Why aren't teachers providing lessons by Skype?

[Folicky]

If schools are to close, which they will eventually, why don't they teach the lessons via a video link / Skype? At the moment, as I understand it, if schools close, parents - many of whom will be working from home - will he expected to home school their children. How is that going to work?

'I wonder about lessons whereby the teacher talks to the pupils but it is not possible for the children to talk to the teacher. '

And children are to just sit and listen and pay attention etc?

Have you met any humans?

If adults who are working in well paid professional jobs can't do it, how are kids supposed to?

Distance working (as you are suggesting) is sub optimal for humans. This is well recognised in business. They try to get around it as best they can.

Your idea is riddled with impracticalities in implementation, execution, and effectiveness.

The fact you actually posted this
Universities and further education colleges are delivering lectures via video based methods to groups
shows what a complete lack of understanding you have.

How, in any world imaginable, do you think you can compare the most academic and most motivated 40% of the population of 18 - 21 yr olds, with a class full of children of all abilities and backgrounds. Children from 4 yrs upwards. Children with all kinds of SEND. Children with poor concentration. Children without access to reliable internet. Children without access to a laptop.
Amazing, that anyone can be that naive.

I assumed that all public sector jobs followed similar employment law and therefore that teachers will be required to be in work or do work from home also after 3 days

So this is about you being expected to go into work and teacher sitting around at home drinking tea?

And not only the children seeing into the houses of the teachers, there might well be lots of parents who don’t want the teachers seeing in their houses.

I work in a school and we have been told we will be expected to do work at home.

As for children having Skype lessons how will that work in my house with 3 kids and one laptop?

OP you are funny

So the idea is

A. Teachers record and edit (tricky and v time consuming) full days of lessons for students
B. Students (who have a quiet place to be and access to laptop internet etc uninterrupted) sit and watch for X hours quietly consuming info with total attention

So we ignore the fact that both are wildly unrealistic. In that. Just won't work. At all.

I did OU for a while, they understood that distance learning needs a mix of stuff. And that's for adults. Who are paying. And doing it part time.

I find it interesting you are flogging such an unworkable idea. What's your angle?

@Ickythumpego get there them all to mute their microphones and type questions.
We had a trial session today- postgrad professionals nearly everyone uses it lots for work. It was exhausting- doing it 9-5 tomorrow and I could cry at the prospect.

It’s better for teachers to design lessons that can be managed and marked from home using a mix of free online resources (like GCSE bitesize and Khan Academy) and printed materials. But these lessons imply you have interested parents who will supervise - many kids don’t.

Primary teaching is not lecturing. What is effective at secondary and beyond would not be with younger pupils . Not sure how many early years children would sit and watch Skype from 9-3!
Teachers have much additional workload beyond the most important bit ( the teaching) so don't worry, they will still be working if schools do close.

OP, are you worried about children not getting an education, or are you worrying that it’s not fair if schools close and teachers then sit around at home doing nothing for a month?
If it’s the latter, I’d like to reassure you that I spend far more time planning, resourcing, amending, assessing and marking, than I actually spend in front of the class. Teachers will have PLENTY of work to do, should schools actually close. I echo others in that, with primary school children, delivering Skype lessons will be a technical, logistical, safeguarding nightmare which would absolutely exclude the more vulnerable, less affluent children.

Additionally, most of the teachers I know don’t want the schools to close. We know what it will do to the parents and the economy. However, with staff are dropping like flies, I don’t know how we will cope soon.

Flamingoandjohn, no that comment was because several of the earlier answers were along the lines of: how could we do video teaching when we will have our own children to look after.

Also, I wasn't envisaging 9-5 video teaching maybe 30-60 mins once per day.

Have you ever worked in a situation where phone or video conferencing is a norm, op?

Been asked to produce 'basic webinars' (edited videos) when you have no background in that?

Out of interest.

DD school has closed they are providing work over Google docs, that feels entirely reasonable.

@Folicky you are coming across here as being completely dim. Are you seriously suggesting teachers are going to Skype teach a load of kids for the whole day?? We are at the stage where getting out of this thing alive and without losing your home due to recession is a bonus. Little Freddie missing his times tables is not important at this moment in time.

What is the actual point you are trying to make?

Op are you trying to get at the fact that you think teachers will not be working if they close the schools? And you think that will basically be dumping workbooks online and then be taking advantage of a extended holiday?

This I can assure you is not the case. Teachers will be expected to and continuing to work from home. If they decide to use a process such as workbooks then they will be making themselves available during lesson/school day to answer and respond to any students queries and questions as needed. Which I imagine will be a very time consuming task once the schools close and things move to remote learning.

Along side the remote learning provision teachers will be expected to provide, they also have to do a lot of admin work which is also time consuming but many people dont realise it exists as it often happens from the school closing to 5/6pm if not later and weekends.

So I can assure you that teachers will most definately be continuing to work when/if the schools close. And many will be attempting to be available to students while juggling their own childcare/children's needs.

I assumed that all public sector jobs followed similar employment law and therefore that teachers will be required to be in work or do work from home also after 3 days

So really your point is that you don’t think teachers should get paid if schools are shut? Teachers will still be working, but it’s impossible for that to look the same as when everyone’s together in a classroom. That doesn’t mean they won’t be working.

It’s absolutely awful that people are going to be facing serious financial issues because of covid-19. It’s terrible. A race to the bottom isn’t going to help anyone though.

Folicky if it's 30-60 mins

Which subject
Who is filming
Who edits (nightmare IME)
etc

Videos online that are already available would be better. Scripted, cut, etc professionally.

Bring back late night OU with bearded men and a blackboard (yes I am old!)

no that comment was because several of the earlier answers were along the lines of: how could we do video teaching when we will have our own children to look after.

Well that doesn’t even make sense. I still don’t get what point you are trying to make.

All that comes into my mind is that guy who was trying to do an interview on BBC news when his two children came wandering in followed by an extremely stressed looking mum.

My point is that most parents who work will either have to go into work or do the same amount of work from home. Also that they will not be able to afford unpaid leave and/or will not be able or willing to use their annual leave to stay at home and not turn in any work. Given both of those things, who is going to help the children do the written work set by the school? Even if that is just around 15hrs of school work per week.

I think teachers should get paid. I don't think they're work shy / skiving

Why are you focussing on teachers?

Everyone is in a difficult situation.

Are you worried about your kids?

What is the bottom line here op spit it out.

In the evenings after work like you might do with homework. Or they could email their teacher with questions.
How do you think a teacher Skyping 30 children would help the children to do written work?

What we could actually do with is the old tv programmes for schools updating & being on again, but with a wider curriculum & more stuff for the older kids with some interactive learning involved, almost a mixture of BBC bitesize & things to watch.

Also, it wouldn't work if the teacher can't see or hear pupils; how are you supposed to make sure they're still even sat at the computer?! It would require a parent to be present to do the behaviour management. Impractical with multiple kids and/or working from home.

And OP, you say after 3 days teachers should be working from home, as other workers. You do realise that teachers will start working from home the next day (or even the same day) that the schools close, don't you? We won't be able to wait 3 days, we'll be wanting to continue with whatever work it is we're sending out.

(Disclaimer: yes, some teachers will see working from home as a jolly - I've known a couple like this in my years of teaching - but that's the same for any employees having to start working from home, yes?

OP I'm not at all sure that most people in work in UK can WFH.

we have huge numbers in NHS, hospitality, transport, etc etc etc

You seem quite naive.

Standard lesson here after 4 days of school closure - & yes we are constantly evolving.

Everything is posted on Google classroom. Often the PowerPoint or other resource the teacher would have used if the class was in school as normal. Frequently an explanatory video posted too - pre recorded, so even if it's just 10-15 minutes of teacher explanation the teacher has spent an additional 1-2 hours recording videos for a school day. Considerably longer if they're doing a fancy set of resources to tie in to the video, or embedding stuff. Or if they've had to re-think their entire lesson because it's an entirely different delivery mechanism & they've realised it just won't work remotely.

So you've just added in a few more hours to that teacher's week.

They're available live during lesson time to respond to student queries. 50 minute lesson & 25 kids? That should keep them quite busy; generally more so than in a normal lesson.

Then they have to mark all the work. But lots of the students have suddenly forgotten all their IT skills & can't remember how to upload a google doc. So they're all emailing the teacher, helplessly, all evening, & meanwhile she's trying to record tomorrow's lessons.

Plus the usual marking load.

Oh, & facilitating her own dc who are also fumbling their way through distance learning, or are bolshy uncooperative teenagers or little ones who'd usually be at nursery.

I'm currently living this dream & it's coming together ok. But I'm on my flipping knees with it.

No, I'm not going to be doing 6 hours of online live videoing on top.