At Haileybury Pangea online school, student connections are fostered both on and off the screen. While classes take place online, many students discover that school friendships and connections can often extend to the real world.
From meeting up during school holidays, to joining lessons from interesting and inspiring locations associated with their studies, Haileybury Pangea students are showing that online education can be social and offer immersive experiences.
For some prospective families considering an online school, the idea of virtual classrooms may conjure up images of solitary students on screen, feeling isolated and lacking in social connection. However, what is emerging is quite the opposite. In fact, students are connecting and building lasting friendships and finding creative ways to collaborate and enhance their learning through shared experiences beyond the computer screen.
From the online world to in-person connection
What may begin in an online class tutorial or breakout room, often develops into friendships forged over common interests discovered during participation in lunchtime meet-up clubs or one of the many Haileybury Pangea extracurricular clubs, including Chess Club, Debating, Digitech Explorers and $20 Boss entrepreneurship program.
Haileybury Pangea Year 5 students, Owen, Ned and Albert turned their online friendship into a real-world adventure, meeting up at the Melbourne Zoo and turning it into their virtual classroom for the day.
Owen, a Haileybury Pangea Northern Territory student, and his family were in Melbourne over the holidays and decided to stay on for the first week of term so he could meet up with two of his school friends at the zoo. As it turned out, it was not just Owen enjoying the zoo that week, his older brother was also there, taking part in the annual Haileybury Year 7 Zoo Excursion.
Owen says, “We came down (from Katherine) so we could go to the zoo with the rest of the Year 7s. We were going to try to catch up anyway so we just figured the zoo was the best place for it.”
Meanwhile, Albert (Year 5) also embraced the opportunity to meet with his classmates for a learning day at the Melbourne Zoo while his brother attended the Year 7 excursion as well. Albert and his brother travelled from Gippsland to attend the socialisation day and thoroughly enjoyed every minute spent with their fellow online classmates.
Learning in context at Haileybury Pangea
During their day at the zoo, Owen, Ned and Albert logged in to English class from next to the zoo’s koi fishpond, a pertinent location given the English text they are currently studying is Paper Planes, involving a young Australian travelling to Japan for the World Paper Plane Championships.
Haileybury Pangea English teacher, Chris McCulloch says, “The (online class) room was abuzz with questions and smiles when I entered. It was exciting for the students, both those at the zoo and those online who were interacting with them, and such a great creative link to make.”
After wrapping up their English class, the boys made their way to the Bug and Butterfly House, the perfect spot for their Science lesson on Biology, which focused on how bees and plants work together in nature.
Science teacher, Carlie Gannon, says that “socialisation is such an essential element of a cohesive classroom that some off-topic conversation time, relating to a student’s location, can be greatly beneficial to learn together.”
Connections building community
Research suggests that when students have more choices about how they learn, their motivation grows, which in turn can improve academic outcomes. Learning online also allows the students freedom, to explore, travel and link their lessons back to life experiences, such as this example.
Carlie and Chris agree that this was an enriching situation to promote class discussion and connection, in addition to being a celebration of having students from across the country arrange to get together in person, find out more about each other and have a wonderful day out.
Ned says, “I was most looking forward to being able to talk to each other face to face and to see each other for the first time.” He also discovered he and his mates had more than Haileybury Pangea online school in common. They all love playing chess and they all take tennis lessons.
“Albert loves pandas more than anything in the world, and Owen is very good at footy,” Ned says.
While Owen said he “learnt that Ned has braces.”
The future of connected learning
Teachers are also recognising the benefits and the strong sense of community that develops when students connect both online and in person, contributing to student confidence, higher motivation and greater wellbeing.
Some of the locations students have beamed in from include ACMI, Melbourne Arts Centre, sports fields, horse paddocks or a Bali hotel room.
Online school may begin with a screen, but as Haileybury Pangea students are showing, it leads to friendships, adventures and opportunities that extend far beyond this. It is exciting to see how these students are redefining learning as they combine the digital and real world as part of their education journey.
Albert says that what he enjoys most about school at Haileybury Pangea is:
“I mostly enjoy that we can connect with each other in ways that we can’t at a school.”
Ned says, “I most enjoy having the flexibility in my classes and being able to talk to my friends any time through Teams.”
In the spirit of reconciliation, Haileybury acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
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