Many students are offered the option of taking online courses however, the whole country is now forced to.  Due to the COVID-19 outbreak across the world, all schools have shut down forcing their students to complete their work online or completing packets that are sent home from the schools.  Distance/ online learning is not something that is new for me sine I have taken online classes throughout my high school career. I liked online courses since it usually allowed me to work at my own pace but this time it is different. I have strict deadlines of when things have to be completed, I am in my home instead of at school, my mom is home with me during the day, and I have to be online during regular class times to meet with some of my classes and professors. My professors are however doing a great job of still teaching lessons, grading, and responding to questions that I have. They are using different outlets to teach us such as zoom, power points, voice threads, etc. They are many other outlets available for teachers to use! Here is a great link that displays other outlets/ systems that teachers could use https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/solutions.

 

Prior to COVID-19 I never imagined having all of my classes at college moved to online but now if something like this ever happens again, I will be prepared.  I also feel as if when I am a teacher I could move my class to online learning as well.  I would most likely use zoom if that is an option for my students in which they would need internet access at home. Zoom allows you to see everyone in the class and also allows the teacher to still present the lesson.  The teacher can still be interactive with the students with creating polls, screen sharing and talk in the chat. All of these options available with zoom is what makes me think I would utilize zoom the most.  I could also do voice thread and upload or send out videos to my students of me speaking and writing on the screen. Students need guidance when switching to online learning in which here is a great video to watch

Distance/ online learning can be challenging but is not impossible!