DIGITAL LEARNING students to offer feedback – whether about the nature of a live lesson , material they have been working through , or more general features of their approach to learning .
Furthermore , the nature of the relationship between live and non-live lessons has necessitated careful thinking about the volume of subject content and the speed at which it can be taught . For some this has resulted in more nuanced , detailed or thoughtful dissection of material than might happen typically . Breaking things down into their component parts and practising them in isolation reduces cognitive load and encourages critical thinking about the relationship between parts and the whole ( Christodoulou , 2020 ). It has also meant rethinking the way in which different units or topics are best presented . It may come as a surprise , but not teaching topics in blocks and in sequence has been shown to result in better long-term retention ( Firth , Rivers & Boyle , 2019 ). In practice this means introducing planned intervals to the teaching of particular units , or actually interleaving them . This practice is an example of what has become known as a ‘ desirable difficulty ’ ( Bjork and Bjork 2014 ). Remote learning can afford teachers opportunity to nurture learning in this way , at least in part because the relationship between participation in live lessons and completing independent work has inevitably undergone revision .
Assignments teachers have set , which enable them to assess how well students are learning , have if anything been more varied in this period . Allowing students to select from a range of learning tasks has facilitated an element of choice on their part , and this has in turn nurtured independent engagement in the material . The most extreme examples of this approach were demonstrated in the Year 11 projects . Being given opportunity to write an original play , imagine the nature of the cosmos in 100,000 years or explain the complex secrets of cryptography has perhaps reminded us of the power and reach of independent curiosity in the world . We remain ‘ constrained ’ by the content of examination syllabi , but where opportunity presents itself for students to develop and to demonstrate their own interest in subject content , whether or not directly connected to the syllabus , it seems remiss not to take advantage of it . This does not mean ‘ project based ’ learning , whose effectiveness has ( probably rightfully ) been brought into serious doubt ( Kirschner , Sweller & Clark , 2006 ); it does mean teaching students skills associated with research , interdisciplinary thinking , presentation and collaboration in connection with a topic they simply want to know more about .
Self-regulated learning
Research provides a great deal of support for a correlation between the development of a reflective capacity and improved student outcomes ( Education Endowment Foundation , 2018 ). Perhaps surprisingly , online learning can help significantly with this . During the lockdown , our Head of Art , Charley Openshaw led ‘ slow looking ’ classes in which participants were asked to make drawings in response to particular details from various paintings . The exercises were in themselves hugely enjoyable , but one of the most striking elements was the way he vocalised his thoughts as he performed each one . In this vein , screencasts that demonstrate the practice of ‘ thinking aloud ’ have been particularly effective . Whether using software such as Explain Everything ( explaineverything . com ) or simply recording voice over a PowerPoint in order to present worked examples , outcomes are substantially improved when learning is broken down and details interrogated metacognitively , a process which is facilitated through the use of non-live technology ( Badger et al , 2019 ). It is also apparent that being able to pause a screencast , make notes and check for understanding means that students can self-assess and self-reflect on how they are doing , or feel they are doing , as they go along .
Technology can support the development of a reflective narrative in different ways . We are all very familiar with the value of testing , for example , as a means to help transfer content from short into long term memory , and to provide us with information about student understanding , so that we can adjust our teaching
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