This week we had a really interesting conversation on modality and how modality is key to supporting student agency and flexibility.

In case you are wondering what modality means, our course post explained it very simply as “how we communicate in terms of timing and location.” As well, this is a great resource to understand modality in education more too!

Essentially, in the past everyone always discussed face-to-face learning or online learning. Now, and especially due to COVID, the term “blended learning” which incorporates both face-to-face and online learning is constantly being discussed! In our discussion, another term came up which is “multi-access learning,” and this essentially encompasses a broader range of ways for doing online and face-to-face learning, and even doing these two things at the same time. What was really highlighted for me in our discussion, was how multi-access learning is really a social justice issue. Often we will have students who are unable to come to school, whether that be due to illness, anxiety, or any other matter, and they are unable to participate in any learning as it is entirely face-to-face. When we are flexible with modality we allow for the individual needs of our learners and their families to be met.

An interesting topic of conversation brought up in our discussion was the fact that in Victoria students with anxiety often end up at SIDES. I went to an Independent school with a paid tuition and even in this environment there were many students who would take classes through SIDES. Even while attending a paid tuition school, students were choosing this different place of education because for various reasons the classes at our school didn’t work for their schedule, anxieties, etc. This discussion really opened my eyes to the importance of modality in education. It is something that I know I will have to continue to do a lot of research and work on, as I have had very little experience of what the realities of implementing this form of learning for my class would look like, but I realize that doing this is so important for the students I will have in my class.

I will be using both of these resources to learn more, and I suggest you do too:

Bye for now, 

Jaime

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash