With the change to digital formats, I have heard some faculty say – it is like having to learn how to teach all over again. If you feel this way – you are not alone.
Here is an excellent article just written by Catherine Denial (A Bright Distinguished Professor of American History) who has been teaching for 25 years – but with online learning is feeling like a new teacher all over again. Here is a paragraph from her article in Eidolon.
I experienced going online this past spring as a terrible loss. All my cues were gone: laughter, the rustle of candy wrappers, the shared eye-rolls, the thoughtful expressions. There was no ambient noise on my Zoom call, because everyone was a good internet citizen and muted their mics when they weren’t speaking. Where once I could have glanced around the room to take in my students’ body language, I was now left trying to process nine small squares of information at a time, my students’ heads floating beside and on top of each other as if we were the Brady Bunch. I talked a lot, which ran against every principle of my pedagogy. I even gave in to the dreaded urge to walk everyone through the syllabus (a practice I had abandoned some time ago), which is proof positive that my soul had left my body under the pressure of a webcam and eight disembodied gazes.
Beginning Again: Online Teaching Sent My Pedagogy Back to Square One is an 8 minute read. Enjoy.
