Have you heard the term “panicgogy” before?
Recently, educators have learned a new tongue-in-cheek term “panicgogy,” which is a portmanteau of the word ‘panic’ and ‘pedagogy.’ But what does it really mean? With the novel coronavirus pandemic looming over our heads and teaching becoming entirely online overnight, most teachers had the same questions and the same fear, “How do I do this? How do I reproduce in a digital environment what I believe is essential for an in-person course?”
This is where teachers, as adaptive experts shine!
For a layperson, adaptive expertise in teaching means that teachers must not only have knowledge of their disciplines and pedagogy, but they must also excel at being able to adapt to any situations that arise, whether it is in the classroom, in the school, on a field trip or elsewhere. However, it is just the best time to show that teachers surpass being adaptive experts. They are shouldering the incredible task of reproducing the purposes of school without physically being in a classroom and having all the amenities that come with it. And that means being isolated at home and having to utilize all kinds of technologies to reach and teach every student.
Whenever it came to online teaching, like many educators, I have always had my reservations. I used to think that this where good teaching perishes, yet I know that more and more people are now completing their education or sometimes their entire degrees online. I am currently not doing any online teaching; however, I am observing other teachers (my children’s lovely teachers), and my AT do so. I have come to realize that they do not need to replicate face-to-face pedagogy accurately. They are just using different techniques and practices to achieve a similar outcome online. I am witnessing how educators are trying to and honestly sometimes struggling to make full use of that digital learning space. There are also so many tools out there that sometimes I feel educators have choice paralysis. I think the best is to stick to the most popular ones like Google classroom, Google Hangout/Meet, Flipgrid and Zoom.
Students are quite tech-savvy nowadays but hurling too much at them in one go can also be overwhelming for them. I have also detected that they do not need a lesson to be prepared using all kinds of online tools or be flashy. They need it to be simple, clear & understandable.
What I think works:
What I think doesn’t work:
What I learned in the last few weeks as an educator and as a parent who is homeschooling a grade 2 little person and a grade 4 little person is that there is no single right way to do it. I have seen many teachers making phone calls to families, videoconferencing to see if the kids are okay, in fact, just making sure that their students know they care, and they are there. This proves that teachers, despite the social distancing imposed, make sure that their students do not feel the relational distance. But we should also not forget that in this unprecedented time, the teachers are also humans, and that they are also figuring this out!
However, coming back to my opinions and my feelings about distance learning and online teaching, I still and for a long time will think that nothing can replace a teacher. Teaching virtually can never replace teaching in a classroom, and that for now, it is only a coping strategy, not an alternative strategy!
Recently, educators have learned a new tongue-in-cheek term “panicgogy,” which is a portmanteau of the word ‘panic’ and ‘pedagogy.’ But what does it really mean? With the novel coronavirus pandemic looming over our heads and teaching becoming entirely online overnight, most teachers had the same questions and the same fear, “How do I do this? How do I reproduce in a digital environment what I believe is essential for an in-person course?”
This is where teachers, as adaptive experts shine!
For a layperson, adaptive expertise in teaching means that teachers must not only have knowledge of their disciplines and pedagogy, but they must also excel at being able to adapt to any situations that arise, whether it is in the classroom, in the school, on a field trip or elsewhere. However, it is just the best time to show that teachers surpass being adaptive experts. They are shouldering the incredible task of reproducing the purposes of school without physically being in a classroom and having all the amenities that come with it. And that means being isolated at home and having to utilize all kinds of technologies to reach and teach every student.
Whenever it came to online teaching, like many educators, I have always had my reservations. I used to think that this where good teaching perishes, yet I know that more and more people are now completing their education or sometimes their entire degrees online. I am currently not doing any online teaching; however, I am observing other teachers (my children’s lovely teachers), and my AT do so. I have come to realize that they do not need to replicate face-to-face pedagogy accurately. They are just using different techniques and practices to achieve a similar outcome online. I am witnessing how educators are trying to and honestly sometimes struggling to make full use of that digital learning space. There are also so many tools out there that sometimes I feel educators have choice paralysis. I think the best is to stick to the most popular ones like Google classroom, Google Hangout/Meet, Flipgrid and Zoom.
Students are quite tech-savvy nowadays but hurling too much at them in one go can also be overwhelming for them. I have also detected that they do not need a lesson to be prepared using all kinds of online tools or be flashy. They need it to be simple, clear & understandable.
What I think works:
- Learners doing their learning at their own pace and in their own time,
- Learners responding to communication when appropriate for them,
- Teachers providing a supportive culture,
- Teachers modelling, preparing meaningful tasks, doing good questioning,
- Teachers showing empathy.
What I think doesn’t work:
- Giving students a strict time frame and forcing learning,
- Teachers delivering entire lessons through video conferencing in one go,
- Teachers putting pressure on students,
- Teachers having one video conferencing session in a week and trying to fit all their teaching in there,
- Teachers not explaining the rules of videoconferencing correctly, where all students are speaking at once.
What I learned in the last few weeks as an educator and as a parent who is homeschooling a grade 2 little person and a grade 4 little person is that there is no single right way to do it. I have seen many teachers making phone calls to families, videoconferencing to see if the kids are okay, in fact, just making sure that their students know they care, and they are there. This proves that teachers, despite the social distancing imposed, make sure that their students do not feel the relational distance. But we should also not forget that in this unprecedented time, the teachers are also humans, and that they are also figuring this out!
However, coming back to my opinions and my feelings about distance learning and online teaching, I still and for a long time will think that nothing can replace a teacher. Teaching virtually can never replace teaching in a classroom, and that for now, it is only a coping strategy, not an alternative strategy!