Going into this school year school leaders and teachers wrangled with the challenge of virtual teaching and learning. Trainings on online programs were attended, schedules were revised, and plans were made. Questions filled everyone's minds about how to duplicate our schools and classrooms in a virtual space. It finally became clear that in person teaching and learning can not be duplicated. With guidance from school leaders, teachers put their best foot forward and are doing what they can to make distance teaching and learning work. Some challenges that teachers still face are: should students keep cameras on during video conferences, and how do we handle “Zoom fatigue”?
Cameras on or off during video conferences?
At the start of the school year, teachers at my school were told by leadership that students must have cameras on at all times. All I could think about was equity - how is forcing students to make their homes and personal space visible for 5 hours a day equitable? There are many reasons why a student might have a camera off: family members, pets, undesirable environment, and an unstable internet connection are just some of the reasons. Also, students and even teachers can feel very vulnerable with the camera on. Steve Blank points out,
“Before meeting in person, you may do a quick check of your appearance, but you definitely don’t hold up a mirror in the middle of a meeting constantly seeing how you look. Yet with the focus on us as much as on the attendees, most video apps seem designed to make us self conscious and distract from watching who’s speaking.” If the students are distracted from the person speaking, how are they engaged with learning?
After reading the Edutopia post about engaging students with the camera off, I did some planning and during a leadership meeting I shared my decision but I wasn’t going to demand that my students have their cameras on while on Zoom. We had a respectful discussion and I explained that I tell my students there are five forms of participation on Zoom: chat, reactions, video, voice, and hand signals. The leadership team agreed that it wasn’t equitable to require cameras on the entire duration of the video conference and I was asked to present this new decision with the staff. Teachers are now saying they are able to focus their efforts better during a lesson rather than constantly asking students to turn cameras on.
How do we handle “Zoom fatigue” for teachers and learners?
Ask any teacher who is teaching virtually and they will tell you that the multi-tasking required to run a virtual classroom is exhausting. In addition, for our learners, Steve Blank says, learning through video conferences is affecting learning by reducing their ability to process and retain information. According to National Geographic “‘We’re engaged in numerous activities, but never fully devoting ourselves to focus on anything in particular,’... Psychologists call this continuous partial attention, .... Think of how hard it would be to cook and read at the same time. That's the kind of multi-tasking your brain is trying, and often failing, to navigate in a group video chat.”
Once I learned this, I changed the pace of my virtual classroom and began giving many more brain breaks such as guided meditation. Rather than trying to keep up with pacing guides and attempt to engage the entire class for 90 minute leaning blocks, as directed by administration, my grade level decided to cut down the workload and broke it down to a 15-20 minute whole group lesson, then small group time. I found my students to be much more engaged and focused. However, this put me, once again, against the guidance from administration because I was not in line with the pacing guide, and the schedules. I had another conversation with the leadership team and we decided it was our responsibility to create a learning environment where students can be successful and when students are too overwhelmed and exhausted to learn, we are not being effective. The leadership team came to a consensus that in order to do what is best for our students, preventing Zoom fatigue needed to be a priority in our planning.
References:
Blank, S. (April 27, 2020) What’s Missing From Zoom Reminds Us What it Means to be Human. Retrieved Oct. 3, 2020 from https://medium.com/@sgblank/whats-missing-from-zoom-reminds-us-what-it-means-to-be-human-651be7cbff39
Seltzer, K. (Sept. 14, 2020) Engaging Students in Virtual Instruction With the Camera Off. Retrieved Oct. 3, 2020 from https://www.edutopia.org/article/engaging-students-virtual-instruction-camera
Sklar, J. (April 24, 2020) ‘Zoom Fatigue’ is Taxing the Brain. Here’s Why That Happens. Retrieved Oct. 3, 2020 from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-zoom-fatigue-is-taxing-the-brain-here-is-why-that-happens/
Venet, A. (Sept. 14, 2020) The Value of a Camera-Optional Policy. Retrieved Oct. 3, 2020 from https://www.edutopia.org/article/value-camera-optional-policy
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