Teachers equipment for online teaching!!!!

ethical

Just realising now how far behind we are as far as technologhy goes!

And also realising inequality within schools as far as equipping teachers with the hardware tools to produce quality online learning.
Why are some staff given the latest hi tech hardware whereas others are left out.
Some teachers are using their own Phones and Laptops which I would hazard a guess is going to get them into bother as far as GDPR goes when this episode passes.

It has been brought to my attention how some schools are having online staff meetings whereas other schools ,due to the inequality within staff equipment,would like to have online meetings but have come to the realisation that it cannot happen!

One thing this pandemic is showing up is the inequality within many walks of life,hopefully we never,ever go back to the horrible unequal world that existed a few short weeks ago.
Nature is a force that can correct itself in a very short space of time if you take the GREEDY human out of the equation. Look at the blue skies in China,and the birds singing and then the fish in the canals of Italy.
Yet,what do we have to offer,fcukin greedy arsholes raking up expenses in the Golden Circle while ignoring the unfortunate children who have an unequal path to the promised land.We have enough if only it was spread equally,and this might ,just might happen as the by- product that this Corona curse.

Damien360

I have 2 kids in secondary. One school has all the microsoft apps online and the teachers are using their own iPads and laptops to request material to be done. They are not presenting. Works well

The other kids school uses the google apps. They are more accessible but not as user friendly. Again those teachers are using their own equipment.

The teaching tools are the apps. The homework is stuff to keep them busy. Book report from a list. Make and do a solar system. Irish homework was autocorrected in a MS app which chopped 50% off for failing to use fadas. Can’t remember the context of that homework.

byhookorbycrook

Fish in the canals in Venice is a hoax . wise , I’m using my phone and my laptop to do what I can.
What’s the “ golden circle?”

Very easy to set up a WhatsApp group . Would you like vinegar with those chips ?

solerina

I asked a good few times for laptops etc to be provided, instead classroom PCs were purchased. These get used to show powerpoints, YouTube but very little else. Meanwhile I am here trying to deliver lessons with my own personal iPad, borrowing a friends laptop to prepare work and using her wi fi as mine is so poor. Shows how inequality can cause issues even for the teachers, the poorer students don’t stand a chance !!

wingnut

Damien360 wrote: »

The other kids school uses the google apps. They are more accessible but not as user friendly.

I have lots of experience of both platforms can't for the life think why anyone would find office 365 more user friendly then G Suite.

wirelessdude01

wingnut wrote: »

I have lots of experience of both platforms can't for the life think why anyone would find office 365 more user friendly then G Suite.

I looked at both for primary level for myself and went with Google classroom. A lot simpler in my mind for the parents and children to use.

RealJohn

I agree, I think the ‘G-suite’ stuff is fine, for the most part. Not great for more advanced stuff (and that’s counting things like subscripts and superscripts as advanced) but the basics are every bit as accessible as they are on Microsoft. I grew up with MS Word, MS Excel, etc. so I feel like G-suite is a bit threadbare, but it’s perfectly accessible, in my opinion, for younger students especially, without loads of stuff on cluttered toolbars that they might never use.

Paulbeth

I have a child in 6th class. We’re only receiving lists of work to do - no online face-to-face contact, no corrections. I know there are privacy issues with some apps, but MS Teams could be used and Zoom is engaging with their privacy snags. We could at least email a photo of work done to the class teacher? But we haven’t been asked to do this.

I’m working from home myself. It’s not easy for me to home-school, mostly because I don’t have the skills. I’m concerned that the transition to secondary school will be difficult because so much school time/teaching is being lost.

Are many primary school teachers in online face-to-face contact with their classes?

Millem

Paulbeth wrote: »

I have a child in 6th class. We’re only receiving lists of work to do - no online face-to-face contact, no corrections. I know there are privacy issues with some apps, but MS Teams could be used and Zoom is engaging with their privacy snags. We could at least email a photo of work done to the class teacher? But we haven’t been asked to do this.

I’m working from home myself. It’s not easy for me to home-school, mostly because I don’t have the skills. I’m concerned that the transition to secondary school will be difficult because so much school time/teaching is being lost.

Are many primary school teachers in online face-to-face contact with their classes?

We are just getting massive lists every day of all new work to complete.
I asked my son’s Junior Infants teacher to correct 1 piece of work....a piece of writing.....sent her a photo.
She hasn’t corrected it...told me to go on a website myself to check/correct it myself.

Really annoyed with it tbh......I correct every piece of work my students send me. We use Microsoft teams.
Some take students take a photo and attach as a pdf....some take photos and I attach it myself into word. After Easter I have typed up their worksheets into word so they can just type in directly. I can correct it then easily.

ascophyllum

Paulbeth wrote: »

I have a child in 6th class. We’re only receiving lists of work to do - no online face-to-face contact, no corrections.

Are many primary school teachers in online face-to-face contact with their classes?

Just curious why you want to see the teacher's face or why you want them to see the child's face/house/bedroom? I don't see the advantage it confers for learning.

CraftySue

I'm not sure how many teachers are doing real time, online face to face classes with students, as they raise a number of concerns. I generally pre-record lessons, and have them uploaded so students can access them anytime, but am available online via teams chat and email to answer questions and give feedback. I do it this way because some students might not have access to IT at that time we would normally have classes. I would be wary of zoom, there has been issues with it, porn related, also anyone can record zoom lessons. I know of students who have given out passwords for zoom lessons to other people, and when the teacher went live with their class they had other people (not their students) in the online class messing. At the moment there isn't enough guidance I feel, which leaves teachers open.

TheDriver

There does appear to be a lot of disparity amongst primary schools. I've heard of schools sending daily work along with videos for wprd pronunciations etc whilst others send a weekly email with web links.

At secondary, i too don't see the need for live streaming, pre recording is much better to ensure all can avail when it suits them IT wise. Feedback is important so homework submitted, reviewed and returned is vital.
I'm using my phone for all recording etc. No GDPR issues as it is all saved on the school's systems in the cloud. In fact safer than copies on the kitchen table that anyone could poke through.
You don't need massive equipment to do this work.

Paulbeth

ascophyllum wrote: »

Just curious why you want to see the teacher's face or why you want them to see the child's face/house/bedroom? I don't see the advantage it confers for learning.

Well, it’s a more comprehensive form of communication. I agree, though, it doesn’t have to be in real-time.

As for me seeing the teacher’s face, I obviously mean that it’s best for the student to see the teacher’s face, and charts, graphs, pictures being used. Teaching/Learning is a complex mix of verbal and non-verbal communication in my experience.

My daughter does her school work in the kitchen.

afkasurfjunkie

Millem wrote: »

We are just getting massive lists every day of all new work to complete.
I asked my son’s Junior Infants teacher to correct 1 piece of work....a piece of writing.....sent her a photo.
She hasn’t corrected it...told me to go on a website myself to check/correct it myself.

Really annoyed with it tbh......I correct every piece of work my students send me. We use Microsoft teams.
Some take students take a photo and attach as a pdf....some take photos and I attach it myself into word. After Easter I have typed up their worksheets into word so they can just type in directly. I can correct it then easily.

Why would you be asking a teacher to correct a junior infants’ writing exercise? 5/6th I could understand.

Paulbeth

afkasurfjunkie wrote: »

Why would you be asking a teacher to correct a junior infants’ writing exercise? 5/6th I could understand.

I guess because that’s what a primary school teacher does best. When my child was in Infants and I was at my first parent-teacher meeting, I saw some of her ‘free’ writing and wasn’t sure whether it was good or bad - ‘I kikd sum leefs’ - that sort of thing. Teacher assured me it was fine.

Millem

afkasurfjunkie wrote: »

Why would you be asking a teacher to correct a junior infants’ writing exercise? 5/6th I could understand.

I have no idea if I am teaching him how to write sentences correctly.....it was 3 sentences. I have no idea re letter size/spacing etc.

Why wouldn’t I ask for work to be corrected? I am a teacher myself and getting full pay.

Paulbeth

Millem wrote: »

We are just getting massive lists every day of all new work to complete.
I asked my son’s Junior Infants teacher to correct 1 piece of work....a piece of writing.....sent her a photo.
She hasn’t corrected it...told me to go on a website myself to check/correct it myself.

Really annoyed with it tbh......I correct every piece of work my students send me. We use Microsoft teams.
Some take students take a photo and attach as a pdf....some take photos and I attach it myself into word. After Easter I have typed up their worksheets into word so they can just type in directly. I can correct it then easily.

Yes. I’m correcting my students’ work also (FET).

TheValeyard

We're doing audio not video. Privacy concerns.

Also doing live classes through teams and not recording.

Reason is straight forward and I agree with it, teachers need, to the best of our ability stick to our timetable, so do students. Give them structure and routine. Simply recording the lesson will have students not log onto your class at the scheduled time but do it at random times or skip classes they are not fond of.

But whatever suits each of us best in these times.

afkasurfjunkie

Millem wrote: »

I have no idea if I am teaching him how to write sentences correctly.....it was 3 sentences. I have no idea re letter size/spacing etc.

Why wouldn’t I ask for work to be corrected? I am a teacher myself and getting full pay.

As am I. And we both know if a sentence is written correctly.

Millem

afkasurfjunkie wrote: »

As am I. And we both know if a sentence is written correctly.

I don’t know what standard is expected in Junior Infants. .....which is why I asked her to correct it. He has never written full sentences before.

A teacher should expect to correct any work that is being set. Students like to receive feedback for work they have completed.
I don’t see what the problem is. We are only doing a fraction of the work being set as I am logging in for all my classes.

greenttc

I think teachers should of course correct work that they assign. In my mind it is fairly rude not to, not to mind how demotivating it would be for a student to do work and then get no feedback on it. In saying that however, it is a HUGE amount of work to correct everything that has been assigned. I'd say most teachers in the country ended up assigning lots of work to keep students going, far more work than they would normally assign and it was all in good spirit. But now teachers have realised that it would take hours and days and weeks of work to get it all corrected properly.

That is why it is now important for teachers to move into more advanced methods of teaching if possible, recorded or live lessons where there is not necessarily work assigned or if the work is assigned it is a self correcting quiz or something similar so that teachers can stick to a normal work load instead of the gigantic achievable workloads that we landed in as a result of assigning so much work.

In saying all that, while teaching methodologies have to be adapted to suit both student and teacher workloads and patterns i think it is still important for teachers to correct all work assigned, it is just common courtesy.

I'm sure ill be given out to a lot now after writing this post!!

Teach30

No laptop and was using phone until screen cracked. Uploading work and trying to correct using own mobile data. Costing me a fortune.

Not every students or teachers circumstances lends itself to this scenario and we are all trying our best. Really don’t know what I’ll do next week when we’ve to get back to work.

mirrorwall14

TheValeyard wrote: »

We're doing audio not video. Privacy concerns.

Also doing live classes through teams and not recording.

Reason is straight forward and I agree with it, teachers need, to the best of our ability stick to our timetable, so do students. Give them structure and routine. Simply recording the lesson will have students not log onto your class at the scheduled time but do it at random times or skip classes they are not fond of.

But whatever suits each of us best in these times.

To be honest as a parent I think this is really fundamentally unfair unless there’s been some serious engagement with parents. I don’t know of know house where there isn’t some upheaval with parents working from home or on shift work and multiple children trying to access education. Broadband access is at a premium and older students are providing childcare while parents work etc. I have one sixth year with no internet access at all for example and that’s in the commuter belt of the Dublin region. I’m looking into sending him a USB with all my video lessons to date. If I was doing zoom only he’d have lost every bit of it.

In a school environment that student returning the next day could speak to you in person to clarify things, or sit down with a friend and go through it with them

Edit: debating with my husband, he says initial engagement is probably better which I’ll concede perhaps but agrees with me in the long run, choosing not to record disadvantages students.

Also to give my experience. We are doing far more than any school locally to us. My engagement is very high currently or at least has been. The schools refusals and maybe 2-3 others per class disengaged but none unexpected. However by the end of the week with a ping from me there is almost no work outstanding. They are all logging on at different times. Many following the timetables, many not. But the work is getting done. And everything is there and will be there for them to go through over and over again

rainbowtrout

I'd agree with all of the above. I have a student living in the sticks and their internet is crap to non-existent. The mother emailed asking if work could be sent to her child as he is keen to work. I printed some of the material and because I had made audio recordings etc for the rest I was able to put it on a USB and stick it in the post. She emailed back to say they got it and were very grateful.

Another family have three students in my school (not the only family in that situation). Two are doing LC and 1 doing JC. I don't see the JC on much during timetabled slots. I'm presuming they don't have 3 laptops for all of them to log in live so they have to share and the LCs are getting priority. Don't know if the parents are also working from home. There's also a primary school child in that house. Plenty of families in that situation and the kids are accessing the material in the evening when they have access.

I don't have other commitments so I can be online during my timetabled classes. I upload the material at the start of class and during class and I am online during the 40 mins a class is timetabled for. I ask the students to post/like to show they've logged in. Engagement has been high in some classes and low in others. I could have predicted who I wouldn't see engage before this ever happened based on what I see in school. Many of my students log in live to the class, but I get a few others later on in the evening who post to say they got the work. I don't want them to be disadvantaged because they can't login live.

This way they all have access to the recordings and can download them and view them as many times as they want. There would be a lot more disadvantage if I was live.