Fostering Active Learning During Remote Instruction (California)

Profile

Lancaster School District is about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California and serves more than 15,000 students in Pre-K through 12th grade.

Tara Goines is the coordinator of Early Childhood Education in Lancaster County, CA.

“When a teacher uses Walkabouts, students jump up and get ready to learn with energy and excitement!”
– Tara Goines

Challenge

In 2020, when COVID-19 led to school closures, Tara Goines and Kelly Fountain (Director of Early Childhood Education) looked for simple and effective distance learning resources to meet the physical activity requirements in California’s Desired Results Developmental Profile. They evaluated Walkabouts, a web-based active learning platform with standards-aligned lessons in language arts, math, and reading. In March, the district began using Walkabouts with Pre-K students.

Solution

District leaders lessened teachers' burden of finding remote-friendly resources and implemented Walkabouts for the 2020-2021 school year. In Pre-K, teachers got 30 minutes of synchronous instructional time with students. The Walkabouts platform is ideal because each lesson can be completed in about 7-10 minutes. Because the platform is easy to navigate, all teachers, regardless of their comfort level with technology, can use it with ease.

Additional Outcomes

The district used WebEx to facilitate remote instruction. In Gallery mode, teachers played Walkabouts so students could see both their teacher and peers doing the same activity on the screen. This helped students feel like they were together in a PE class.

Looking Ahead

Goines planned to use the Walkabouts platform’s detailed reports to monitor how many minutes/miles/activities were completed in Pre-K classes. When the district moved back to in-person learning, Walkabouts provided an agile solution for keeping students engaged and actively learning.