CyberSmart and the Purposeful Use of Google Meet Chat for Distance Learning

In this post, I'd like to focus on the purposeful use of Google Meet Chat and being Cybersmart during online meets. 

My students felt confident and comfortable during our online meets and, and at some stage, I noticed that my students started to take initiative in our online learning by sharing their ideas and experiences and inspiring each other to try new activities. I was very proud of my learners but also realised that talking ONE-At-A- TIME was a challenge for my young learners. It looks and feels different in class as I always use Think-Pair-Share and other strategies for my students to talk and share. During our 2 x 45 minutes long daily online sessions, it was a bit challenging for my young learners to stay muted. Soon, we decided to use the Google Meet CHAT! 

It became our new opportunity to cooperate and communicate with each other simultaneously. For example, when we solved each other's riddles, brainstormed rhyming words or answered Maths questions, all student could text their answers/ guesses to our Meet Chat and we all could see and respond to individual ideas, discuss, talk, give reasons and explain our thoughts. 

For me, it was a great opportunity to monitor my students' knowledge, skills, progress and gaps and then address their learning needs by assigning individualized tasks and/or giving timely feedback.

Maths:                                                                                               Rhymes:

Answering our Riddles:

From time to time, I had to remind my students to be Cybersmart. Reflecting on some of their comments (digital footprints), we also went over our School Values: Fun, Integrity, Respect and Excellence to support our Cybersmart learning and smart relationships.

Post-lockdown reflection:

When we finally returned back to school, I shared some of our Meet chat comments with my learners on a big screen and asked them to reflect on their online behaviours and digital footprints. It was a huge surprise for some of my learners who had obviously thought that their chat comments would have disappeared after we finished our calls. 

I hope this will have a big impact on their future online behaviours because I have provided my learners with real evidence and proof that everything that they send online stays there forever! 

It was a great CyberSmart life lesson!