Somebody asked me today what impact remote instruction has had on my teaching. Obviously there is something lost when you go from an in-person classroom to a group Zoom meeting.
So I found myself thinking about what I’ve been able to do to compensate, to add things to my teaching that I had not been able to easily do in real life. And I found myself talking about creation tools.
When I am sitting by myself in front of my computer screen, I am using all sorts of tools to make things. I’ve got text editors, visualizers, programming environments, 2D and 3D modeling tools and more.
I realize that as I’ve grown in confidence in using Zoom for teaching, I keep bringing in more of these tools. I am able to show students, in a way that would be awkward or impractical in a classroom setting, how I actually make things and conduct my own research.
I don’t think such features will ever replace in-person teaching. But maybe they represent something emergent that is valid and important in its own right.
It will be interesting to see how such approaches to instruction evolve, as necessity forces many teachers to become creative in new and different ways — and as our tools evolve accordingly.