History lesson, by Terry Freedman
It's often said that pupils learn the most from what their teachers do, rather than what they say. Here are some good practices you need to adopt if you want your kids to lean good habits rather than bad ones.
In a physical classroom
Ensure that computers and software are set up and working properly before the lesson.
Observe health and safety regulations and common-sense rules, such as not eating or drinking at the computer.
Observe the correct procedures for using the equipment, such as by shutting down properly rather than simply switching the computer off.
Save your files in folders on the hard disk or on the network with meaningful names, not Doc1, Doc2, or Joan1, Joan2 etc -- in fact, you should have a system for naming your files.
Organise your computer workspace well.
Save your work frequently.
Use the correct terminology, and not confuse "memory", say, with "hard disk space".
Back up your work regularly to the cloud or an external device.
Use technology to produce signs for displays (and make sure the spelling is accurate!).
Use computers for administrative tasks, such as producing lists of pupils, producing quality worksheets, communicating with other schools, exchanging data with examination boards and so on.
Use technology overtly for real tasks, such as giving each pupil a sticky label with his/her name and class on, obviously mail-merged.
In an online classroom
As above where appropriate, plus:
Set up the room as best suits your pedagogy, if you can. For example, will you allow students to chat with each other privately? Will you encourage them to use the chat facility publicly?
Set out expectations and agree etiquette rules.
Ensure that students have a chance to practise if you are using an unfamiliar environment.
As you can see, none of this is rocket science -- or even complicated. Makes a big difference, though, especially when carried out day in and day out, week in, week out.
I’ve already written loads of tips for online teaching and learning, so you might wish to read the following articles as well:
Online Preparation Checklist For Teachers
Online Preparation Checklist For Students
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