I’ve been a teacher for almost 30 years and never have I faced a disruptive effect brought into the classroom as powerfully as Covid did in 2020. There has been so much debate, nagging and adjustment for students, teachers and even concerned parents . Nothing in the textbook prepared me to face Covid.
As the world prepares for Covid to assume endemic rather than pandemic status, I have 10 classroom exercises for all teachers to use as possible discussions.
Please note that some questions also deal with artificial intelligence (AI), inequality and sustainability issues. Finally, I created these questions for the benefit of teachers.
Here you are:
Question 1:
Can you share ways you can design your own custom made reusable cloth mask to show your individuality?
Question 2:
How do you change the background of your Zoom profile so the Zoom instructor knows you’ve prepared for your subject?
Question 3:
There is a Zoom class in session. Without warning, a hacker – also known as “zoom bombing” – disrupts online classes.
How to react so that the intruder doesn’t feel happy that he has succeeded in his devious plan?
Question 4:
Ask the class to choose a difficult topic. Encourage them to brainstorm how to create a short TikTok recording to highlight the important concepts of this topic.
Conduct a social experiment and ask them if they still find the topic challenging after this TikTok recording.
Question 5:
Create a scenario where Instagram requires that a fee be charged for each additional image uploaded over 50. Then ask your class which pictures they will keep and why.
PS: For clarity, you can ask them to use their current Instagram collection as an example.
Question 6:
Gather your class into different groups and ask them to discuss which jobs are difficult for humans to replace with AI and give some reasons.
PS: For background reference, many HR experts predicted the rise of AI in the workplace even before the discovery of Covid before 2020.
Question 7:
Before doing this classroom exercise, use Google to get relevant and up-to-date statistics on global inequality. With this information, ask the class to make suggestions on how to minimize this disparity.
PS: It’s important that you don’t have too high expectations of their answers as they don’t have easy access to the solutions.
Question 8:
Explain the meaning of the term “sustainability” to your class. Then ask them if they are willing to recycle and waste less in order to have a better world for the future.
PS: This question might not hit them until you further enlighten them on how they feel about not upgrading to the latest mobile device to reduce digital waste.
Question 9:
Ask them how they perceive the concept of “living simply” without the stress of wanting more.
Question 10:
This last question is perhaps the most profound of all. Do they feel like they are slaves to technology and that their privacy will never be theirs?
Thanks to Colin Ong | #classroom #exercises #teachers
