Online Learning – World Made By Hand

The still ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced students to engage in online classes, albeit their learning attention can be distracted by social media sites. One way that educators were able to address this online learning drawback is by using social media platforms that empower them to use the SAMR model in their online teaching methods.

Teachers know that during online classes, their students are on their phones scrolling through posts in social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. A
solution found by many teachers as helpful in getting students to stay focused and at the same time entertained by their social media activities, is to meet them there by using a social media platform for education.

Instead of having to ask students to desist in accessing their social media account during online classes, educators now require their students to incorporate school work in their social media posts. That way, social sharing and engagement become more meaningful and interesting enough as topics for further discussions in online classes.

The possibility that their followers will interact with their posts will also encourage them, since some of their followers are finding it difficult to cope with online learning. Finding Instagram Stories or Reels related to school work could prove useful. .

What is the SAMR Model and How Do Educators Use It?

SAMR, which stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition is a teaching model developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura to help educators adjust to the new method of teaching online. The model categorizes into four various stages of integrating technology in online classrooms.

Applied like a set of ladders in the use of technology, the approach starts with substitution, progressing to augmentation, to modification then finally, to redefinition.

Substitution, represents the bottom ladder. In this particular stage, technology directly replaces traditional tools used in classrooms. Instead of using paper, notebooks and pens, students can just capture photos or take screenshots of their schoolworks or assignments as an alternative to jotting them down as notes.

Augmentation – In this step, students will put hashtags as a way to arrange and organize the pictures they posted in their individual Instagram or a classroom account. This denotes that students may want to keep his or her IG account public as a way to find out, which hashtags are working in attracting audience.

Modification – In this third step, the classroom itself is transformed and modified through SAMR technology. Educators can ask their students to participate and write comments and tag their classmates on posts, to engage them in interactions. Afterwards, students will be asked to study the comments and describe the discussions that transpired in relation to their posts.

Redefinition – As the last step of the SAMR model, the goal is to show how technology completely changed the classroom and the students’ attitude toward online education. Here, teachers will ask their learners to produce short video clips highlighting their knowledge about a certain topic; in ways that will make their posts interesting to other student audiences at Instagram.

While some students may still struggle in producing videos that will enable them to draw more followers to their post, allow us to add our advice of using analytics. Sharemyinsights.com (https://sharemyinsights.com/) offers free use of basic analytics tool that can help students analyze the kind photos and videos that students from different demographics follow in Instagram. In having this information, students will have insights on the types of education-related content that can move their peers and followers to engage in interactions.

We have truly entered a period of new normal, meaning that all those activities that we used to do with ease everyday are no longer allowed. This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic that severely affected the way of life of billions of people worldwide. Five months into this pandemic and we have already seen the clear picture of how a microscopic virus was able to shut down the entire world. In spite of the threat of catching the novel coronavirus that causes this severe pneumonia-like illness, the governments of every nation are determined to get their citizens back on track.

One of the biggest problems that we face today is how to proceed with educating the students when the coronavirus is preventing our children (as well as their teachers and educators) to be inside their classrooms, without the risk of catching a serious disease. As physical classes are no longer safe to be conducted amid this pandemic, remote learning by the means of online lectures and classes is being suggested as the solution.

Unfortunately, even the educators themselves are worried that shifting to online classrooms this coming school year would affect the quality of learning. Another factor is the accessibility of this kind of learning set-up, putting some children at a disadvantage.

Many Students In The United States May Opt To Drop Out If Learning Will Be Purely Online-Based

The top concern among the parents with this remote learning option for this school year is the accessibility of the online materials, which will play a huge part in teaching the students. In the traditional classrooms where teachers are physically present for the students to teach them, we know that the lessons are being delivered clearly. However, in an online setup, computers and electronic devices are needed to make sure that the kids would really understand their lessons. A stable Internet connection is also required so that the interactions between the teachers and students are uninterrupted.

Unfortunately, not all children in the United States have access to reliable electronic devices and Internet. At the very least, some students may have owned an ordinary phone with modest Internet connectivity, which would not suffice if the teacher would like to ensure high quality of learning through her online-based lectures. We can expect from this scenario that the performance of these students during exams would be poor, and the issue is not because the students did not do their part. It is because they have the disadvantage when it comes to remote learning.

We are also not sure if students will really use all their time at home to learn and go to their online classes. There is a good chance that the kids would just use the Internet at home to visit kiss anime and watch their favorites shows.