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Session 5. Offline-First, Care and Safety: Your Classroom Technology Plan
Objective. Write a one-page classroom technology plan that gives every technology step a printed or board fallback and adds basic care, safety and privacy rules.
Technology breaks in every school, in every country: the power goes off, the battery is flat, the connection slows down. The question is whether a failure costs two minutes or the whole lesson. This page shows how to design the answer before the day comes, with a Plan B for every technology step, a few care and safety habits that cost nothing, and privacy rules that protect the pupils in your photos and forms.
Key ideas
Offline-first planning
- Plan the lesson so that it works on paper and the board. Then add technology where it clearly helps the goal. Power cuts, flat batteries and slow connections happen in every school.
- Prepare before the lesson, not during it: copy files to the device, test the video, and print the one slide or worksheet that you cannot teach without.
- Keep a 'lesson box' or folder with printed copies, spare markers and the Plan B notes, and keep it near the door.
Care for devices
- Carry devices with two hands, keep them away from drinks, dust and direct sun, and store them in one labelled place.
- Clean screens with a soft, dry cloth, after switching the device off. Do not cover air vents, and let a projector cool before you move it.
- Use the right charger for each device, and teach pupils how to hold, open and put away equipment as part of the routine.
Safety in the room
- Keep cables out of walkways. Use one fused extension lead that is not overloaded, placed where nobody trips and you can switch it off quickly.
- Look at cables and plugs from time to time. If one is damaged, take it out of use and report it; do not repair it yourself.
- Do not look into the projector beam, keep liquids away from electrical equipment, and give pupils short breaks to look away from screens.
Privacy and purpose
- Protect pupils: no full names with photos, no personal data in forms, only school-approved tools, and no passwords written where others can see them.
- Log out of shared devices and delete files you no longer need. Follow your school's rules on photos and ask when you are unsure.
- Use technology when it helps the goal, not because it is there. Evidence on technology in education is mixed, and distraction is a real cost, so a paper task is sometimes the best tool.
Writing a Plan B for a lesson
Offline-first is a design habit
Start by asking how essential each tool is. If the lesson still reaches its objective without the tool, a failure costs a few minutes. If the lesson depends on it, a failure costs the lesson. List each technology step and name what could fail: power, battery, connection, the device, the file or time. Then write a Plan B that has the same objective and takes about the same time.
Prepare before the lesson, not during it. Copy files to the device, test the sound, print the single slide or worksheet that you cannot teach without, and keep it in a lesson box near the door. A good Plan B is not a lecture to fill the time; it is a paper or board version of the same task, so that the pupils still produce the evidence you planned for.
Care, safety and privacy as small routines
Most care and safety rules are habits, not purchases. Keep cables out of walkways and use one fused extension lead that is not overloaded. Keep drinks away from equipment and leave space round a projector so that it can cool. Look at cables and plugs now and then, and take a damaged one out of use and report it. The guidance linked here is written for UK schools; the principles carry over, but follow your own school's rules.
Privacy rules protect pupils in photographs, files and forms. Show the work and not the face, cover names, ask where your school requires it, use only tools your school approves, and delete what you no longer need. Where rules differ between schools, follow the local rule and ask when you are unsure.
Examples from the classroom
The power cut at minute six
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 4 reading in a village school near Samarkand. In October the power goes off at minute 6 of a video lesson and returns only after school. That evening she prints the one picture the lesson needs and writes five questions on a card. When the power fails again in November, she hangs the picture on the board, the pupils work in pairs, and the lesson continues with about two minutes lost.
Insight. A Plan B that keeps the same objective turns a power cut into a small delay.
The safety walk
Scene. Jasur teaches Grade 8 in Bukhara. On a walk round his room with the hazard cards he finds a projector cable across the aisle and a lead plugged into another. He moves the projector to a table by the wall so the cable runs along the skirting, uses a single lead for the projector and laptop, and asks the school to add a socket. The change costs him ten minutes and no money.
Insight. Most safety fixes are about where things are placed, not about buying things.
Photographing a poster
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 6 in Fergana. After a group poster on the water cycle, she wants to show it to the other class. She asks the group, covers their names with a strip of paper, photographs only the poster and shows it on the TV. She moves the photo to her school folder that afternoon and deletes it from her phone. She posts nothing in an open chat group.
Insight. Showing the work without the names, with permission and a deletion habit, protects pupils at almost no cost.
Common pitfalls
- Writing a Plan B that is only 'tell them about it', with no task and no evidence of learning.
- Preparing files during the lesson instead of before it.
- Plugging one extension lead into another, or running a cable across the walkway.
- Putting full names with photos in open chat groups or online forms.
Plan B Table, Hazard Hunt and My Plan
- Plan B table (10 min): in pairs, take the sample lesson in the kit with five technology steps. For each, write what could fail and a printed or board Plan B.
- Hazard hunt (10 min): read the six hazard cards. Name the risk and the safe fix. Then walk around your own training room for two minutes and find two real things to improve.
- My one-page plan (10 min): complete the plan template in the kit for one real lesson: goal, technology steps with Plan B, 60-second check, device routine, care and safety, privacy rule.
- Peer check (5 min): swap with a partner and ask three questions: Does every technology step have a fallback? Is the room safe? Are pupils protected? Write one improvement on their plan.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which technology step in your own lesson has no Plan B yet, and what is the simplest one?
- Which hazard did you find in a real room, and who can fix it?
- What did your partner's plan make you change in yours?
Reflect
- If the power went off now, which of your next three lessons could continue unchanged?
- What is one safety fix in your classroom that costs nothing?
- Which tool do you use mostly out of habit rather than for the lesson goal?
Try it tomorrow
- Write a Plan B for the technology step you rely on most, and print its paper version.
- Walk round your room with the safety checklist in mind and fix one thing today.
- Write your own privacy rule for photos in one sentence and stick it inside your lesson folder.
Further reading and links
Plan for paper first, give every technology step a Plan B, keep rooms and devices safe, and protect pupils' privacy.