By Shirley, Cindy, Lia, Elaine
Introduction
Online teaching has been a research hotspot because of the pandemic in the past few years. Furthermore, the relation between technology and pedagogy contained in the process of online teaching has also caused concerns. Sankey (2020) believes that teachers should firstly decide teaching approaches and choose appropriate technological tools according to the approaches. However, Larsen-Freeman (2016) argues that the classroom is actually a system and the relations among components in this system such as the teaching approach and the technological tools are dynamic. Therefore, the use of technological tools in classrooms should be flexibly adjusted according to the changing of teaching environments. Thus, this blog post attempts to explore how to effectively apply technological tools in the online teaching process to achieve teaching goals. In particular it examines the examples provided in Tsui and Tavares (2021), which relied on Zoom and Collaborative Board.
Zoom
One of the most-used online platforms is Zoom, which makes remote teaching accessible during the covid-19 pandemic. Although it seeks to simulate face-to-face classroom teaching, many teachers and students still worry about its limitation in terms of a lack of opportunities to interact with each other. Nevertheless, building on her successful teaching experience on Zoom, Nicole, one of the authors of the article Tsui and Tavares (2021), argues that online teaching can not only simulate f2f classroom teaching, but even surpass it as well.
1. Simulating f2f classroom teaching
One way to recreate a collective presence is to encourage students to show their faces on the screen (or an avatar if they are reluctant). The teacher can also frequently nominate students to remind the class of each other’s presence.
Besides, the teacher can use the “breakout room” functionality on Zoom to engage students with each other, avoiding the one-way communication from the teacher to the students. The teacher can also move around the rooms, monitoring progress and providing guidance. Each student can be assigned different roles to share responsibilities in their breakout rooms. The whole process is just like group discussion in a physical classroom.
2. Surpassing f2f classroom teaching
Student reticence in the classroom has long been a major problem for teachers. Also, inviting shy students to answer questions or give opinions can cause greater anxiety for them. However, zoom can partly address the issue.
On Zoom students can post their questions or comments in the chat box, either to the whole class, using the “everyone” function, or to the teacher privately, using the “private” function. For reticent students, the “private” function can be a good tool to express themselves, without fear of making mistakes publicly.
The teacher can invite those who post interesting and unique written responses to share them in public, or even elaborate them orally. In this way, students can gradually boost their confidence and participate actively.
Nearpod
“Collaborative Board” is an important feature of Nearpod where students can post their ideas on a bulletin board with “Post-it” notes. The whole class can read their classmates’ notes and show their agreement by giving “Likes”. Nicole’s experience of using it indicates the roles of technology in constructing a collaborative learning community, improving her teaching efficiency and alleviating the anxiety of students.
Class interaction is no longer confined to small groups since students can see the posts of all their classmates and give and receive feedback from all their classmates instead of several group members. This is hard to realize in face-to-face classroom. And the teacher is able to collect and eyeball every student’s post in a short period of time, which saves a lot of time compared to face-to-face teaching.
Moreover, the Collaborative Board facilitates the teacher to relieve students’ nervousness and encourage those reticent ones to participate actively in class discussions. Since students can post their notes anonymously, they can speak up and share their views without having to worry about being harshly judged by other classmates. And the reticent students would be less anxious when they are asked to elaborate their notes to the whole class if they get a lot of “Likes”. In this way, teachers would not miss good ideas which may not be heard in a physical classroom.
Conclusion
From Nicole’s example in online teaching, we can see that Nicole’s dynamic interaction between pedagogy and technology achieves a close connection between teachers, students, and courses. Teachers must not only be knowledgeable about technology, pedagogy, and content, but more importantly, understand the dynamic complexities between these three components to avoid an oversimplified classroom.
As a teacher, you should be open to new teaching concepts, from simply copying the F2F classroom model to using new teaching tools to achieve a more effective teaching, which could surpass the F2F teaching mode, so that students can have a richer class experience, and achieve the maximization of teaching and learning.
Discussion
Which online platform(s) have you used for learning?
How is your online learning experience?
What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of online teaching/learning compared to F2F classroom teaching/learning?
I used Tecent meeting as the online learning platform. Tencent meeting is similar to Zoom, and this is one of the officially recognized platforms by my undergraduate university during the pandemic in 2020.
I have mixed feelings about online learning. In the beginning, I was satisfied with online learning. I did like that I didn’t need to get up early and learn in the bedroom. And I also could watch the course many times for review. However, staying behind the screen for a long time made me tired, and it was hard for me to keep attention for 2 hours of learning.
Compared to f2f class, online learning can be more active. In the f2f class, students are under pressure if asked to answer questions, but in the online course, students feel free to interact with the teacher via the chatbox or open mic. However, Online courses can never have a real learning atmosphere and environment like f2f courses. In the online environment lacking supervision and companionship from teachers and classmates, students might distract from the class and lose motivation for learning.
Actually, I have more pressure to answer questions in front of the class on zoom with my camera on.
I’d say one of the reasons that students get distracted is “showing your face” on the screen… undoubtedly, showing our faces on the screen can make us feel like sitting in a physical classroom, yeah, everybody is there… but, sometimes I just can’t help watching what my classmates are doing. Someone is “smiling at me”, someone is scratching his head, someone is drinking…OMG… I don’t think I would notice all these in a real classroom.
So, I’d rather use the speaker view on Zoom, then I can focus on what the teacher is talking about.
I suppose we all have zoom this semester. It takes me nearly two weeks to get used to online learning. I find it difficult to concentrate on the screen for a long time, and there is always silence in the class. But some Zoom functions also allow me to engage in the class activities more actively and less stressfully. One is the chatbox. I could do a brief rehearsal before sending my post which provides a sense of safety. Another favorable function is the poll which is an easy activity that everyone could participate in, and I am always keen to see the results and look for the reasons behind different attitudes or beliefs. Therefore, I think a poll is a very effective way to introduce a discussion topic.
There is no doubt that online teaching is challenging to manage because students’ behavior cannot be observed or monitored visually. But it also provides a more dynamic and flexible learning experience with the support of technology which may not be available in F2F classroom teaching.
Yeah, can’t agree more!
I find classmates more engaging and interactive in the chat box than in the classroom, especially in Alice’s class. Every time Alice asks a question, soooo many posts in the chat box! Last time she said: our progress is becoming slow~LOL
I use Zoom for learning and surprisingly I find it more efficient for me because I can listen to the teacher and classmates more clearly. The drawback might be losing the atmosphere in group discussion. Sometimes the network signal is out of control which will affect the fluency of the course.
Forget about the recording, this is the biggest advantage of online courses for me that I can review the course by watching the recording. It helps me a lot when I feel confused about some parts of the course.
Indeed! During the epidemic, we need to wear masks in the classroom, so sometimes we can not hear our classmates and the teacher clearly. This is no longer a problem in an online class. And as you said, there is much more uncertainty in online classes such as technical problems and network problem, which we have already experienced in Lindsay’s class.
I use Zoom this semester, like everyone else. And I also used Tencent meeting before, but they are just very similar.
At first, I wasn’t quite used to this teaching mode because I was not very familiar with those functions on zoom. But once I got to know them, my zoom experience went pretty well. But to be honest, sometimes I may lose my concentration.
The biggest advantages of learning online is that there’s no limit of places. As long as we have access to the internet, we can have the classes conveniently. The disadvantage is that without being monitored by teachers, students may not be fully engaged in the courses.
I nearly feel the same about Zoom as you do. I am getting used to it after taking several classes and experiencing its functions.
I think teachers can still supervise our participation as long as we turn on the camera. And they can enter the breakout rooms to see how our discussion goes.
I have used Zoom in my postgraduate university and Xinhua Accounting network school in my undergraduate school when my major was accounting. Both of these platforms are designed for online learning, however, the operating functions are slightly different. The Xinhua Accounting network school has a collaborative board, where both teachers and students can share information and comment on it, such as uploading files, drawing, and writing. But it seems that only teachers have access to control the screen and teaching materials on Zoom.
I feel quite engaged in online learning. Because online learning allows me to stay in a comfortable and quiet place, I won’t be interfered and distracted by other learners. And teachers’ teaching materials are always presented clearly on the screen, so it’s easier to follow teachers’ demonstration.
In terms of the pros and cons compared with f2f learning, I think students can benefit a lot from the multimodality of online teaching, like taking the online polls, watching videos, exploring relevant web pages by ourselves, freely sending emojis, comments on the comment board and even drawing and writing the concepts on the collaborative board with teachers as well. But such multimodality can also be a distraction sometimes if students focus more on the entertaining function than learning-facilitated function.
I used Zoom to learn online.
I think learning online is very convenient and can make me more integrate in the class. Without the mask, students and teachers are psychologically feel closer with others. The sound from mic and power point are clear to listen and read. The function of chat-box of Zoom helps me feel free to express my ideas and make me more integrate in class. However, I may get distracted during the Zoom lessons. Somehow, I just find it difficult for me to keep my attention to stare at the computer about 3 hours. It is exhausted for my eyes.
Compared with the f2f classroom learning, online learning provides more active and less pressure learning atmosphere for students. However, online learning is harder for teachers to manage such as unpredictable technical problems and teachers cannot make sure that all their students are fully engaged.
I have used Tencent meeting, UMU and also Zoom before when learning online.
I think there are some pros and cons reflected in my online learning experience. On one hand, without F2F communication, it is difficult for teacher to notice the reaction given by students. This makes the teaching a little bit harder than in offline teaching. Besides, when I was taking the online courses during the pandemic, I felt that it was harder for me to focus on the lecture online since there is no learning atmosphere at home.
On the other hand, I can comment down below some of my peers work and learn from them in the learning community on UMU. Also, by typing in the chat box, I can communicate with the professor easily.
All of the above covers most of my online learning experience and some of the pros and cons I can come up with.
I agree with your comments on the chat box, we can express our feelings without interrupting the teacher but keep in touch with the teacher. Answering questions in the chat box help to focus on the lecture.
I have used Zoom for learning for several weeks. Under the pandemic situation, I found it beneficial and necessary to have Zoom lessons since it offers an alternative way for teachers to deliver their teaching and for students to continue their learning. Thanks to Zoom, I finally recognize all of my classmates’ faces when they turn their cameras on.
I like the function that teachers can walk in every breakout room to observe students’ discussion and also provide some guidance accordingly. When we have discussions in the classroom, teachers seldom have a chance to observe our discussion and we may get distracted from the discussion topic without teachers’ supervision. However, students would be more focused and more contributive if we know that teachers may walk into the breakout room at any time. Chatbox is also a helpful instrument for me to express my opinion without too much pressure. Everyone types on the chatbox and therefore I don’t need to worry that others’ eyes would focus on me compared to answering questions in the physical class.
But sometimes I get distracted. For example, I would look at myself on the screen to check whether I have a good appearance when the camera is on… And sometimes the poor network prevents me from getting important information from teachers, which is super annoying!
I agree with the feeling that a chatbox is really a useful tool for us to express opinions. And I think that texting in chatbox can promote us to exchange views. Because texting leaves more time for us to organize and correct the use of vocabulary and grammar than face-to-face speaking.
The only online platform I have ever used for learning is Zoom. My online learning experience is acceptable, but not as good as the face-to-face one. In the classroom, I can easily take notes with my laptop. However, it’s inconvenient for me to type on the slides or PDF document if I have to use half of the screen to show the teacher’s shared screen. My learning experience of the most recent Zoom lesson was not satisfactory, because the internet access of the instructor wasn’t good enough, and we couldn’t hear the lecture clearly.
Apart from the disadvantages mentioned above, there are still other drawbacks of having lessons online. Some students living with their roommates may not have a quiet environment, which will influence the quality of learning. Besides, students aren’t always willing to turn on their cameras during the lessons, as a result, teachers sometimes have to give lectures facing blank screens. As for the advantages of online lessons, it does provide another option for communication—sending texts, which allows introverted students to express themselves freely. What’s more, the “record” function of Zoom makes it possible to transform a real-time class into a video, and students have an opportunity to re-watch the video for reviewing.
I have used Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Nearpod, Kahoot! and many others as online teaching and learning tools.
My experience on the above tools is that it is essential for the teachers to offer extensive scaffolding on the operation of the tools. It seems it is difficult for teachers to cater for learners’ diversity as most lessons are delivered visually and in audio.
Personally, F2F is better as teachers can manage the classroom using more direct classroom management strategies to promote learning effectiveness. However, online platforms such as google classroom is useful as it systematically organise learning materials and assign homework with ease.
I have used zoom for learning.
My learning experience as an adult learner is good. During semester A, I needed to spend 2 hours on transportation and wore the mask for the whole lecture. Comparing to my online learning experience, I can relax more and have better time management for my studying.
In my opinion, young learners may be difficult to use technology, stay focused on the computer screen and keep engaged in the virtual classroom. In most of the cases, they need to seek for supports from their caregiver. However, online learning can help those learners to predict verbal skills from teachers’ mothing-looking by the big screen.
I once used wechat group as a learning platform.
I can watch class videos, upload homework through the mini apps, and interact with teachers or classmates in wechat groups. But the learning effect depends really on my self-control.
The advantage of online learning is that I am more willing to interact with the teacher. Besides, in f2f classes, I always discuss with classmates around me and have little chance to talk to other people. But in an online course, the groups are divided randomly, so I can speak to more people and get more different ideas.
However, in f2f classes, when I have problems following the teacher or understanding something, I can ask classmates around me and get immediate feedback. But it is not as convenient to do so in the online class.
I have used Zoom and Tencent Meeting for online lessons and online meeting. And to be honest, my personal experience is not that satisfying. Since we can only take lectures through screens, I feel easily distracted by things around me in the real world. Things like checking my phone, talking with my roommates or even eating snacks happen frequently, which makes the class less efficient than expected. I need to keep telling myself to focus on lectures, which is also distracted.
Obviously, the advantage of online learning is that we don’t have to go to school, lowering the chance that we get infected by the pandemic. It’s convenient that you just click some buttons and then join the lectures. But on the contrary, teachers may not be able to monitor learners’ learning condition as having face-to-face lectures. Besides, sometimes the lectures may be affected by the unstable network, causing a waste of time.
1. Zoom
2. As an adult learner, basically, I am optimistic about online learning.
3. Online teaching is both teacher- and learner-friendly regarding time, place, and after-class review constraints. Also, by sharing the screen and controlling the volume, every student can clearly see the teaching materials and hear the teacher’s voice. However, students may not concentrate in a virtual setting. In terms of disciplines requiring manual experiments and lab activities, online teaching would never provide satisficing experience. How to guarantee the same-level learning outcome online teaching can achieve as F2F do? According to my teaching experience, students having classes online got worse grades than F2F, and I found difficulties in evaluating the teaching aims and checking students’ learning outcomes after each class. Online teaching could not provide me space and energy for class observation, and I tend to rely on students’ verbal, physical reactions and facial expressions to adjust my teaching procedure.
Like what some of you have said, even after a few weeks attending classes on Zoom I’m still struggling with some of its features. I strongly agree with you on some of the common problems you pointed out: great pressure to talk “in front of” the whole class having my camera on, being frequently distracted by the temptation to check how myself and others look in the camera, greater difficulty concentrating due to the lack of a sense of joint learning environment…Apart from that, another major frustration with online classroom may be for students attending some practice-oriented courses: It is difficult to watch what the teacher does with, say, a computer programme while operating on your own computer, due to the limited display resolution and screen size you can work on. Working on two devices at the same time, one for playing the teacher’s instructions and the other for operating own your own, may be a good solution, but is also costly for some students. The same problem goes for taking notes while watching the lecture. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do with it other than having two devices. Anyways, I agree that the collaborative creation/annotation function provided on some platforms does allow us to do a lot of things that we cannot do in a physical classroom.
1. I have used Zoom, Tencent Meeting, Xuexitong（学习通）and Chinese University MOOC for learning. My teachers used those platforms to teach me when I was an undergraduate. The last three are Chinese platforms. Among them, Tencent Meeting functions like Zoom. As for Xuexitong and Chinese University MOOC, my teacher uploaded some videos of courses on them and asked us to answer questions or doing exercises after watching those videos. There are also other things I can do with those Apps. I will talk about my experience below.
2. Most of the time, I think learning online is quite good and interesting. I remembered once upon a time, our teacher asked us to debate on Xuexitong. It was quite amazing to use texting function to debate online. I remembered the topic was “should we check our partner’s phone”. We could use both Chinese and English to debate. We were divided into two groups. One group holding the view that we should check, while the others not. If we wanted to be the first one to debate with other group, we needed to use this emoji 🙌 first, and then we could finished texting our ideas within 2 minutes. This activity not only help me to grasp debate skills, but also tested my typing speed online. It was really interesting. I had never thought that I could have this kind of texting online debate before.
3. Compared to F2F classroom learning, I think the advantages of online learning are:
(1) We can have more access to learning sources online. We can even take classes that are given by people from other countries online, without going abroad or even going outside.
(2) We can review when taking online classes because most online learning platforms have the function of recoding classes.
The Disadvantages are:
(1) It is much easier for students to get distracted when taking online classes.
(2)Sometimes, it is difficult to take some practical classes online. For example, those classes that requires using machines.
I’ve only used Zoom for learning.
Learning on zoom saves me a lot of time for transportation, so I love Zoom! In some classes, many classmates are willing to answer questions and post them on the chat board, which gives everybody a chance to speak out and teachers can notice all the responses that I think is pretty good and time-saving.
Advantages of online learning:
1. Convenient.
2. Encourage shy people to give responses in class.
3. People can review the class.
Disadvantages of online learning:
1. Students are easily losing their attention.
2. When a teacher is displaying some steps about how to do a thing, students need to switch between the teachers’ display screen and conduct it on other screens, and it is quite challenging for students to catch up.
I have used Mooc, Coursera, Zoom, and educational channels on bilibili. I find online learning platforms helpful in providing you with learning resources that are mostly up to date. However, to learn effectively on these platforms, one will need to set goals actively and participate in the discussion, which can be challenging to achieve. Overall I do think it is a valuable way to learn.
For questions one and two, I have used Zoom, Tecent Meeting, and MOOC for language learning. After the fifth round breakout of covid-19 in Hong Kong, the f2f classes have been transported to zoom, lowering the risk of cross-infection in physical classes. Thanks to Zoom! And I have used Tecent Meeting to have online English classes to talk with foreigners cause, although I am an English major student, I lack authentic contexts to practice my oral English. For MOOC, it is more likely a compulsory thing for me. When I was a junior student in university, we were asked to learn classes on MOOC to get credits. After watching, we had to finish some quizzes based on what we learned from online classes. And I think this is an optimal supplementary channel for limited in-class time.
From my perspective, the f2f classes are always better than online ones in general. Although online classes platforms can break the limitations of space and time, f2f should always be prioritized if we have choices. Because teaching is not only about imparting knowledge, it is more about physical interactions between teachers and students. Education should always come with love, which is hard to convey through screens.
I have used zoom and Tencent Conference for learning. They can facilitate instruction in this pandemic situation. Personally, online learning can be quite awesome, since I do not need to move around which saves time in commuting. And also using these learning platforms can help me communicate with diverse classmates which can surround me with different kinds of ideas.
In my opinion, learning online is better than learning face to face in these aspects. It provides records of the course which makes students who want to review the course more convenient. It has the function of typing which helps shy students share their ideas easily. And with the shared platform where learners can collaborate synchronously, more sparking ideas can be viewed in a short time.
However, this remote style has its drawbacks. Since people are not physically engaged in the class, if they are not required to turn on the camera and not highly self-monitored, learners can do other stuff instead of listening to the lecturer carefully. And also, some accidents may happen and the possibility of technical problems increases, if the internet of the instructor is not stable. And it does influence the quality of the course.
1. Apart from Zoom, I have used Google Meet, Webex and Padlet.
2. My experience with Zoom as a student and teacher so far is that it is a very user-friendly, practical and convenient platform. Google Meet is another platform which I frequently use when I attend parent workshops offered by my child’s school, because her school uses Google Meet for real-time online lessons during the pandemic period. As a parent user, I feel that it is very secure and the chance of a hacker or outsider breaking in is very slim, because the platform only admits attendants who log in using the students’ school email accounts. Some drawbacks of Google Meet are that the chat functions are not as diverse as Zoom’s, which means that you are not able to text someone privately, so any messages you type are seen by everyone attending the session. It seems to me that Google Meet is not equipped with breakout rooms, so its functionality is limited compared to that of Zoom’s. As far as Webex goes, it is another platform that governmental bodies such as the EDB (Education Bureau) here in Hong Kong are keen on using for online workshops and training. As far as I remember, registration is required prior to usage of this platform, and once you attend a Webex seminar, there are basically only one or two buttons you are left with. So from the end-user’s point of view, one can say that it is not as feasible and user-friendly as Zoom. From the organizer’s point of view, this platform greatly reduces nuisance and disturbance caused by attendees who are too eager to drop verbal and written comments in the workshops. Lastly, Padlet is a collaborative board which I have seen both my students and my child use for school projects. Personally, I think this platform is wonderful for students as well as teachers to consolidate and share their ideas, project journals, collages, artworks and even cooking recipes together. What’s more, the student can choose to remain anonymous if he/she doesn’t want to disclose his/her identity to others.
3. When it comes to online teaching, the advantages are that the curriculum can be delivered with minimal disruptions, especially during the pandemic. Thus the teacher can deliver the lessons virtually from anywhere that offers Internet connections, allowing the teacher the added convenience of not having to physically travel to school. Google Meet, for instance, has the built-in function of enabling students to submit and resubmit assignments virtually, so teachers can mark students’ homework flexibly and rest assured that they would not run the risk of contracting COVID-19 if handling paper assignments. Some disadvantages of online teaching can be that it is often a struggle from the part of the teacher to successfully persuade students to turn on their cameras during the lessons. Even after using a firm and stern tone of voice, students may not respond as instructed. So this can create friction and disappointment in teachers who want to reach out to passive and withdrawn students. Another disadvantage is that, due to the virtual distance, the teacher’s authority is often being challenged and it is not easy for teachers to get immediate responses and answers from students. Teachers spend extra time trying to coax students into turning on their mikes to participate more actively, if not proactively. When it comes to online learning, it depends on the types of learners we are dealing with. Learners who are shy and quiet in the physical classroom may either have the tendency to withdraw even more and go unnoticed or take a great leap forward and participate more now that they don’t perceive all eyes glancing at them. Learners who have usually perform well academically either continue performing up to standard or take a deep plunge and slack off, possibly because they have lost the momentum for learning or probably due to a reduced sense of competitiveness previously felt stronger when facing able peers in the physical classroom.
Obviously, it is zoom that I use for my remote learning. Up to now, I have not get used to zoom teaching mode. As an extrovert person, I am more willing to get involved with the real teaching environment not the digital one. For one thing, zoom can facilitate the remote education mode by breaking down the physical distance. For another, F2F classroom teaching is more interactive and effective for students to learn as students can have more senses to participate in the teaching process. I would prefer to apply F2F classroom teaching mode instead of zoom-based mode.