Learn Create Share as a framework for distance learning

Officially, it is school holidays at the moment, but I know that many of us are currently occupied with the task of transitioning our practice to suit the 'new normal' of lockdown. There has been a flurry of activity and discussion online about this transition, much of it focused on issues of access and gadgetry. Questions of access centre around the infrastructure - who has devices? Who has internet? How can we provide for those who are missing out? The gadgetry includes all manner of sites, apps, services and tools that are being made available to 'support' schools to lead learning remotely. The lolly scramble of resources and advice can be quite overwhelming, especially as we all want to make sure that we are keeping up, creating equity and 'doing it right'.

A wise woman once told me that 'any teacher who can be replaced by a computer should be'. When we centre our discussions on the device, on the app, on the site, we forget the most valuable resource for learning is the teacher. I would like to see our discussions focus more on the teaching, and how to support teachers to amplify their expertise in a remote learning model. Those of us who are part of the Manaiakalani Programme are incredibly fortunate to have been well-prepared for the situation we are currently experiencing, through the Learn, Create, Share pedagogy and the kaupapa of Visible, Empowered, Connected and Ubiquitous learning.

So how do we ensure that when we take away the physical and social structures of the school day that our model for teaching and learning holds up? Now we are thinking beyond issues of access, and looking at what is going to make an impact. Let's look at each element of our pedagogy in turn to see how Learn, Create, Share can act as a vehicle for effective remote teaching practice.

Ako | Learn

Teachers each have their class site as the central hub for teaching and learning, this remains the same whether our students are in the classroom with us or learning remotely. We know that managing learning through the site allows teachers to focus on high leverage teaching practices, and empowers learners to take greater ownership of their learning. By adding in rewindable learning resources such as video explanations and demonstrations, we can achieve A4 learning, ie anyone, anywhere, anytime at any pace. These elements are things we have already recognised as components of effective teaching practice. To maintain connection with our learners, we can schedule face to face time using Google Hangouts Meet. A hangout may be a 1:1 conference between teacher and student, a small group, or a whole class. These meetings should be recorded, which allows them to become a rewindable resource as well as safeguarding teachers and students. 

Hanga | Create

When we build in opportunities to create, we push our learners to engage deeply with their learning in order to make something new to show their understanding of skills and concepts. Create is not about busy work, it is an opportunity for learners to think, discuss, apply, synthesise and justify. Teachers can support the focus on higher order thinking through creativity by providing/co-constructing success criteria that connect the quality of thinking to the level of achievement. Visual presentation and digital fluency skills may also be developed through the creation of DLOs, but we need to be careful to keep the learning focus (whatever skill or concept we are teaching) squarely in our sights. Our feedback in blog comments should also focus on these success criteria.

While are students are learning remotely, there are all sorts of creative ways that they can demonstrate their understanding. This blog post shows how students have created sets of objects from around their home to demonstrate an understanding of fractions. We can see that this student has had to think about how to represent fractions using physical objects, and shows some understanding, although this could be developed further. Non-digital artefacts can be captured through photos, video and audio recordings.

Tohatoha | Share

Sharing adds depth to learning by inviting others' perspectives and feedback, and through the reflective thinking required to write a quality blog post. Sharing is also a crucial part of staying connected with each other while we are all in our respective bubbles. Students who have individual blogs can share their learning regularly and independently. Teachers can amplify students' blog posts by reposting them on the class blog, drawing attention to them during daily hangouts or greeting videos and writing quality comments. If learners do not yet have their own blog, the class blog can be set up to receive posts via email. Here is a great example of parents supporting their children to share by photographing and emailing student created artefacts to the class blog.

Commenting on blog posts allows us to engage learners in sharing ideas through discussion, a high leverage teaching practice. Although this discussion may be asynchronous, which is different to in-person discussions, the time lag allows all participants to spend time thinking about their responses and contributions. Teachers can support discussion by asking thought provoking, open-ended questions and explicitly teaching learners how to monitor and respond to comments on their blogs. Class blogs can also be used to post provocations that require students to respond to the teacher and each other, using evidence to justify their position. 

There is little that is certain as we look ahead to the coming term, the remainder of the school year and beyond. What I feel sure of though, is that we have an excellent framework for leading learning in uncertain times, through Learn, Create, Share. The confidence that I have is definitely helping to ignore the bombardment of 'gadgetry' offers in my inbox, and I would encourage any teacher or school leader who is concerned about the move to remote learning to remember effective practice and stick to what we know. 

Resources to support LCS 

Learn Create Share diagram with links
Recording of Kelsey's Screencastify toolkit
Using Google Hangouts Meet

Create: Exploring Create in the Manaiakalani Programme