How do we know what a learner needs?
I was speaking with some teachers this week, and a story came up about a particular student who was disengaged; I guess you’d say they were ‘missing’. And the teacher was worried because this learner had made great strides before lockdown, but also was conscious of adding to the torrent of emails and overwhelmingness that creates - so she had ‘backed off’ to grant this learner ‘space’.
We batted this around a bit, and we wondered whether the nature of the contact was the thing, not whether there was contact. After all, how many of us ignore digital contact when it stabs into something we don’t want to deal with?
And now I’m wondering whether distance learning narrows the information available to teachers, information that helps them know how to support learning. In a classroom I don’t think a lot of that information comes from the actual work - very rarely does looking at the page help teachers know how to reach the learner and help them grow. It’s through relationships, isn’t it, though knowing and understanding. And relationships are dependent on people noticing and responding to tiny clues.
So the question I have is: how are relationships sustained and grown in a distance learning world? How can digital be harnessed to discover the tiny clues that make a huge difference to learning and learners?
On Wednesday, we’ll consider this during the ‘live chat’ between 7-8pm. Join us and add your ideas to the collective.
SMATA
A tool to help teachers, help students.
SMATA helps you to capture observations, understand learning trends, and encourage growth.