Post 422: How To Structure A Zoom Lesson

 https://elearningindustry.com/best-way-structure-zoom-lesson

The Best Way To Structure A Zoom Lesson

In this article, I go over the best way to structure a Zoom Lesson: Pre-Lesson, During Lesson, and Post Lesson.

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Three-Tier Method For Structuring A Zoom Lesson

My name is Yvonne Ho. I teach English Composition online. I have been teaching online for the past 12 years. Before the pandemic in March, I had never heard of Zoom. Once the lockdown started, pretty soon my entire social and professional life was on Zoom. I was on Zoom family calls with cousins from around the world; my church meetings were on Zoom—it was strange seeing the choir sing on Zoom; and finally, I started giving my English Composition lessons on Zoom.

After teaching many lessons on Zoom, I have come up with a three-tier method to teaching on Zoom. I use this same three-tier method for teaching reading and writing by the way. When I teach reading, there are three stages:

1. Pre-reading
   I have students predict what the article will be about; we discuss what the article will be about; we use context clues like the headline and the picture captions to guess what the article will be about; we read the first and last sentences of each paragraph to guess what the reading is about.
2. During Reading
   I have the students actually read the article and summarize in their own words what the reading is about
3. Post-reading
   We evaluate how the reading will impact the student's lives.

When I teach writing, I use the same three-tier method: Pre-Writing, students find an essay topic, they develop their thesis and write an outline; During Writing, students write their rough draft from their outline; and, Post-writing, revision where students revise/proofread their essay before turning in their essay for the final draft.

In my Zoom lesson, I use the same three-tier method for teaching my Zoom lesson. I have a Pre-Lesson discussion, During Lesson Interactive Activities, and Post-Lesson Evaluation.

1. Pre-Lesson Discussion

In the Zoom Pre-Lesson Discussion, before I share my screen, I see my students' faces and they see mine. We engage in social dialogue, chit chat, ask each other how we are. I relax my students and I ask what exactly they want to learn and what they have learned in the class thus far. I get a feel of what students need and want to hear more about from the reading or from the lesson. I also start to discuss my agenda for the class, and I prepare students for the upcoming lesson.

2. During Lesson Discussion

I then share my screen and I start giving my lecture about the lesson topic. I make sure I can see my students' faces as I share my screen to ascertain how they are feeling and to see if they are bored I will go faster, or if they are overwhelmed I will go slower. I then do comprehension checks and stop from time to time and ask them, "Am I going too fast or too slow?" If they say no, then I continue with my lecture.

I also engage in interactive activities by giving them fill-in-the-blank exercises where they answer questions orally about the topic; and the most fun of all, they love doing the Grammar Practice Quiz to prepare for their class Grammar Quiz. I ask the grammar quiz question and then call on students to answer that grammar question based on the grammar concepts we just went over.

I also have students screen share their papers so I can go over any mistakes they had or go over my grading feedback. I also use the whiteboard to "create" papers with them so they can see from scratch how to write an essay or what they did wrong on their essay.

3. After Lesson Discussion

After the one hour lesson, I stop sharing my screen so I can see their faces. Just like the Pre-Lesson Discussion, I ask students how they are doing. I ask students if they have understood the lesson, or if they have any questions. I also ask students if they have any more questions about future lessons or future assignments, and I give students a preview orally of upcoming tests, quizzes, and assignments. Then, we engage in fun chit chat about our lives to wrap up the Zoom lesson. I like to ask students again how they are doing and to encourage students to email me if they have questions.

 

Post 420: How To Handle Zoom Fatigue

Why do we get Zoom Fatigue? 

Zoom Fatigue results from the unnatural way students are placed on a Zoom screen. In a natural conversation face to face, we look someone in the eye. They look at us in the eye as we converse together. We observe each other's body language to gauge sadness, happiness, confusion, or clarity of understanding. When people communicate with each other, it is an organic process of looking at each other and gauging each other's body language.

When we teach face to face, as a teacher, we look at the expression on student faces to gauge whether or not the student is bored, overwhelmed, or confused. If a student suddenly understands what you are teaching, it is most gratifying for the teacher to teach that student that new skill, and see that spark of understanding or epiphany in that student's face. When teaching face to face, we are able to see our students' body language and facial expressions as we teach unlike Zoom where we are always look at a red camera light contributing to Zoom Fatigue.

In a Zoom session, we don't get to see the entire body of the student. We have to look at the camera light in order to appear to be talking directly to the student if the Zoom session is being recorded. Also, when we are on Zoom, we are very aware of how we are dressed, how we look, how our hair looks, and how our background looks. We have to be constantly 'on' and constantly remember to look at that red light. All of this effort is unnatural to normal human communication of eye to eye contact resulting in Zoom Fatigue.

For me, after several Zoom classes, and after looking at that red camera light, my mind becomes toast for the rest of the day. I am even more tired after teaching Zoom than when I used to get tired after teaching class face to face. According to the many Zoom articles about Zoom fatigue that I have read, this fatigue comes from the unnatural way we have to look at that red light and how we have to avoid looking at our student faces when we talk/lecture so we appear natural looking in our Zoom recordings.

Seven Ways To Avoid Zoom Fatigue

1. Schedule Zoom Meetings to One or 2 days a Week

The only way to avoid Zoom Fatigue is simply to have fewer Zoom meetings or to schedule all your Zoom meetings in one day so you don't have several days of brain fog resulting from Zoom fatigue. For me, I schedule my Zoom meetings as much as possible on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesday, I give the Office Hour Zoom meeting with students who need special attention, want tutoring, or need remedial attention. Then, on Fridays, I have my regular class Zoom session for the rest of the class. In this way, by restricting Zoom sessions to just 2 days a week, I give fewer Zoom sessions to avoid Zoom Fatigue.

2. Use more Email

Try to just contact your students through email only. This can save on Zoom Fatigue because most things that you explain over Zoom can be explained over email as well. For instance, when my students have writing problems, the students can email me drafts of their paper or thesis statement, and by email, I can explain the concept to them, or I can rewrite the thesis for them with an explanation on how to formulate their own thesis statement.

3. Use more telephone

If you have a business number, you can have your students phone you instead of using Zoom. If you use the telephone, you get the same real time instantaneous one on one feel you get when you are having a Zoom call. You can instantly tell students what they need to do, and students can ask you questions of what they do  not understand.

4. Create a Screencast video

I create a lot of screencast videos using Screencastomatic to explain complex grammar concepts like sentence structure, parallel structure or the five paragraph essay structure. I also explain the most common errors students make on their rough drafts. Visual learners and audio learners tell me they love my screencast videos. You can then upload these videos to your YouTube Channel so students can view your videos without having to type in a Zoom passcode.

5. Camera Off on Zoom

If you must have a Zoom call, then use the camera off button so that you and your student can focus on the material and not on how you look on camera and not on how your cluttered house may look like. With camera off on Zoom, then Zoom becomes more like a phone call with FaceTime (seeing the paper).

6. Take Breaks Between Zoom Meetings

During the one or two days you have to have Zoom meetings, try not to schedule your meetings in a row. For every one hour of Zoom meetings, take 10 minutes off to take a walk, drink water, and eat something. Also, look away from the computer from time to time to rest your eyes. The human brain was not made to just look at a red camera light all day long as this stresses out the brain if you stare at the camera light all day and at the same time try to talk to students and teach at the same time.

7. Use other ways of communication 

The simplest way to avoid Zoom Fatigue is simply to avoid using Zoom as much as possible and find other avenues of communication with your students. That's what I do! Hope this helps you avoid Zoom Fatigue.

Post 419: Should teachers be allowed to modify standardized classrooms?

 Should teachers be allowed to modify standardized classrooms?  YES

Many online schools use one standardized classroom for all the sections of one class. For instance, let's say you are a English Composition teacher, you are then given a classroom that already has lessons, forums, assignments, loaded into the online classroom. All you have to do is to facilitate the classroom, grade the assignments, and participate in the forums with the students. Every online teacher receives the same exact ENG 101 classroom. So, Section 01 of ENG 101 has the same exact lessons and assignments as Section 25 ENG 101.

If you are lucky and you get a terrific classroom, then as an online teacher all you have to do is sit back, follow the directions and lead the students through the pre-loaded assignments and directions. No sweat.

However, if the online classroom instructions has mistakes, and you are locked out of the module to fix that mistake, then you are unlucky because then you have to report the mistake to the administrator who is the only one with access to unlock the module to fix the mistake. Or if the online school had the interactive lessons done by a third party vendor and you see mistakes, you are out of luck.

I believe that the online teacher who teaches a standardized classroom should be able to slightly modify the instructions of the lesson, the forums, or the assignment to a) better reflect the personality of the teacher b) add other instructions that work better for the class based on the teacher's previous experience in teaching other classes c) Avoid confusion if the instructions are unclear and confusing to students. Having the forum, lesson, module and assignment instructions locked to the instructor is a BAD idea because then the online teacher is stuck with confusing instructions.

I am currently teaching a forum where students discuss the revision of their rough drafts. The instructions are very broad telling students to simply talk about what revisions they plan to make to their essay. I would like to add further instructions like, students should also be able to post their underlined thesis statements or students should post their rough drafts to the forum for a more interactive peer review forum, but since I am locked out of the instructions, I cannot change the instructions to fit my personality or to improve the discussions.

Currently, in the forum, I constantly post "Why don't you tell us your thesis statement? What is your thesis statement or essay topic? And nobody pays any attention. They just vaguely describe their revision plans and it is hard to understand the context of that student post without the student posting their essay topic or thesis.  

Therefore, schools should allow online teachers who teach the section to be able to modify the lesson based on that teacher's experience and personality to make the class more interactive for both teacher and student. 

Allowing teachers to modify lessons slightly without changing the lesson or class objective increases faculty morale. When an online school I was working for finally allowed faculty to change slightly the lessons in the syllabus or in the classroom, I remember how happy my fellow faculty members were at the time. We considered it a victory over the orders of the administration. Before, we were only allowed to modify the rubrics, but after many complaints about bad instructions that were unclear, finally admin said okay we can modify the lessons and after that faculty morale skyrocketed!

Post 418: Is this video for Real?

 Post 418: Is this Video for Real?

 

 

On What's App, my cousin sent me a video called, "Is this Video for Real?" by AJ Willingham.  This article describes different ways you can tell if a video has been faked or manipulated.  The article goes over different kinds of fake videos. Cheapfakes are videos that were altered by classic video editing like Photoshop.  Deepfakes are videos altered by artificial intelligence. The computer is fed that person's face many times and then after a while, the AI can extrapolate how that person can talk or move and then the video creator can then create a fake video from that AI metadata.  

The most interesting part of this article is that they put side by side the real video of Nancy Pelosi talking naturally, and then they had a fake video of Nancy Pelosi where her speech sounded slurred to make her seem like she was drunk. The fake video where they slowed down her speech through video editing looked so real that if you did not know it was fake, you would think Pelosi was drunk when she was not.

Then, there was another two videos a real and a fake of Obama speaking, but there was no audio to this excerpt.  I was asked to choose which of the Obama video was fake, and which one was real. I chose the WRONG one because they can make the fake video look so real, that I cannot tell the difference. Williingham states that to tell the difference, you have to look at how unnatural Obama's jaw moves as he speaks.

When listening to a fake audio of Trump talking, Willingham says be aware of you don't hear any fricatives in the speech. Fricatives are sounds where you have to breathe on the sound to make the sound like 't' or 'p'.  For some reason, machines think fricatives or breathable sounds are just noise so machines cannot yet replicate fricative sounds.

When looking at a face, make sure that the glasses, ears, are symmetrical or asymmetrical. In a natural face, the glasses can be asymmetrical. In a fake video, everything will look too perfect, too symmetrical. In a real face, you have imperfections like crooked teeth or realistic looking ears.

I was blown by the idea that a computer program named StyleGan by Philip Wang on the website, This Person does not Exist where the machine can create fake faces of people who do not exist. These fake faces look so real too! Then, you can put these fake people anywhere and just create people out of thin air!

Read this fascinating article to learn more about how videos and other online content can be faked at

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/10/us/manipulated-media-tech-fake-news-trnd/

Post 417: What is a good way to give feedback?

What is a good way to give feedback?

 

 

https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-feedback-fallacy 

"Focusing people on their shortcomings doesn’t enable learning; it impairs it"

In this article "Why Feedback Fails" by Marcus Buckingham, the best feedback you can give is to emphasize what the worker does well. For instance, if the worker is making a sale and the client is about to buy the product, then you as the boss would say to the salesman, "Keep doing THAT!" This is where you are excellent. In other words, during times your worker is succeeding, point out what he is doing well and how he is doing well.

Buckingham claims that when we criticize people, then the brain sees this as a threat and then the brain will initiate the 'flight or fight response' and that's why when people are criticized, they become defensive and emotional which impedes their ability to listen, learn and grow.

However, if you tell workers what they are already doing right and to encourage them to keep doing what they are doing right with a few improvements added, you initiate the creativity part of the brain, the 'rest and digest' part of the brain which is the time we are absorbing new info like when we talk to our friends, laugh at jokes, watch TV, and when we teach people to improve at their most creative moments, that's when they learn without the negative baggage of feeling threatened 'flight or fight' response.

Buckingham offers suggestions on how you can slightly change the wording of your tips to soften the blow of your feedback. Instead of pointing out a mistake like, 'You need better communication skills.", you can say, "If I were you...." scenario where you put yourself in that person's shoes and how you would handle that situation rather than tell the worker, show the worker through casual conversation so couch your feedback less like a mistake, but more like friendly advice and the worker will be more prone to listen to friendly advice from a 'friend' than from a micromanaging boss Ironically enough, this article on feedback came from my 'friendly advice' boss too! :).