- The aspects of online learning that I liked were largely centered on the practical convenience of it. For example, the amount of time I had to spend to prepare to get to class was dramatically reduced by not having to travel or even properly dress! I could also do things like turn my camera off and go to the kitchen to get something to eat while listening to the class. Sometimes, I would multitask by answering emails or fixing my instruments while being in class. The passive nature of online classes meant that aside from a few occasions where break-out rooms, surveys or other interactive elements were employed, I felt free to do things that I held as a greater or equal priority to class time. This being said, there were certainly several negative aspects to online learning as well. Particularly when studying music and music education, online learning ultimately hindered the amount of learning and growth I took on over the course of my undergraduate degree. For example, during the most isolated periods of the pandemic, there were no ensembles rehearsing together, and even private instrument instruction became extremely difficult to make valuable. Collaborating musically in the traditional sense was not possible over Zoom, and alternative platforms weren’t ubiquitous enough at the time to be used as widely or as readily. Another hindrance was having teachers who were not used to having to rely on technology to deliver their lessons, for which entire classes suffered from far less robust syllabi. For classes where the plan was for us to interact in real-life classrooms with real-life students, we missed out on major opportunities to experiment and find teaching techniques that are useful. If given the option, I would love to be given a hybrid format. Where tasks make sense to be face-to-face, they absolutely should be. For those tasks where its unnecessary, it can save lots of time, energy, money and stress to have them be run virtually.
- As we saw with Covid-19, transitions to new modalities are not always expected nor thoroughly prepared for in advance. As a new educator in the secondary system, what advice do you have to yourself and other new educators in how they can best prepare themselves for such a transition if it were to happen in the future? Share two learning activities you plan to have “in your back pocket” that would be useful for leading a course in your specific teachable area during such an emergency transition.
- The advice I have for myself and other new educators is to continue to research and show interest in other education projects within our teachable subjects that used a virtual format of delivery. Continue to seek out inspiration in others’ innovative and creative ideas! An example I saw that I found inspiring was a production of Hamlet entirely on Zoom. The product was extremely creative in its execution and very watchable, entertaining and thought-provoking. Personally, one idea that I have for the contingency of being forced back to a purely online and virtual format, is to a) design a unit plan which is not centered around musical performance in an ensemble, but rather centered on solo music creation and composition projects. This could mean teaching music theory concepts and then designing assignments where learners must create a small piece of music using those taught elements, or it could look more like using a browser-based DAW program to explore music production. A shift could also be made towards teaching Music History or critical analysis of music through a social, environmental, artistic, or political lens, as an alternative to traditionally performance-centric music programs.
- As I have not included information or the opinions of others as a component of this reflection, I invite others to send me their thoughts regarding this topic. Thank you!
November 17, 2023