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Shaquille graduated as a physical therapist 2 years ago and then went straight into teaching. By now he has been in the classroom for 1.5 years, teaching anatomy. With his young mind he stepped into the education system. He immediately saw what opportunities there were to be had here. And the corona crisis added to that. Shaquille saw online teaching as an opportunity and a challenge, to learn something himself and to keep his students involved and active in the lessons. This, of course, piques our curiosity. We asked Shaquille about his vision for education and his experiences with live online teaching.
Being practical and creative
"Anatomy is a subject that involves a lot of knowledge. Knowledge you have to pass on to students. You can do that in your own way, for example by making a power point that explains everything. But I noticed very quickly that all the students fell asleep. That didn't work for me. I found out that I could be much more myself: bring things to life in a practical way, be creative, draw pictures, make diagrams or tinker with the human body myself. I applied that right away."
"But then corona came along and suddenly - I'm sure it didn't escape your notice - we had to do everything online. Actually, that made my thoughts on education even better. I mostly let students do the work themselves. I gave them the space to develop themselves and sometimes not know something, but eventually go out and try to learn it themselves."
'Classical teaching' no longer works
"Unfortunately, I saw around me that many teachers still 'teach classically' even online. By this I mean: screen on, sound on and listen to the teacher. But you just notice that you really lose students - especially online - with this. Some students sometimes don't come to online classes, fall asleep or are there but don't follow it. And how do you make sure that those students are still activated and engaged? I then started working with online teaching materials that they could make themselves at any time. Students had the feeling that lecturers had 'let them go' and they had to figure it out for themselves. I therefore tried to give them the tools to figure things out for themselves. In class we would discuss the assignments and go into depth. For me, that was a really fun and interesting thing to do."
How do students handle it?
"Students are happy to see that I put a lot of time into the online classes. I've also made a real effort to get creative ideas through the Internet. Of course, there were other schools in this situation that we could learn a lot from. As a result, students did really actively participate. They even said to me: "Mr. Bleecke, with you we really learn the most out of all the lessons." Of course I found that super nice to hear, but also worrying. How is it possible that you don't learn as much in other classes? How is it possible that you prefer not to be online in the afternoon because all those lessons are so boring? That does worry me."
Goals as a digicoach
"Because of all the developments surrounding online education, I stepped forward as a digicoach in the new school year. For students, I set the goal of making online learning materials more accessible. For teachers, the goal was to become more proficient at designing an activating online lesson. For example, I created documents explaining fun activating apps during an online lesson and a good lesson format, which we used in the trainings of Learning Connected learned so that teachers could fill them out for their own classes. I also recorded videos explaining technical aspects of Microsoft Teams."
"Important to that is that you start a class with social interaction with students. This can be about a particular topic, but also just about what you did this weekend. Everyone then joins in nicely and is actively involved in your lesson from the start. It is also good to indicate exactly what you are going to do in the lesson, this provides structure. You can of course use activating tools. But, make sure the tool is supporting your lesson and the subject matter, and not the lesson itself. Take for example Kahoot: in Kahoot you can make a quiz to test the knowledge of your students, this way you can also see what is going well and what is not. But a Kahoot quiz is never your entire lesson. You notice that some teachers pick it up quickly and others find it difficult and would rather "go back to normal".
Shaquille also has online blunders....
"But of course that doesn't mean that things are always perfect for me... I've also had blunders and had to fiddle with all the functions, my screen and microphone. A while ago during an online class I wanted to share my screen to show a video on Youtube. Before the video starts you always have commercials, but they are of course personalized for you by the algorithm. Then I got a commercial from a dating site.... So you guessed it: students immediately started yelling "oh master....". Super embarrassing! But fortunately I can laugh about it!"
What aspects of online education can we continue to use?
"In my opinion, it is important to ensure that learning materials for students are always available online, so that there is much more active learning outside of the classroom. I'm not talking about the 'classic homework' here, but tools that students can actually use themselves and absorb the learning material. For example, you can put a video online with an explanation of a subject and assignments. In class you can then go deeper into the content or have discussions. They also call it flipping the classroom! But every advantage has its disadvantage. I really miss making real-life eye contact and the humor in online classes. Sometimes I make a joke, but it doesn't get through to everyone or I don't get a reaction - or I just make really bad jokes. For students, it's also difficult that they are only in one place all day. You may be more likely to have distractions around you because your parents or siblings are also working from home. I do talk to students about this, because I notice that they also want to let their hair down. This leads to really good conversations that I don't have in the classroom. So that is also something to take away."
Why is this such a difficult change?
"I feel that some teachers have almost forgotten why they are doing it, which is to teach this generation something. I also think that some teachers find it hard to admit - despite a hard effort - that something is not working (anymore). The education system does change over time. I read something great about this: did you know that an average 14-year-old child has more information than the Prime Minister of the Netherlands in 1969? Students have all the information at their feet and if they don't know something, they look it up on their phone. So it's also more and more about really understanding and applying all that information. I see, for example, that some students copy and paste bits of internet into their answers. Instead of immediately getting it wrong, I ask them what all those difficult words actually mean. That way, they still learn something."
What tips do you give teachers who teach online?
"Make sure you have social interaction! Everyone needs that. A quick chat at the beginning of class and making sure students can say what's bothering them. It really pays off! In addition, make sure you are well prepared. You must know in advance exactly what you are going to do each part of the time. Otherwise students will drop out if you don't organize this well. And a final tip: challenge yourself and try new things! Students really don't know that you are trying something new... So just try it!"
Want to know more about effective live online teaching in education? Take a look at our course catalogue, we are happy to help you with this.
