A glimpse of our MYP Professional Development workshop in action [1]

Language and Literature: Delivering the MYP Curriculum

Contributed by: Fernia Rizopoulou, IBEN

This virtual workshop was a great learning experience for my participants and me.?

Of course, there were challenges, the biggest one being that, since everyone joins muted it is not easy to initiate spontaneous discussions with the whole team. Also, it can be difficult to sense the dynamics of the room, feel the atmosphere and assess the level of engagement which is important in workshop facilitation. It is also crucial to be well prepared and flexible to rapidly adjust plans as external conditions cannot be always controlled.

However, after having this experience, I no longer believe that there is a big difference with face-to-face workshops in terms of the learning outcomes.?

For every single activity that we normally do physically, we found an equivalent application to use. Q&A posting, reflections, unit planning, assessment design, visual collaboration, interesting conversations on IB pedagogy, everything was there. Participants really enjoyed the breakout room discussions and admittedly, it is easier to shuffle groups virtually than in the face-to-face, so there was a good variety of interaction. BBB was proven to be a pretty straightforward platform to use and everything ran smoothly.?There were more tools I was considering using, but sometimes it is better to keep it simple. Technology in virtual workshops should not be used just for the sake of technology but to facilitate cooperation, communication, engagement, active participation and quality learning.?

I really enjoy being part of a resilient education community of life-long learners who manage to overcome any constraints and remain life-long learners.

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