I decided to start this thread, even though I wasn’t exactly sure if we were going to start talking about these readings this week or next week, since all classes were instructionally paused/postponed last week. In any case, I think the reading scheduled on the syllabus for this week can be valuable at both times since we are currently dealing with our transition to distance learning.

In Bonnie Stewart’s How NOT to Teach Online: A Story in Two Parts, Stewart contributes two reflective texts about her prior experiences teaching online.  In one part of the article, Stewart speaks about her experience as a graduate student, teaching others how to teach an online M.Ed course and how she started the process completely wrong.  Stewart had prior experience as a high school teacher, but very limited experience with teaching online.  As opposed to approaching the seminar with a strong reason as to WHY it was important to be able to teach online, she approached it with WHAT to do with the technology. Stewart began focusing on the “where do I click?” “what is my password?” types of questions which turned out to be a huge failure for her.  This approach also proved to be an eye opening experience for Stewart, when a colleague disagreed with her approach. As a result of the disagreement, Stewart was able to participate in conversation with faculty that attended the seminar about what it actually can mean to connect with students across time and distance.  

Reading this article and the experiences shared by Stewart gave me the opportunity to take my own time to reflect on what the shift to “distance learning” can mean for my students.  There is an opportunity for my students to continue their learning practice together and now to find innovative ways for us to learn.  Among the challenging circumstances, I think that there is tiny silver lining that can be found in our shift to distance learning happening mid semester/school year.  The silver lining is that we have already started our process together in a face-to-face context and we have had the opportunity to connect with our students and colleagues at some level. There is no need for us to start over in the “getting to know you” phase. We have had an abrupt shift to our daily routines, however we have an even bigger opportunity to show our students that we actually are human, just like them.  We can show this by being explicit in our communication to them, by sharing our process, in hopes that they will feel comfortable to persevere through the challenging times.

Along with working with an undergrad to complete his capstone project with me (in-person field work and in-person lab work), I also tutor math to children, in-person.

Here are a few of the many questions that I have been asking myself when planning for distance learning with my students:

• Why am I an educator/teacher?

• Why are we (students and myself) learning this particular topic/subject?

• How much is “too much” screen time for me?

• Given that my students will be asked to be on the computer by their other teachers/instructors, how much is “too much” screen time for a particular session with me?

• For students that struggle with being on a computer for an extended period of time, How can I minimize screen time with my sessions to allow for students to learn in ways that are optimal for their view of success? 

I’m posing these questions to share my process with all of you.  Feel free to share your answers to the questions (from your perspective) that I’ve posted or feel free to share other questions that you have been asking yourself related to your process towards distance learning.