The evolving role of teacher and student online-A Contingency Approach

In a quest to offer a compassionate yet brave response to social distancing norms due to the COVID 19 situation, educators around the globe are grappling with novel ways of interacting with their students practically on the cloud, miles away from the brick and mortar classrooms. It is time to reflect on how this global disruption would define what Learning should look like for Generation Alpha and how the teachers will adapt to it. This article explores the above questions by webbing together four concepts- namely, Panic-gogy, Tunneled Vision, Relaxed Alertness and The Pareto Principle and completing the puzzle to find out “What is the need of the moment?” All these approaches have one thing in common- “The focus on the Present with no mention of what the long term future entails”. As much absurd it may sound, it is essential to understand that in unfortunate times, a relaxed approach, connection and compassion become the hallmarks of any contingent strategy- and learning is not an exception.

Let’s straight dive into knowing what these are.

Panic-gogy

Pointing your attention to the article 'Panic-gogy': Teaching Online Classes During The Coronavirus Pandemic by Chie Adachi that quiets the cacophony of the mind by instructing faculty to do less and have reasonable expectations of the themselves and students citing their genuine practicalities over the pursuit of academic resilience. The Panic-gogy approach keeps it simple and lays emphasis on savoring connection and compassion as a reaction to times of crisis. Mentioned below are annotated key points that the article discusses,

1.      Prioritize your response towards the reality. Today the responsibility of safety of humans, life quality, mental sanity, essential resourcing are matters of concern over usual dialogues about how the class went? How many students turned up? Was the delivery of content up to the mark? Etc.

2.      Addressing student practicalities and the situational dilemma that a student maybe currently trapped into. Some may not have adequate facilities at an immediate point to take classes online, like a good Wi Fi, a smartphone, a quiet place to attend lectures etc., let us not even think about how some students would probably be stuck without an accommodation and restricted travel arrangements or those who had college to their rescue from an abusive/unconducive household. Human connection and empathy are the only words that ring a bell in our ears at a thought of such tumultuous situations a youngster may be living with. Can we really worry about how many classes a student has missed in times of a pandemic? Let this thought jab on your brain for a bit.

3.      Connection overcomes crisis. Faculty now has to wear the cape and be the students superhero conquering for them all possible battles they are facing in terms of mental anxieties, physical understanding of processes, protecting them against cybercrime or be it guidance on future, employment or financial concerns. That is how enormous a responsibility faculty is supposed to be shouldering. Connect students where you find them, social platforms, formal platforms, wherever!

4.      Cover COVID-19 onto the curriculum. We cannot emphasize enough on the importance of addressing the elephant in the room. A curriculum that equips students to deal with crisis is the need of the hour.

The article closes with a beautiful note on trying to find compassion in crisis and dealing with it in the most humane way possible.

Tunnel Vision

Figuratively speaking, tunneled vision is a phenomenon where you lose perspective as a result of intense focus on current/singular situation that leads to being shut down to other viewpoints and possibilities. It merely means zooming in on a goal to achieve in the present. However, having a tunnel vision may both be a strength and a weakness as a singular focused approach may lead to loss of sight of the bigger picture. In times of global crisis, it becomes the need of the hour to chase a targeted goal but overlooking other potential issues for a longer time may impact colossally in ways more than you could imagine. Perhaps, as a contingent strategy for a short term, a tunneled vision on the “COVID 19 struck new reality of Higher Education” could brew an alternate strategy for the pedagogues to try hands at. For a short while, let us keep other factors aside such as attendance, assessments, grades, instructional design, etc. A tunneled vision towards nurturing people in testing times and ushering utmost comfort to the faculty and students when they are forced to transition to an online platform irrespective of their willingness to do so could bind the people together to achieve more in the future.

Relaxed Alertness

Enough has been said about how “all the learning that takes place” is impacted by the state of mind and the learning environment. Right state of mind is indispensable to achieve success in any endeavor and this stands true for learning as well. To be able to learn better, it is of prime importance to support the learner in acquiring an optimal state of mind, i.e. Relaxed Alertness.

Relaxed Alertness is when a learner is relaxed yet at the same time excited about challenges and emotionally engaged. To let students achieve small victories, bring them at ease with their self-expression in classroom while encouraging minor failures is a neuro strategy that keep the learner calm in crisis. When this state of mind becomes a reflex response to life situations, a student will feel confident, in control, and would be actively engaged in dealing with challenges. When the classroom has a low-threat environment, students are willing to take more risks and feel OK to make mistakes as a part of the learning process. A temporary state of Relaxed Alertness could help students salvage a momentary sense of success that ushers up their confidence and belief to conquer all obstacles they stumble upon in future. A few ways to bring relaxed alertness in learners is to make them equal party to the lecturing process so they feel in charge. To encourage brain based learning strategies like turn and talk on a topic discussed, uplift emotions by praising the students work or insights, using visual cues, chunking information for better understanding, allowing timely physical movement breaks, stand, breathe and stretch breaks, water breaks, timely constructive feedbacks, use music, let students create acronyms of concepts, let them reflect, add optimism to create a positive learning environment, let them make choices of assignments to attempt etc. Brain is social in nature and to aid higher order thinking skills, so should our teaching strategies be.

Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule

The Pareto Principle states that "80% of the results originate from 20% of the effort". If faculty spends only 20 percent of energy and time relaxing students and nurture them to attain a state of relaxed alertness, they will see 80 percent results. Only 20 percent efforts towards making classes relevant can define the outcomes that contributes 80% of the success of the course. Stay away from creating a content cursed course for the students. A good experience is to have learners spend 80% of their time working on activities and 20% consuming content. Let loose of the wretched habit of circumlocution and complicating things and embrace simplicity as an attribute of the course “for now”. Invest 80 percent time in creating and delivering impactful 20 percent of crucial content and 20 percent time at arranging the 80 percent fluff matter. You will be shocked to see the result and enthusiasm that pours in.

What is the need of the moment?

Well, the scourge we are up against is an unknown monster and our journey to overcome all the obstacles it throws at us will define the future of our world. It is time when we need to acknowledge the fears our students have. It is time of crisis counselling. While creating a plan to teach our students, let us move forward with a “tunnel vision” and keep in mind how our pursuit to pedagogical innovation needs to be overcome by “Panic-gogy” and how “Pareto rule” can help create an effective course for a student to attain a “relaxed alertness” state of mind. Simply put, keep it short, simple and serviceable until we figure out better strategy.