In this week’s episode, I speak with Michelle Thomason about the social & emotional competencies needed for online teaching & learning in secondary education. Michelle had so many insights into shifting her 6th Standard classes online and what she sees for the future of education.

The SECs in Distance Leadership Series was created for the SECs in Distance Leadership Graduate Course that I taught in the Spring/Summer of 2020. The interviews were conducted with educators and leaders about the changes they’ve seen and what they think will be pivotal as we move forward from the COVID work-from-home and emergency online teaching/learning mandates.

Throughout the week of August 9, 2020, the page will be updated with resources to help foster online connections with students.

Digital & Media Literacy

Michelle and I spoke about the importance of students developing digital and media literacies when they do go back to school. In my research on digital literacies, I often use the Mozilla Web Literacies Framework. This framework focuses on an individual’s ability to read, write, and participate online. Michelle spoke about her student’s writing to her, engagement with the content, potential to be overwhelmed with content, and their participation online. For example, Michelle had one student who was really thriving, as they were able to really sit with the course content and think about their responses. However, this wasn’t the case for all students.

Learning from home requires a plethora of self-management, critical thinking, self-awareness, and social awareness skills not just on the part of the students, but also the educator. Media Smarts is a great resource for developing some of these social and emotional skills and digital literacy skills.

Have a resource? Share it below!