Let's not be bashful, don't be oblique - the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak (Arab Strap)

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

I teach via zoom and have daily meetings via zoom and spend a lot of time discussing zoom calls with my colleagues. Zoom Zoom Zoom!!! This article* explains what all of that zoom activity is potentially doing to our brains.

*Spoiler alert: it's not good news, but check out the link for a fascinating reading list of how video conferencing has contributed to burnout, fatigue, fight-or-flight responses, and an odd breed of self-loathing (told you it wasn't good news), plus, how to counter the negative effects.

As for me, there are pluses and minuses. 

On the plus side - student behaviours are better on zoom - just the annoying other voices and faces of students not in my class to contend with but they can be muted. 

But on the negative side there are very little opportunities for individual student relationships, break out rooms are hideous, silences are painful, there is little chance of quiet meaningful conferencing outside of the breakout room (while the rest of the class do diddley), quiet students can (literally) hide, differentiation is tough (well, it is for me), and feedback via student body language is zero. Nuance and zoom are not friends.

I could probably go on but I'll stop there.

On balance - give me a face to face experience over a virtual one please.

Hello hooray - let the show begin I've been ready (Alice Cooper)

Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash

OneSchool Global NZ is a pretty complicated organisation. 

There are 17 campuses from Keri Keri (the northern-most) down to Invercargill (the southern-most) and for convenience's sake these campuses can be split into three broad regions: north, central, and south (all the South Island).

On the next three successive Wednesdays, students and their relevant Virtual Classroom teachers will journey to a representative campus to meet each other (northern students to Auckland, central to Palmerston North and south to Christchurch).

My two campuses, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, go to Palmy on the 11th of March.

Although it hasn't been overtly stated, I believe the aims of this event were summed up by Jennifer Gonzalez, writing about how to motivate students in her blog, Cult of Pedagogy.

Put simply - students are more motivated academically when they have a positive relationship with their teacher.

Part of that positive relationship is the students feeling that they are valued by their teachers. They certainly should feel that on those days as their VC teachers are travelling to them from those 17 campuses.

All up then, this is a worthwhile and important couple of days, and I am exceedlingly glad that someone made their suggestion (I'm reading a lot of Dickens at the moment and I fear he is rubbing off on me in a multitude of ways).

Anyway: hurrah for this OneSchool Global initiative!