GIGA Startup - The Challenge of a Local Public Elementary School
Are you familiar with the "GIGA School Concept"?
For more details, please take a look here.
It has been one year since 150 iPads arrived for students and staff in March 2021.
It seems this was originally planned for a bit later, so I thought that if it weren't for the COVID-19 pandemic, we might not have seen such a sudden change, but all's well that ends well!
The way children learn and the way we teachers work have taken a leap forward in a positive direction.
In this article, I will look back and write about the initiatives of the 2020 and 2021 school years, during which I served, in my own small way, as a promoter and leader for GIGA.
1 The Ultimate App: "LoiloNote"
Looking back, in the spring of 2020, when the GIGA project suddenly landed on us, I was grateful that the Board of Education asked the school staff, "What do you need?" (though, of course, that's not exactly how they phrased it).
While surrounding municipalities were choosing Windows tablets or Google Chrome, our municipality decided on iPads.
It became a fine piece of hardware, and I have nothing but gratitude for the Board of Education, who listened to our suggestions regarding the essential software and made the brilliant decision to include LoiloNote.
The GIGA devices, delivered in late March 2021, just before the new school year, were 8th generation iPads (standard model) with Logicool keyboard cases (shock-absorbing cases for lower grades) and iPad pens (Logicool Crayon).
As for the software, in addition to standard iOS apps, LoiloNote School and Lines e-Library Advance were installed as classroom support software.
The total cost was 100,000 yen. I am also very grateful to the mayor and the town council members who secured a budget that far exceeded the government subsidies.
Among them, LoiloNote was a type of app that we teachers had never touched before. During the staff training held immediately after the delivery in March, despite it being a busy time at the end of the school year and participation being voluntary, we were able to hold a Loilo experience session with everyone attending.
In a word, LoiloNote is a notebook app.
Its features include:
○ You can turn anything into a card, regardless of file type: text, images, audio, web, etc.
○ You can freely rearrange cards and easily create nested structures.
○ Using the "Submit" function, you can submit created cards to the teacher or share submissions with everyone.
○ Using the "Send" function, teachers can distribute cards they have created, and children can freely exchange cards with each other.
○ Using the "Material Box" function, teachers can freely share teaching materials they have created with other teachers and with the children.
○ You can freely choose thinking tools to visualize your own thoughts.
○ You can use test cards to immediately check the level of understanding.
○ Using survey cards, both teachers and children can easily conduct surveys within the class or the entire school.
○ Using the "Shared Note" function, you can easily view and edit simultaneously, enabling collaborative learning.
○ Even if you are not in the same classroom, you can connect home and school, making it a perfect match for online learning.
and so on.
We held multiple experience sessions and gradually explored these functions together with the teachers.
Since these are things that are difficult to achieve with traditional paper notebooks and pencils, one can only imagine the impact on the teachers who experienced them.
There were teachers whose intuition told them "This looks interesting!" and who couldn't hide their excitement.
There were also teachers who wore anxious expressions, wondering, "How should I use this?"
But not a single personwas a teacher who tried to escape reality by saying, "How can I use something like this!", and they were allpositive teacherswho asked how to use it, taught each other, and discussed what it could be used for.
Thus, with self-directed training progressing during the short preparation period just before the new school year, by the day of the opening ceremony in April 2021, all classes except for the first grade had held their class openings using LoiloNote.
At first, I think many used it like PowerPoint to show the flow of the lesson or explanations on slides. Since you can also send the screen to the children's devices, it became easier to see the screen at hand without everyone having to look at the monitor.
The way of having children submit cards they created (for example, how to solve a math problem) to a submission box and then having everyone look at them also quickly became a common sight in every classroom.
With this method, it used to be common to show notebooks to the person sitting next to you or to show them within a small group, but using LoiloNote, you can see everyone's ideas all at once.
Children who think, "I don't really get it," can also start to think by using the cards submitted by others as hints.
This function of being able to view everything simultaneously is something that did not exist in lessons until now.
Thus, LoiloNote became the most used app over this past year.It has become the ultimate app, to the point where I feel I can no longer go back to lessons without Loilo.It has become.
There is still more I want to write about this, so I will do so on another occasion.
2 It took half a year to acquire: Google Account
In fact, even before GIGA started, the local government had already introduced Windows tablets on its own. At the school where I worked at the time, although the models were a bit old, we were already using Zoom to connect homes with the school for online morning meetings during the school closure period in May 2020.
To enrich online learning, I had my eye on this Google Workspace for Education (formerly G Suite for Education).
However, I just couldn't complete the domain verification part of the registration process (proving that this domain belongs to the elementary school). I even tried my best to communicate in English with the US headquarters instead of the Japanese subsidiary, but I had to give up.
Then, at the end of 2020, with a new budget provided by COVID-19 subsidies, we decided to officially create a school website.
So, we officially acquired an ed.jp domain, and with the help of a web production company, the domain verification that had been such a stumbling block was completed in no time.
We finally got accounts for all students and staff!
The joy I felt at that moment was... (^^/
So, by the start of the 2021 school year, Google Workspace for Education was ready to be used as standard, but...
As mentioned above, LoiLoNote was so powerful and so much fun that we didn't have the capacity to master Google as well is the honest truth.
However, the effect of acquiring the Google account proved useful in an unexpected way.
It happened during online classes that started after a two-day temporary school closure as a preventive measure when COVID-19 positive cases began to appear in neighboring schools.
At the time, Zoom had lifted the time limit on free accounts for students and faculty. The ed.jp domain was useful as a simple proof of being a student or faculty member.
By logging into Zoom with a teacher's Google account issued via the Google management account, we were able to schedule meetings without time limits. Thanks to this, we were able to connect without time limits when delivering classes for online learning during school closures and for students who were absent afterward as well.
Oops, this is just a byproduct; I had already realized the appeal of Google apps like Forms, Sheets, and Slides before acquiring the account, and I was using them frequently for school administration.
○ Event surveys via Forms. The reaction from parents was good, and tabulating the results was very fast and convenient.
○ Information gathering from staff via Sheets. Thanks to simultaneous viewing and editing, filling them out was very smooth.
○ Sharing files that couldn't be attached to emails via Drive. No need to compress files or split emails into multiple parts!
○ Sharing and editing presentation slides with relevant parties. Since comments can be left, meetings can be kept to a minimum.
I have been secretly undergoing advanced training for Google Workspace for Education since April, and I have realized that there are still plenty of features that seem very useful.
I will write more about this on another occasion.
3 Crossing time and space with Zoom
And, in both online classes and other official duties such as meetings, the online meeting system Zoom showed its greatest value.
Personally, I had been using Zoom, but it took a little time for all teachers, all students, and all parents to be able to use it.
The first time we held a Zoom trial session for school staff training was, I believe, right after the start of the 2020 school year. I remember the slightly shy reactions when everyone scattered to classrooms in the school, accessed Zoom, and saw everyone's faces. I remember the teachers' puzzled expressions, wondering where they should look.
That night, some volunteers even tried an online drinking party. (That didn't really catch on, though.)
Then came the temporary school closure period in May, shortly after.
I had a hunch, so I installed the Zoom app on all students' Windows tablet devices and even conducted a survey of home Wi-Fi environments, and sure enough, the school closed.
After a while, each grade level held a 'Trial Zoom Homeroom' that also served as a connection test, and we made improvements based on feedback from the parents of the students who participated.
And then, we held the 'Online Morning Meeting' with full preparation.
On the first day, there were constant troubles such as 'I can't connect,' 'I can't hear the sound,' and 'I can't speak,' and the school phone wouldn't stop ringing (^^;
Even so, as we responded carefully to each one and sent out emails explaining how to deal with common problems, the help requests and inquiries eventually almost disappeared.
Since then, we have faced the crisis of temporary school closures and class suspensions many times. Even so, there was a small sense of security among both staff and parents that if we had Zoom and LoiLo, we could somehow keep learning from stopping existed.
Requests like 'Can we connect via Zoom?' from families who had to be absent became common.
The fact that children participating in class from home online and children in the classroom receiving regular lessons could learn together became quite a daily occurrence.
Also, thanks to Zoom, work other than classes has become much more efficient. This refers to its use in meetings and training outside of school.
My school is a local school, and when there are district-wide meetings, we sometimes have to travel to places that take over an hour by car.
It can take half a day, sometimes a full day, and occasionally even requires an overnight stay.
Because of Zoom, we only need to be tied up for the duration of the meeting now. We can get things done online without the cost of time and travel. In fact, I often feel that it is more efficient because we can concentrate on the discussion.
Just like Doraemon's secret gadget, the Anywhere Door, Zoom has become a wonderful tool that transcends time and space for us.
Summary
The GIGA School Concept was originally scheduled to be prepared over five years starting in fiscal 2019. We prepared it in just one year (though at school, it felt like it was rushed in at the very end), and since it started, we have continued to practice through trial and error and by feeling our way forward.
In this article, I have written in detail, including behind-the-scenes stories, about the approximately two years from before the dawn of GIGA in fiscal 2020 to when we were illuminated by the twilight just after dawn.
・The ultimate app that significantly changed the form of classes until now, "LoiloNote"
・Still with unknown potential, the surprisingly convenient free "Google Apps"
・A 'dokodemo door' (anywhere door) tool that transcends time and space, "Zoom"
These three tools have significantly changed the way we learn and work at my school.
COVID-19 left many scars on the school environment.
On the other hand, because evolved technology rushed into the field all at once,it can also be seen that we were able to push forward school reformthat had been progressing slowly until now.
The school environment experienced a transformation on a scale never seen before.
I feel that this past year was a honeymoon period of sorts, where children and parents watched over and accepted various educational practices with warm and generous eyes.
That is precisely why I feel that from here on, we are enteringa severe era where our true value will be tested. It is a critical moment.
End