Learning in the Time of Corona
This whole "switch everybody to online learning" thing is predicated on the most absurd, fantastical thinking that is so embedded in our culture we're not even seeing it: there is no way, no way at all, for things to continue almost as usual during a pandemic.
The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis that’s affecting every aspect of life as we know it. As you read this, schools and higher education institutions, and their teachers, lecturers and professors, are in the painful process of quickly adapting to the need for social distancing by converting their courses into an online format. They’re slowly discovering how switching to an online format isn’t just a matter of showing their content on Zoom or Skype, and how much they have to rethink several core aspects of how they teach. At the same time, we should also remind ourselves and each other that right now focusing on being productive is not crucial.
The internet is full of excellent posts offering solutions on how to adapt to teaching online, supporting learning and teaching in online environments, and how to create your own online courses (<- you need to create an account to view the content, but it’s definitely worth it) as well as those that remind us how sufficient access to internet is a privilege that not everyone has and how the current situation influences campus life. All of these articles, and numerous discussions on Twitter, offer tremendous amounts of tips and tricks, and we at Nordic Rebels want to build on them by focusing on something that’s most affected by these drastic changes to switching from traditional to distance learning. Namely, the “who” aspect of learning in the age of Corona. We don’t mean the WHO, the organization that should be one of your go-to resources for verified information on the pandemic at this time. We mean the people, both the students and the instructors and elements of their experience that aren’t being addressed in these testing times.
It’s a challenge of its own to simply deal with the anxiety and uncertainty around what’s happening, and then to have to proceed with virtual learning like it’s business as usual, only adds to that. Any collaboration from a distance is tricky on a good day, and at times like this, it is impossible to expect maximum productivity, and both teachers and students need to take the time to process and make peace with that reality. While it can be argued that this is something that can be done outside of the learning environment, we at Nordic Rebels disagree and emphasize looking after yourself even within this context.
This is why, for our core learning process, we start the students off with a video episode on “honoring yourself”. In this, Emilia touches on the importance of being the hero of your own life and touches on the Finnish notion of “sisu”, which signifies a sense of grit and courage when up against the odds.
At intense times like the current moment, it’s easy to get deeply focused on either what’s happening or what needs to happen (in this case, distance learning). Emilia gently reminds us of how it’s important to take the time to take care of ourselves too.
The question that many teachers likely have at this point is, “how does this fit into the context of the virtual classroom”. We believe this can be accomplished in two ways.
The first is to provide a safe space for students to express their pains (and their gains). A space where students are able to share their challenges with the changed learning process or even the present crisis and how it’s affecting them. As a teacher, it’s perfectly ok to contribute to these discussions as well. The goal is to give the students a way to see each other as more than just coursemates, but as part of a community and to find a sense of acceptance and catharsis in simply being able to see that they’re not alone in what they’re experiencing. This can be accomplished in as simple a way as creating a dedicated channel (eg. Slack, Teams) or discussion board (eg. Moodle) depending on the platform you use for virtual learning.
The second is to encourage reflection, whether it’s about the topic of the course, or their emotions going through this process of virtual learning, or even how their learning fits into this current context. One of our big goals in any teaching that we deliver is to make sure the students become reflective practitioners, and we provide several opportunities for them to do so. One way we accomplish reflection is by asking students to document their thoughts visually, as a visual learning diary. The diary is essentially a living, growing document that students build on over the duration of the course and can form a key part of their overall learning experience. Aided by small, daily or weekly tasks and questions that act as prompts for further reflection, this method allows students to connect their learning with their own experiences.
Now while we’ve started to address the experience of the individuals going through this, what happens when there are teams? How do you manage the individual experience with effective teamwork while dealing with the speedbumps that a transition to distance learning will likely bring? One way to do it is with a combination of compassion and courage, as Finnish philosopher, Esa Saarinen, elaborates in our video episode that covers his philosophy for team work.
Once again, the question that arises is how does this translate to a distance learning experience. We have several methods that help with that as well.
First, create an environment where students can freely discuss amongst themselves about teamwork. The idea is to get them to both communicate their individual perspectives, and understand the needs of the rest of their team, before they proceed any further on teamwork. They need to collectively put together a reference document, essentially a Team Contract, that will govern the way they work going forward. This includes the expected teamwork enabling elements such as the decision making process or most suitable times for collaboration or the preferred channel for communication. It also includes elements that require the team to really understand each other, as they’d be required to include their values or even their pet peeves that they’d prefer teammates did not do. This contract is then formally signed and shared with the instructor, and is the single point of reference for future decision making and conflict resolution in the team.
Another method that is useful depending on the type of teamwork, is Edward De Bono’s 6 thinking hats - where the key ways of thinking in a team are defined by different hats ranging from exercising creativity to playing devil’s advocate. A method like this helps break the monotony of team members settling on fixed roles which is even more likely to happen in a distance learning experience. It also helps provide a deeper understanding of what the other team members thought process is like when aligned with these hats and overall is proven to lead to more effective teamwork.
There’s also a method we’ve adapted from the Failure Resume method developed by Tina Seelig at Stanford. In her method, she gets her students to write out a resume that focuses on their past failures and what they learned from them. The goal of this approach, in her own words, is that it “is a quick way to demonstrate that failure is an important part of our learning process, especially when you’re stretching your abilities, doing things the first time, or taking risks”. We couldn’t agree more, and have given this method our own Nordic Rebels twist.
Instead of a resume of failure, the idea is to get students to visually sketch out three instances of failure - whether personal, academic or professional. They then share these one by one with their team, along with anything they might have learned from the experience. We find that this approach really helps break down a lot of apprehensions in creative teamwork, particularly around the fear of making mistakes. It’s easy to fall into a self conscious feeling of “Oh no, I will be judged” and hold back from unleashing one’s potential for creativity. We’ve found that this method creates a sense of safety and an atmosphere of acceptance as team members get to see how failure is a feature of everyone’s lives. By accepting that it’s ok to fail, especially given the potential to learn from it, it enhances creativity and often even strengthens team bonds.
To help you quickly get started with the Nordic Rebels way of learning and doing, you can check our YouTube and Soundcloud channels where you can access 38 episodes covering topics ranging from team building and diversity, to navigating change in organizations. In addition, we have several offerings to help you create learner-centric micro modules in online environments.
Diagnosis and guidance to provide quick ways to incorporate the Nordic Rebels ethos in your remote learning endeavors
Off the shelf micromodules based on our episodes, to provide readymade content that’s already set up for being delivered online
Recognizing the current turbulent times, and as part of our Nordic Rebels manifesto, we are offering the two solutions above with a flexible pricing structure: instead of setting up fixed pricing, we are asking you to name your price.
In case you’d like something more customized, whether it’s attending our micromodule workshop, or creating a custom micromodule, or transforming a course using our methods, please get in touch.
References:
Lahti, E. (2020). https://www.emilialahti.com/
Saarinen, E. (2020). https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/esa-saarinen-filosofia-ja-systeemiajattelu/id1455328674 (in Finnish)
Schön, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Seelig, T. (2016). https://medium.com/@tseelig/the-secret-sauce-of-silicon-valley-535a7dd11858