# Low-Tech Teaching

**What is low- tech teaching?**
* Low-tech teaching refers to teaching with only a few technologies

**You and Your Students**
**Where do I begin?**
* Ensure you know what you want to do with your students and what you want your students to do.

**Example:**
* **What do I want my students to do?**
* Communicate – email, phone, text, live video sessions (Zoom & others)
* Discuss (pairs/groups) – discussion forums, chat function in Moodle, breakout rooms in Zoom
* Read/Watch videos – post content on Moodle

**What do I want to do with my students?**
* Communicate – email, phone, text, live video sessions and announcement board
* Test – Quiz tool in Moodle
* Lecture – email, or post lecture on Moodle (ppt, video, or audio format)

**What will I need?**
* Patience :)
* email
* Zoom account
* Moodle course

Here are five low-tech, time-saving techniques that will make your remote pedagogy easier and more interesting for you and will help your corona-virus stressed students successfully complete this semester.

**Use email**
* At the most basic level you can simply send students an email with clear instructions on what to do and when to complete it. Start with tasks for week one and only send out week one materials. Collect assignments via email and organize them into folders.

**Use Moodle: Post content for students to read and watch.**
* Post articles and videos that already exist rather than create or record new material.
* Bring in a guest lecturer.
* Students can get a lot out of high-quality readings and videos that you’ve selected from existing sources — online textbooks, articles, blogs, videos, open educational resources (OER) or credible news outlets etc…

**Break your course into small segments.**
* Break your course into small segments, organized around the amount of time you expect your students to spend per week (e.g., Break down a final paper into smaller sections to help prevent procrastination e.g., outline, draft, final, peer review). Be explicit about completion dates and the time required for each activity.
* **Note:** For every hour of class, students work for 2 – 3 hrs. This is averaged across the course and includes the assignment working time.

**Use the quiz function in Moodle to make sure they’re doing the reading.**
* Help students engage with the course content and demonstrate their learning. Students are less likely to do the activities unless they are worth points, so make sure they are required.

**Utilize the learning potential of text discussions.**
* A well-designed online-discussion prompt creates strong social interaction among students and also fosters and deepens their learning. The benefit of this is that you can moderate the discussion and see that everyone is participating. Craft debatable questions that encourage students to relate new concepts to their own lived experience. Provide clear instructions, checklists, or rubrics so that students know what you want them to post, when, and how often.

**Create a routine, reliable weekly schedule.**
* Help your students manage their time by establishing a regular flow and rhythm for the week — quizzes on Thursdays; their initial online discussion posts are due Wednesdays, with replies due Saturdays; written assignments due Monday night, reflecting on the previous week’s learning.
* Students will appreciate the predictability, especially at a time when so much is uncertain. With regular deadlines, they will know when tasks are due and can plan their week accordingly.

**Make frequent, strategic, and highly visible appearances online.**
* Post low-tech communications that everyone can read, watch, or both. Your class announcements, your replies in discussion forums, and your summaries of course material — all of those can be typed up and posted for all students’ benefit.
* Alternatively, be visible online and quickly contactable. Host regular office hours online or set up office hours for email responses as an alternative to Zoom.

References

Darby, F. (2020, April 14). 5 Low-Tech, Time-Saving Ways to Teach Online During Covid-19. https://www.chronicle.com/article/5-low-tech-time-saving-ways-to-teach-online-during-covid-19/

University of Cape Town. (2020, March 26). University of Cape Town Low Tech Remote Teaching Principles is licenced under CC BY 4.0 International. https://cetl.ppu.edu/sites/default/files/announcments/UCT%20Low%20Tech%20Remote%20Teaching%20Guidelines.pdf