At the moment the world can be divided into two time periods; before and after the pandemic COVID-19. The onset of the disease brought many implications in the social, political-economic and psychological domains of life. Post pandemic period witnessed a significant transformation, societal structures have been redesigned and policies are refurbished to adjust to this new "online life". These changes have impacted all professions and education is no exception to this evolvement. Schools and teaching practices have transformed and tilted more towards the online provision of resources. Still, there are many teachers who feel hesitant in adopting the "new tool". They tend to approach technology with a set of preconceived ideas or biases related to the usage of technology and it is their functional fixedness that in fact inhibit the usage and functions that this tool could perform for them and their students (AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology, 2008). I feel If applied in creative technology could help convert the inert knowledge of students to a more realistic, relevant learning experience (David Squares, 2000). Various reasons could be attributed to such constricted behaviour of teachers towards technology, however, unfamiliarity with the mode and nature of this new adaptation is at the top. The creative application of technology necessitates that teachers move beyond functional fixedness and explore the provision with an open mind and take it as an ally than a competitor.
Let’s get to know each other…. ( you... ) and TEAMS
In today’s post, I will share the functionalities of one of the most used Apps by teachers and students especially in the COVID-19 context resulting in online teaching. In this wage of finding the right resources, MS TEAMS has proved to be quite effective in equating face to face classroom experience with an online setting. This digital resource replaced real classrooms as a digital platform where the plurality of activity through multiple functions and tools converged to provide a holistic learning experience (Craft, 2011).
In the upcoming paragraphs, I will talk about the main features of this App and will critically analyse the usage from teachers' perspectives. While the features are explained we as teachers need to acquaint ourselves with questions like how could we use these features in our context? changes we would make in your scenario? And possible hurdles we could foresee?. Thinking about such questions and looking for their answers is a way of knowing oneself from technology's perspective so the title, Let's get to know each other!
Teachers' Perspective
In a classroom setting, it is important to monitor students work, check n maintain the level of engagement of students and provide timely feedback. All of this is expected from teachers in face-to-face teaching. Likewise, with TEAMS and its allied features, online engagements with students have been achieved to an effective level. Onscreen sharing of resources like videos, podcasts images etc, the features of the chat(group-individual) to pass on instructions or sometimes cues to behave appropriately, raising hands (asking qs sharing ideas), using effects for appreciation, acknowledgements (reinforcements) are some interactive features that help in creating a two-way learning process and attendees during online session feel engaged as well as independent in contributing their ideas and point of views.
Being an organizer of
the session, the teachers could maintain classroom decorum by having control
over features like the use of a mic, inviting attendees and ending the session. (Although
there is no harm in switching the roles with students and giving them a flavour
of the flipped classroom)
Todays’ learning is all about collaboration
which not only promotes confidence amongst learners but it also helps in building
collective understanding as well as creating opportunities to solve the posed
problems through discussion and sharing. Such opportunities make learning a
collective process and help in building social skills. TEAMS has also catered
to Online collaboration in small
groups within whole-class teaching through breakout rooms. The instructor can assign
small groups to each break out room with a set of tasks, activities, different
resources (media files), “participation in such spaces is high because
imagination is enacted and brought alive…as there are so many ways young
people’s voices are heard by one another and by other”
(image ref: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/isnews/microsoft-teams-breakout-rooms-for-meetings-and-online-teaching/)
Assignments and
feedback are an integral parts of teaching and learning, this App has a special
provision of this feature. The ‘assignments” and ‘grade’ tabs have features
that can help in delegating tasks and maintaining a record of individual
performance as e-portfolios. These features also allow
teachers to design quizzes for their students, plan assignment timelines, upload
instructions etc. Teachers can also maintain a track of class performance and
provide individual feedback.
(ref:google image)
(ref: google image)
Recently TEAMS has added a new feature, for group assignment students can work collectively on a project or a document and could create and submit group assignments as explained in the video link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1XYvIjX7Kw
Last but not the least, digital resources have
an edge over other teaching resources as they are considered permanent, easily
accessible and not bound to space or time. The feature of the recorded session with
transcripts have added another plus to this app. Students can access the
recording if they have missed the session or they can refer even after the
class as and when required.
Allied Apps
TEAMS has an inbuilt provision
of an array of teaching and learning Apps like Ms Forms to generate
questionnaire-quizzes and feedback forms, Calendar to manage classroom planner activities.
The different functions of Apps are
explained through tutorials.
Conclusion:
We as teachers cannot escape
technology, it’s part of teaching practices and we need to get ourselves familiar
and comfortable with its usage. Most of the tools that we apply were developed
to be used for corporate functioning thus are based on marketing principles. However,
their certain feature makes these tools relevant to teaching and learning. For
us (teachers) it is important to find ways of incorporating technology in our
practice to serve the content through the best pedagogical approaches.
