Getting Ready for Hybrid Learning

As Barrington 220 prepares to move to a hybrid learning model in October 2020, many teachers have started to wonder what their classroom might look like when trying to teach some students in person and other students at home. One name for this model is concurrent classroom, and using this model for the first time may be challenging for teachers and students. However, concurrent classrooms also offer some exciting opportunities. Primarily, there are two major difficulties to address when planning for concurrent instruction, attention and variety,

The Problem of Attention

It’s very difficult to give attention, support, and feedback to students in different locations. Having some students on a video conference and other students in person means that a number of students are not getting your full attention at any one time. Teachers may initially find it challenging to facilitate learning, monitor the room, and monitor Zoom all at the same time.

The Problem of Variety 

Experienced teachers understand that using a variety of modalities during a lesson is vital to engaging students. A concurrent classroom may present a unique set of challenges, as transitions may be difficult for a teacher using this model.

Barrington 220 teachers have made many breakthroughs during distance learning, and much of what we’ve learned about new ways to facilitate high-level learning will carry over to the hybrid model.

Recently, Barrington High School iDAL coach, Jeff Spella, and Assistant Principal, Ben Rodriguez, worked to identify the instructional modalities that might make the most sense when teaching students in person and at home. We have identified six modalities that worked effectively in a concurrent classroom setting using our technology devices and services. We borrowed a classroom at the high school (thanks Lauren Schoepp) and tested them out. Here is a brief description of the modalities we tried, followed by some thoughts on what we learned. 

Modality	Description	Platform	Audio setup	Video setup
Whole Group
Discussion	All students participate in a class discussion.	Zoom	In-class students join without audio. Teacher connects to a projection device.	Teacher shares screen and projects
Direct Instruction	The teacher introduces, demonstrates, or models a concept or skill.	Zoom	In-class students join without audio. Teacher connects to a projection device	Teacher shares screen and projects
Small Group
Location-specific conferencing	Groups of in-person students and at-home students meet separately.	Zoom and in-person	Remote students will join with audio. In-person students will mute.	Remote students join with video. In-person students will have cameras off.
Mixed-location conferencing	Groups of in-person and at-home students meet together.	Google Hangouts	Head-phones are recommended for in-person students.	Students manage video settings
Small Group - Digital Collaboration	Groups of in-person and at-home students collaborate without video conferencing.	Padlet, Google Docs, JamBoard, etc.	none	none
Asynchronous
Individual or Group	Self-directed learning.	Multiple	none	none

Here is what we learned from our experience.

Whole-Group Discussion

• At-home students could hear surprisingly well when only the teacher’s computer was set up for sound. The teacher’s mic and projector’s speaker were sufficient for sound. 
• When leading a group discussion, the teacher may have all in-person students on a Zoom conference or participating through the teacher’s device. The only drawback we could see to not having in-person students on the Zoom is that at-home students can’t see them. 
• If in-person students are on the Zoom, they should join without audio by selecting “cancel” when prompted to join with audio. The microphone and speakers on the teacher’s device will be the only one’s using audio in the room. 
• The teacher’s microphone should be enough to pick up everyone in the room, but enabling audio on a second or third student device may be needed depending on the size of the room. In this case, the few students who join with audio should mute during the session unless someone near to them is speaking. This will likely not be needed in most classrooms, but might be effective in a larger space such as a library or gym. 
• To hear at-home students, the teacher should project to the SMART Board or other large screen in the room. 

Whole-Group Direct Instruction

• Two teacher devices are recommended for this setup: one device for managing the Zoom, and one for delivering the lesson. After several trials, it seems to work best to have a MacBook Air laptop as the Zoom device, and an iPad as the teaching device.
• On the Zoom device, the teacher should follow the same setup as “whole group discussion”.
• The teacher should then join the conference on a second device as a co-host (iPad is recommended) and screen-share to teach from this device. By projecting from the MacBook Air laptop and screen sharing from iPad, you are essentially projecting from your teaching device, giving you more flexibility.
• If a teacher is doing a live demonstration, it is recommended that you use an digital whiteboard rather than the physical whiteboard in the room. Trials showed us that at-home students will see much better with a digital whiteboard such as Google’s Jamboard.

Small-Group Conferencing

• Location-specific conferencing seems to be the easiest to set up. In this modality, in-person students meet with other in-person students, and at-home students meet with other at-home students.
• The teacher can use Zoom to manage Breakout Rooms for at-home students while physically monitoring discussions in class. In-person students should temporarily leave the Zoom during these discussions.
• For mixed-location group conferencing, we recommend Google Hangouts. The audio logistics for a Zoom proved difficult to manage. If teachers want to have in-class students to meet with at-home students in small groups, they should leave the Zoom and initiate their own Google Hangouts. This makes it easier for students to connect and manage their conversations, but makes it harder for teachers to monitor at-home students. While teachers will see the reactions of the in-class students, they will not see or hear the at-home students.