My experience with online classes during lockdown was admittedly pretty awful. Why? Well, I think it comes down to three key factors:
- Engagement. It’s much harder for teachers to engage with students when staring blankly at a screen, and it feels so much less personal.
- Interaction. Through a video camera, students are denied an opportunity to gesture, draw, and show their thinking visually. I believe that education is fundamentally a two-way form of communication; online learning can sometimes seem like it goes in one way only.
- Visualisation. I love pen and paper; digitally, even the best tools lack that flexibility. And what about pointing? Everybody points at key ideas to illustrate their point, for instance. It’s pretty difficult to naturally replicate that experience online.
However, I think all of these can be worked around with the right setup.
The setup
Let’s jump into what we’ll be using for online tutoring, and afterwards, I’ll explain how I think this alleviates these 3 key issues with online classes.
What you’ll need
Essential
- A laptop with a webcam and microphone.
- Zoom
- A stable Internet connection
Highly recommended
- Another tablet or Surface device with a stylus
- Wired headphones. If you have AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones, do not use them.
- Why do AirPods suck for calls?
- Using AirPods with decent quality
Apps