Since the start of the pandemic, educators all over the world have been learning on the fly how to use the power of digital texts, tools and technologies for “remote emergency instruction”. As teachers quickly discovered, conducting nearly nonstop Zoom meetings, in an effort to replicate in-classroom learning in an online environment, is both ineffective and exhausting.

In this series of three guides, Renee Hobbs and her colleagues at the Media Education Lab introduce central principles to guide instructional planning for real time (synchronous) and anytime (asynchronous) learning. Each guide unpacks the application of these principles—to connect, guide and create—with specific lesson examples and technology tips tailored to one level of schooling: elementary, middle or high school.