The Future of Teaching

What Is the Future of Teaching?

What Is the Future of Teaching?

By Lauren John, Staff Writer

In March 2020 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Menlo College moved all classes online. Students and faculty, working in online Zoom classrooms since then, have tackled new ways of learning together. We have learned a new vocabulary:

You need to unmute! I’m going to share my screen now and show you a video. There will be four people in each breakout room— I’ll be popping in to see how you are doing. Can you hear me now? Can you see me now?

As we lost valued personal connections, we’ve learned new esthetics of lighting, backdrops and sound. We’ve adjusted to global time zones with students signing in to class from Beijing, Rome and Santa Cruz—some just waking up and some ready for bed. We delighted in unscripted moments as a professor’s cat jumped up onto a keyboard or a cranky quarantined toddler was quieted on a parent’s lap. As vaccines begin to quell the pandemic and in person classes become possible again, what distance learning technologies will continue and what will be left behind? Here are some ideas and observations from Menlo College faculty.

Angela Schmiede

Vice President for Student Success

For a small college like Menlo, a close-knit community continues to be important. If anything, we value the residential oncampus experience even more than before. During this pandemic, technology has certainly provided us with a window into new possibilities. There is a place for remote work and remote learning, particularly in terms of accommodating a diverse range of needs in our community. For example, when the Startup Weekend team decided to transition the intensive three-day annual event to a virtual one, they discovered the value of making the event more accessible to women around the world. But will Menlo become an online college? No, it’s not in our DNA. We continue to value our high-touch support of students and close faculty-student relationships as an exceptional learning environment.

Melissa R. Michelson

Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science

While teaching online has many disadvantages and I’m eager to return to the physical classroom, I’ve found some benefits to the virtual format that I’m hoping to try to hold onto. I absolutely love the chat function – students can ask questions, post links, and share comments and reactions in ways that supplement and improve our discussions. I want to find a way to do that in face-to-face classes.

Rachel Turner

Professor of Introduction to College English/English 100

One change I made to my reading assignments was assigning “study with me videos,” based on YouTube videos created by law and medical school students seeking greater discipline. I asked my students to record and share with me a 25-minute study session where they state their study plan and their predictions about the text based on what they know about the author and assignment. They include text annotations and end with a reflection on the text. If they use their phones as a recording device, there is the additional benefit of no distraction from texts or social media!

Valeria Molteni

Dean of Library Services

We are planning to integrate all the distance services and programs that we have developed over the past year as regular practices. For example, we increased our online presence in the classroom and through individual student meetings—meeting student needs wherever they were—both in the United States and internationally. During the pandemic, the Library also expanded the e-book collection, and increased subscriptions to financial and humanities databases that support curriculum subject areas.

Sean Negus

Adjunct Instructor of English and Writing Center Instructor

There can certainly be advantages for adjunct faculty to have greater flexibility over the modalities of their course assignments, including hybrid learning, especially if they work at several institutions and are commuting. Students, who grew up in a digital world, will also benefit from having teachers with skills in that world. Once students begin to regain a greater sense of normalcy in their lives, I believe they will appreciate the ways that hybrid instruction can augment the traditional classroom, thereby granting greater flexibility without sacrificing quality.

Sean Pradhan

Assistant Professor of Sports Management and Business Analytics Director of Sports Management Program

Honestly, one silver lining of the pandemic is that it has forced me to become a better professor. During our time on “Zoom University,” I have adapted many new techniques, especially those that make the classroom experience more interactive, including the integration of various polls, surveys, even more small group activities, and virtual guest speakers. One frequent guest speaker who deserves a “shout out” is Mr. Jim Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers team. I will definitely continue to implement such pedagogical techniques when we are back in the physical space of a classroom. Overall, I could see myself leveraging this new “hybrid” mindset as I continue improving upon my courses in the future.

Shilpa Dasgupta

Adjunct Professor of Mathematics

Leveraging cloud-based technologies such as Zoom and Google Meet as supplemental supports in higher ed definitely opens up new avenues of knowledge sharing and learning, but the pandemic has also revealed the vast disparities of access to digital resources. It brought forth widespread struggles of the digital divide worldwide. Access to broadband is vastly unequal. Furthermore, devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, desktops) are expensive. A good digital device with a high speed internet/ faster bandwidth may not be accessible or affordable by many students. So, as we return to the traditional classroom and continue exploring the newly opened areas of digital learning, we have to be mindful of the digital gap and strategize our approaches accordingly. The pandemic has made us more aware of this digital divide in all learning arenas of contemporary education. We must continue to provide individualized support to the student community, such as frequently checking in with students, loaning computers and other digital accessories, and offering flexibility with exams, assessment methods, due dates, submissions, and many more. In sum, we must continue to go the extra mile.