Teaching online does differ from the onsite mode. Even though it’s quite advantageous (time and geographical position-wise) it requires a teacher to have a massive supernatural power to hold attention throughout the course of the lesson.
Even if the vision of your planning is perfect in its practical implementation, things may go out of whack and you can spot your audience scrolling through the Instagram feed, or watching how to overcome that level in the game.
Therefore, the art of evoking attention and maintaining its active mode (lesson-concentrated-wise) till the end of the learning session requires big-time effort, or simply reading through the suggestions that this informative piece has generated for you.
Gamification
Grown-ups, kids, and everybody, in general, love it when there is a game to play. It may not be possible to conduct every lesson in the game mode, however, if you manage to make it happen the majority of times then there is a chance to always win the audience’s eyes and ears. If your gaming part of the lesson suggests some certain reward system, then it can spike the attention up more effectively.
Social Media
Social media is not only good for fun and marketing a brand, its educational potential is massive in so many ways. To bring some fresh air into your lesson planning, you may utilize Instagram. Create stickers and add them to the Instagram post, let your audience react to it by engaging in a heated conversation. They love texting and fighting in the comments. Create a provocative topic for a discussion ( within the age group and curriculum frame), and let them go wild with comments.
If you manage to just facilitate and let them do an active side of the task, you have the job done. The skills that the student must sharpen will be in the honing stage: writing, critical thinking, conventions( must be pre-discussed before the task), and definitely reading.
It may not work for a super young category of students, however, even for them, it will have the potential, the moment proper research is done.
Chill out time
So that students do not get distracted when the important information is being delivered, let them get distracted when you see that there is a need ( you are the teacher, you will get the hint), or during the defined time slots. The students must be getting free time. Some recharging is essential to regain attention and enhance the cognitive function’s potential. They will come back as diligent as ever.
Make the repetitive routine less repetitive
This is a bit of a worn-out truth, though, working as effectively as the day is long. When there is one and the same thing to be done every class time, the students will lack motivation, and you will not ignite anything stronger than just an automated answer, pre-prepared responses if any at all.
Routine saves from being confused about what’s going on. However, there also should be a novelty expectation every time the student presses the link to enter the lesson. Balance these two approaches together, basing on what students you have, and what works best for them.
Conclusion
You know your class better than any theory-delivering person. Everything and everyone is so individual, so are the approaches to be used in the daily teaching practice. Whenever there is a chance to maintain a more interactive atmosphere, use it, and let the students do the job of educating themselves, while you happily watch them participate in discussions, brainstorm for projects, and pursue the goal to win that thing you have assigned them to.
