Reflections of a Zoom-er
If I can teach you in a Room, can I teach you in a Zoom? Reflections of a Zoom-er Suewellyn Kelly, Associate Lecturer
Besides being a lead educator in domestic and family violence responses to women and their children, including assessing risk and planning for safety, Associate Lecturer Suewellyn Kelly is a highly experienced practitioner who has contributed extensively to CQUniversity’s continual improvement processes. This includes her role in maintaining the quality of the vocational accredited units CHCDFV001 (Recognise and respond appropriately to Domestic and Family Violence) and CHCDFV002 (Provide support to children affected by Domestic and Family Violence). Her previous roles have included both advocacy and program development, addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, homelessness, mental health, substance misuse, generational trauma, as well as educational, social, and financial exclusion. Suewellyn is committed to integrated, holistic work practices that reduce ‘silo’ responses in young people and families facing complex issues in their lives. She is currently teaching an undergraduate unit with a focus on violence against women.
25 . QCDFVRe@der, March 2021
Like so many other aspects of life, the teaching world that evolved through the COVID-19 pandemic was one underscored by the urgent need to move from face-toface to virtual engagement, in our case, for the delivery of professional development opportunities related to responding to domestic and family violence. In 2020 hundreds of learners participated in our various training opportunities, but I wonder how many considered the realities of what preceded the ‘click on the link to join the presentation’ that so many of us encountered in the past 12 months? In this brief article, I draw on the literature and reflect on what it’s like to be a teacher in the virtual world. Amongst other issues, the concept of virtual learning seemed to cause confusion in terminology and understanding – wasn’t it the same as on-line teaching? Part of our work in 2020 was making the distinction: ‘on-line learning’ is a term pertaining to education that is asynchronous in nature, whereby learners and teachers do not meet in real-time and the learning platform is fully mediated by the internet (Rapanta et al., 2020). On the other hand, virtual delivery - through applications such as Zoom - is a synchronous option in that learners and teachers interact and share information in real-time (Gordon, 2020). This move from ‘being in a room’ to ‘being in a Zoom’ required our team to make several adaptations. Transferring the delivery method from face-to-face workshops to virtual sessions initially necessitated a review of the content and design changes to allow time for meaningful interactive activities to strengthen participation and provide active learning opportunities (Gordon, 2020; Henderson, 2020 & Scull et al, 2020). I was thankful that there was time allowed within our team schedule to accommodate this, as it was
