Using the Annotate Function on Zoom to Monitor Learner Understanding

Challenge –Monitoring learner understanding and basic literacy at the lowest levels is hard to do online. Whereas in the classroom a teacher can check individuals’ written work in the course of the lesson, online it is unclear to the teacher what exactly the learner is writing down or how much they have understood. The solution

Online Webquest (Version 1 – Individual Work)

Challenge – Online lessons sometimes can descend into chaos just because of the noise in the virtual classroom. It helps to have activities such as this to help learners learn a little on their own. This can be used as a warmer or cooler activity also. Tools Used – Zoom , Google, WhatsApp Activity Outline

Using Google Forms to Facilitate a Speaking Activity

Challenge – Speaking activities online have a tendency to be stilted. Students can find it unnatural and awkward to converse. Equally, it is difficult for the teacher to provide prompts as students are in break-out rooms. Tools Used – Zoom Breakout Rooms, Google Forms Activity Outline In this example learners were asked to have a

Using Zoom Breakout Rooms to Facilitate Online Mingling

Challenge – Mingling can be difficult in the online environment.  Sometimes learners have little control over who they speak to, for example when making breakout rooms, the teacher or the computer decides on the groupings.  The solution presented here is to use the ‘Let participants choose room’ function and a speaking exercise.  This will enable

Class Presentations Using Webquests and Breakout Rooms

Challenge – Giving presentations on subjects which they have researched themselves is helpful for learners, giving them applicable life skills both for future employment and further study. In the physical classroom the teacher might make use of selected printed texts for research, and then enable groupwork and a concluding classroom presentation. In the online classroom

Webquest (Version 2 – Group Work / Pair Work)

Challenge – Pair activity online seemed somewhat cumbersome at the beginning. One activity which lent itself to teamwork was a webquest used to introduce the lesson topic. The resources available online are perhaps too broad and had copious amounts of information (Wikipedia or Google). It can be difficult to sift through the amount of data