3 thoughts on “How teaching is now…

  1. Great comic! Certainly some have felt the awkwardness of “talking to a black void” and the frustration of not receiving non-verbal feedback. I discovered this comic in a tweet from an educator expressing frustration with the phenomenon. I would like to share my open-access (free) research paper on this topic that may be of value for educators in your audience who have to deal with this issue. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.7123 I will also share this comic with students to help explain why we encourage camera use, if they are comfortable doing so.

  2. Thanks for this article. It quantifies a lot of things I saw and heard from my students. I also like the idea of just explaining why turning on the camera in Zoom is helpful and this article helps give me evidence to offer my students.

    Before we started the fall semester, one of the main issues my colleagues discussed was the issue of equity. This on-line teaching environment greatly exacerbates the problems that already existed and brings in new ones. There are the issues of students having computers and reliable wi-fi (the “digital divide” your article mentions). I also had students who had to find full-time work because their parents were laid off due to the pandemic. I also had many students who had to take care of their younger siblings, which limited both their access to the family computer and their ability to focus on class. From what I was told, many families felt that the education of the younger children was more important and so should be prioritized. That meant I had some students (college age) who had to miss class because their younger siblings had to do things for school. So a lot of teachers decided not to require synchronous on-line learning at all. I chose a hybrid approach, having my students meet once a week. For the most part, they appreciated the interaction. Still, while I encouraged students to turn on their video, I never required it, for many of the reasons pointed out in your article. But as I said above, your article helps give me reasons to offer my students to encourage them to offer the class more than a black box.

    Also, I made this comic at the beginning of my remote teaching. Things got better. I found other ways to engage with students; breakout rooms and shared Goggle docs created in real time really helped.

    1. Thank you for replying and sharing your story. Indeed, some of our students are certainly facing new challenges. I’m glad you found the paper helpful and that things are improving in your remote classroom.

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