Tips and Tools for Teaching Remotely

Richard Byrne - PracticalEdTech.com

Tips for Giving Live Online Instruction

● If you're going to use a service like Google Hangouts Meet, Microsoft Teams,
Zoom, or another service to give live instruction, ​keep your webcam on as
much as possible​. Yes, you're students can still walk away from their
computers while you're teaching, but they are less likely to get bored if they can at
least see your face as opposed to just your screen.

● Elevate your webcam to eye level or higher. No one, and especially not K-12
students, want to be looking up your nose for half an hour. On a related note look
at your webcam instead of your screen when you're trying to emphasize a point.
Tony Vincent provided a good example of how to do those things during ​his
presentation for the Practical Ed Tech Creativity Conference
(https://youtu.be/hl5WBoSmnQ8).

● Pepper your live online lessons with lots of little check-in questions for the group.
In an online setting you don't get the benefit of "reading the room" the way that
you do when your class meets in person. Your check-in questions could be as
simple as "who's still with me?" or they might be a little more difficult like "what's
the answer to that last problem?"

● Encourage students to ask questions. You might even say something like, "at the
ten minute mark I'm going to pause to give everyone a chance to enter a question
into the chat."

● Expect technical difficulties in live sessions. 90% of the time the technical
difficulty is on the viewer's end and not on your end. If you can, set up two
computers or work with a colleague to experience the students' perspective before
you go live with your class. Seeing the students' perspective will make it a little
easier to provide some troubleshooting tips on the fly.

● If you live in a rural area like me and you don't have the fastest Internet
connection, make sure other people in your house aren't streaming at the same
time you're trying to broadcast live video.
Tips for Giving Recorded Video Instruction

● Just like with live instruction, try to out your face in the video. Tools like
Screencastify and Screencast-o-matic let you record while keeping your webcam
on. Your face will appear in the video in a small box in one of the corners of your
video.

● Strive for short and sweet. Two five minute videos are more likely to be watched
all the way through by your students than one ten minute video is. The exception
is if you're really comfortable on camera and really good at engaging people
through video.

● Keep the screen active. An easy way to create a video lesson is to record a
screencast of your slides. That's also an easy way to bore the heck out of your
students if you don't keep the screen active (I learned that lesson the hard way
about 12 years ago). Add in more transitions and animations than you normally
use in your slides. Or if that seems like too much work then try the approach of
my friend Tom Richey. Tom splits the screen between him and his slides so that
something is always happening on the screen. ​Here's one of Tom's recent videos
(https://youtu.be/lK728n3-aYU).

Tools for Hosting Live Online Instruction

● In response to the spread of COVID-19 Google has ​increased the capabilities of

Hangouts Meet for G Suite for Education users​ (http://bitly.com/3aHrH9J). You
can now host up to 250 people in a Hangout. You can also now record your
Hangout and save it to Google Drive where you can then share it through Google
Classroom. ​Here​ are instructions for hosting Google Hangouts Meet events:
https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2020/03/how-to-schedule-host-and-custo
mize.html

● Microsoft has also responded to the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on
schools and businesses by increasing the availability of Microsoft Teams. Earlier
today Microsoft hosted a series of webinars about teaching online through
Teams. The ​recordings of those webinars can be watched here
(http://bitly.com/2VV8KMv).
 ● If Google Hangouts Meet or Microsoft Teams aren't available to you, you might
consider using ​Zoom.us​. Zoom offers a free plan in which you can host a live
broadcast for up to 100 people at a time. Zoom will record the meeting and you
can save it on your computer to distribute to your students who missed the live
meeting. ​Here’s a video​ on how to host a Zoom meeting
https://youtu.be/3WBpYCLLny4

Tools for Creating Recorded Video Lessons

● Perhaps the simplest way to record a video lesson is to put your phone in tripod
and record yourself in front of a whiteboard. I bought ​this 2'x3' whiteboard​ at my
local Walmart for less than $20. When you finish recording your video, use the
YouTube mobile app to do quick edits like trimming the start and end time then
publish it for your students to watch.

● If you have a YouTube account, you can conduct a live broadcast that will also be
recorded and saved in your account for playback. ​Watch this video
(https://youtu.be/efIJHM1hjRk) to see how that process works. It's important to
note that your account must have been verified for 24 hours before you can go
live on YouTube. ​Here's a demo​ (https://youtu.be/6wluJrFL6bo) of a livestream
that I did a couple of years ago.

● Showme​ (https://www.showme.com/) is a tool that I've recommended for years

for making whiteboard-style videos on iPads. It's also available to use on Android
tablets and Chromebooks (some, not all).

● Flipgrid​ (http://flipgrid.com/) added a whiteboard function last fall. You can

now record a whiteboard style instructional video for up to five minutes then
publish it for your students to watch and respond to. ​Watch this video
(https://youtu.be/MYSKTw5qgy8) to see how the whiteboard function works.
And if you want to go "old school" with Flipgrid, ​here's an idea
(https://youtu.be/H6o122ib0eo) for teaching lessons through it.

● Wakelet​ (https://wakelet.com/) has integrated the Flipgrid video tool. That

means you can record a whiteboard video within Wakelet. ​Here's a demo
(https://youtu.be/sOufRqfYR50) of how to do that.
● If you're a Mac or iPad user, now is the time to familiarize yourself with the basics
of making videos in iMovie. There are lots of quality tutorials available on
YouTube ​including these
(https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=imovie+tutorial).

● Chromebook and Windows users looking for a full-fledged video editor should
look at ​WeVideo​ (http://wevideo.com/). WeVideo has a good set of tutorial
videos ​here​ (https://www.youtube.com/user/wevideo).

● Finally, ​EDpuzzle​ (http://edpuzzle.com/) provides a great way to create

comprehension questions for your students to answer while watching the video
lessons that you create. ​Here's my overview​ (https://youtu.be/eWRseaT7-9U) of
how to use EDpuzzle.