Remote – Again – For Now… and Still Maintaining Engagement
We don’t need to tell you that the pandemic permanently reshaped how we think about work – and that people’s work habits and technology have been keeping up to support this new reality. That being said, Cisco’s research has revealed that some of the challenges faced by educators are the same as those experienced in the public sector.
One of their key findings is that 47% of workers don’t participate in meetings. When students don’t display their faces, instead “faking it” by simply putting up their name, we know their levels of engagement drop dramatically – as does their learning.
To learn what workers want, please read the Cisco Hybrid Work Index (HWI) report.
What do teachers and students have to say?
Here are some of the comments from our teacher and student panels:
“Me and my brother [don’t cringe; I thought I should include it verbatim] have to share a computer. Sometimes our classes are the same time, so we take turns going to school. I can listen to the recording after, but sometimes I just don’t feel like it… and any way, it’s just not the same.” ~ Grade 5 student
“Taking classes online can be okay, I guess. I like my teacher, and I know I gotta go, but sometimes I just don’t feel like it. Sometimes I fake it and play video games instead.” ~ Grade 10 student
“My students don’t turn their cameras on all the time. Sometimes they cite connectivity problems – and that’s quite possible. Other times, I’m told it’s because their place is messy and blurring their background takes up too much bandwidth. Probably also true. More often, I feel that students login and then do something else, because they don’t participate. It’s frustrating, because no matter how much class prep I do, some of them just won’t engage online to the same degree.” ~ Grade 9 teacher
It’s one thing to tell teachers to make the classes “more interesting and engaging”, but even after all this time some educators are still struggling. When the pandemic first hit, we ran two sessions to help educators. If it looks as though remote learning will continue past February, we will once again hold a free session for teachers – this time talking solely about keeping students engaged… and how to get them to show their faces on camera, each and every time.
We’ll let you know the details once we learn what the province has in store.
If you’d like to learn more about the tech that can support remote learning and engagement, please contact us at [email protected] or (416) 429-0796 or 1.877.238.9944 . As you know, that’s one of our areas of expertise.
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