main stream.

I feel like writing to my children's school and telling them how well they are doing, they just seem so sensible and flexible compared with some examples on here. There needs to be more sharing of best practice, good ideas, ways to minimise online fatigue and so forth.