by Orichá » Mon Mar 29, 2021 8:45 am
Any number above those you can actually see on the screen is no good... but maybe it doesn't matter if you know they are paying attention or not... Most online teaching involves sharing the entire screen with a PPT, so the teacher can't see more than a handful of the students simultaneously... I don't like that, but there is nothing one can do... My solution was to find an online job teaching at a school where there are only 2 kids participating in each lesson...
Of course, as the poster Spigzy above point out, everything depends on the class atmosphere, and the particular relationship that the kids have to their subject teacher... But again, the classroom "rapport in person" is always better than online, I feel. With all the invisible heads online, one just has to hope they are actually listening and not playing with FB, etc... Because, I have seen kids playing with their phone on their laps, or some other app on their computer -- at the same time as I was trying to teach them online: I had to tell them to stop, just like in the real classroom...
Online teaching is convenient, but if I had my choice, I would not exceed maximum 4 to 6 students in each class for elementary school, and up to 12 for high school... But that won't happen, so what can you do?
University is quite different: there are often hundreds of students online simultaneously following a lecture... At the end the professor can field the students' questions, or they can interrupt him or her if time permits, too... So, online teaching is easiest and most convenient for university level courses that are more one-sided in form.
Teaching younger students in primary and secondary is much more interactive. My friend in Singapore, who was forced to get her primary department online during lockdowns, complained that it was really difficult to get everything working properly online, from engaging the students to attendance, to lesson presentation, and all that kind of thing... ...And what I do now with my new online job is teaching through a "proprietary portal" with built-in tools for onscreen annotation and animated PPTs... So, that makes all the difference for "being able to focus" the younger students' attention... But most local schools don't have any of that... Good luck, guys!
Oh well, the world is not perfect...
Any number above those you can actually see on the screen is no good... but maybe it doesn't matter if you know they are paying attention or not... Most online teaching involves sharing the entire screen with a PPT, so the teacher can't see more than a handful of the students simultaneously... I don't like that, but there is nothing one can do... My solution was to find an online job teaching at a school where there are only 2 kids participating in each lesson...
Of course, as the poster Spigzy above point out, everything depends on the class atmosphere, and the particular relationship that the kids have to their subject teacher... But again, the classroom "rapport in person" is always better than online, I feel. With all the invisible heads online, one just has to hope they are actually listening and not playing with FB, etc... Because, I have seen kids playing with their phone on their laps, or some other app on their computer -- at the same time as I was trying to teach them online: I had to tell them to stop, just like in the real classroom...
Online teaching is convenient, but if I had my choice, I would not exceed maximum 4 to 6 students in each class for elementary school, and up to 12 for high school... But that won't happen, so what can you do?
University is quite different: there are often hundreds of students online simultaneously following a lecture... At the end the professor can field the students' questions, or they can interrupt him or her if time permits, too... So, online teaching is easiest and most convenient for university level courses that are more one-sided in form.
Teaching younger students in primary and secondary is much more interactive. My friend in Singapore, who was forced to get her primary department online during lockdowns, complained that it was really difficult to get everything working properly online, from engaging the students to attendance, to lesson presentation, and all that kind of thing... ...And what I do now with my new online job is teaching through a "proprietary portal" with built-in tools for onscreen annotation and animated PPTs... So, that makes all the difference for "being able to focus" the younger students' attention... But most local schools don't have any of that... Good luck, guys!
Oh well, the world is not perfect...