I think I have been neglecting that blog of mine lately… or maybe not! I wanted to write this post last night, but my high speed Internet provider encountered technical problems in my area… Actually it crashed ten minutes before I was supposed to get online with Joyce in Moncton. Thanks to our telephone plans, we were able to do it over the phone! Though it was not ideal… Of course, the second we finished, the problem got solved! Oh well… I consider we are lucky that the Internet does not crash more often, given the number of users worldwide… and it was the very first time it was happening to me. I am aware that, in some countries (in Egypt for instance), it is a recurrent problem… consequently, I have no reasons to complain!
Before anything else, I want to let you know that Saul got his oral evaluation results this morning: he achieved his C level! He will start his new job with the government on April the 1st… I am so thrilled! I had pushed him to his limits and I had been tough… but it was well worth it!
Congratulations Saul!
Besides teaching public servants (or public servants to be), I started looking into offering online French courses (beginner, intermediate and advanced levels) to regular people in class format so that they can share the costs… I think I do need to teach people for other reasons than merely passing tests. I have been working with public servants for many years and I believe a change of scenery will be beneficial, although I have no intent to give up what I do with government’s employees and future employees. Yet I think I do need to bring some balance in my practice… before I really get fed up! Teaching to the tests can become very boring after a while… and I owe all of my trainees my best. And there is nothing like doing something totally different to stay fresh!…
Last Sunday I gave a free session to a group of six people during which I outlined an upcoming true beginner’s class series… Actually I wanted to test the water and the Adobe Acrobat Pro Connect platform at the same time. One-on-one teaching online is quite easy… it can be done via Skype in a very simple and efficient way. But when you want to teach groups (even small), you need more features such as whiteboards, file sharing function, slide show presentations, note emailing, etc.
Adobe provides a platform that can be used as a virtual classroom. I have to say that it is great! I had had a couple of tutorials over the preceeding weeks and I had also had the opportunity of getting some time on my own to test it, play with all the available functions and have a “feel” of this new environment. Therefore, when I got there on Sunday, I felt quite comfortable… but, in case I would experience some technical bugs, I had asked Marcus to be there as my backup. When I entered the virtual classroom, I was eager to start and use it with a “real” audience.
I had set Marcus as a host so he could have access to all the functions in case of bugs. Since we were alone for 20 minutes, he had turned on both his camera and microphone… we talked while waiting for people. The first to arrive was Susan (yes yes, my Susan from real life!)… She could see and hear us, but we could neither see nor hear her because she was set as a participant… all she was able to do was “talking” to us through the chat function. When other people started to arrive, Marcus turned off both his camera and mic… suddenly I was left alone! I mean… I was not really alone since there were six other people in the classroom with me, BUT I could only see and hear myself!… Have you ever been sitting in front of your computer talking to it? Well… try it! You will then feel so weird!
And the most annoying thing was the chat function… since people do not have access to a mic, they write their questions… Imagine you are talking and suddenly a text line pops up before your very eyes! Useless to say that it is very distracting and all it does is that you lose your train of thoughts… At one point I had to tell everyone to keep their questions for the end…
Bottom line, I felt like a lecturer with no audience! Or even worse, like a comedian on stage with people who did not react to her jokes!… SILENCE everywhere!… Probably the longest 60 minutes of my life!!! Indeed I could not wait to get out of there! Susan, this morning, told me it did not show on their end how ackward I felt… yet she knows me and she thought I was not on my usual grounds. I really do need to interact with my students! I am not the type who speaks all the time and does not allow her trainees to speak, laugh and interrupt.
I had been told that the best way to teach on this platform was to keep everyone as participant… it means they do not see any buttons and they do not even have control on their cameras and microphones. Only the host can grant them such privileges… how? by setting them as presenters… I can easily understand that, when there are 99 attendees, not setting them as participants would be risky! If someone ever clicks on a button, it affects layouts and stuff that everybody can see!… And apparently some people are not very disciplined and therefore it is tough to keep control on the class.
Well… I taught in penitentiaries where I had 78 inmates under my supervision… I do believe I can control an audience of 4 or 6 people quite easily! I can do it in real life, why would it be different in a virtual classroom? I have been teaching for 25 years… I think I can allow my students to have fun and enjoy their learning journey without losing control on the bonne marche of my classes.
On March 8, I will have a free assessment session to evaluate people who want to participate in a series of intermediate French classes… There will be six people and, this time, I will set them as presenters! After all, they are adults and I doubt anyone will start playing with buttons just for the fun of messing things up! Also with such a small group, I doubt we will experience widthband problems… All I want is a “real” virtual classroom! And I know I can achieve it… trust me, I will! Stay tuned because I will keep you posted…
“Les miroirs feraient bien de réfléchir un peu avant de renvoyer les images.”
Jean Cocteau
A Weird Experience…
I think I have been neglecting that blog of mine lately… or maybe not! I wanted to write this post last night, but my high speed Internet provider encountered technical problems in my area… Actually it crashed ten minutes before I was supposed to get online with Joyce in Moncton. Thanks to our telephone plans, we were able to do it over the phone! Though it was not ideal… Of course, the second we finished, the problem got solved! Oh well… I consider we are lucky that the Internet does not crash more often, given the number of users worldwide… and it was the very first time it was happening to me. I am aware that, in some countries (in Egypt for instance), it is a recurrent problem… consequently, I have no reasons to complain!
Before anything else, I want to let you know that Saul got his oral evaluation results this morning: he achieved his C level! He will start his new job with the government on April the 1st… I am so thrilled! I had pushed him to his limits and I had been tough… but it was well worth it!
Congratulations Saul!
Besides teaching public servants (or public servants to be), I started looking into offering online French courses (beginner, intermediate and advanced levels) to regular people in class format so that they can share the costs… I think I do need to teach people for other reasons than merely passing tests. I have been working with public servants for many years and I believe a change of scenery will be beneficial, although I have no intent to give up what I do with government’s employees and future employees. Yet I think I do need to bring some balance in my practice… before I really get fed up! Teaching to the tests can become very boring after a while… and I owe all of my trainees my best. And there is nothing like doing something totally different to stay fresh!…
Last Sunday I gave a free session to a group of six people during which I outlined an upcoming true beginner’s class series… Actually I wanted to test the water and the Adobe Acrobat Pro Connect platform at the same time. One-on-one teaching online is quite easy… it can be done via Skype in a very simple and efficient way. But when you want to teach groups (even small), you need more features such as whiteboards, file sharing function, slide show presentations, note emailing, etc.
Adobe provides a platform that can be used as a virtual classroom. I have to say that it is great! I had had a couple of tutorials over the preceeding weeks and I had also had the opportunity of getting some time on my own to test it, play with all the available functions and have a “feel” of this new environment. Therefore, when I got there on Sunday, I felt quite comfortable… but, in case I would experience some technical bugs, I had asked Marcus to be there as my backup. When I entered the virtual classroom, I was eager to start and use it with a “real” audience.
I had set Marcus as a host so he could have access to all the functions in case of bugs. Since we were alone for 20 minutes, he had turned on both his camera and microphone… we talked while waiting for people. The first to arrive was Susan (yes yes, my Susan from real life!)… She could see and hear us, but we could neither see nor hear her because she was set as a participant… all she was able to do was “talking” to us through the chat function. When other people started to arrive, Marcus turned off both his camera and mic… suddenly I was left alone! I mean… I was not really alone since there were six other people in the classroom with me, BUT I could only see and hear myself!… Have you ever been sitting in front of your computer talking to it? Well… try it! You will then feel so weird!
And the most annoying thing was the chat function… since people do not have access to a mic, they write their questions… Imagine you are talking and suddenly a text line pops up before your very eyes! Useless to say that it is very distracting and all it does is that you lose your train of thoughts… At one point I had to tell everyone to keep their questions for the end…
Bottom line, I felt like a lecturer with no audience! Or even worse, like a comedian on stage with people who did not react to her jokes!… SILENCE everywhere!… Probably the longest 60 minutes of my life!!! Indeed I could not wait to get out of there! Susan, this morning, told me it did not show on their end how ackward I felt… yet she knows me and she thought I was not on my usual grounds. I really do need to interact with my students! I am not the type who speaks all the time and does not allow her trainees to speak, laugh and interrupt.
I had been told that the best way to teach on this platform was to keep everyone as participant… it means they do not see any buttons and they do not even have control on their cameras and microphones. Only the host can grant them such privileges… how? by setting them as presenters… I can easily understand that, when there are 99 attendees, not setting them as participants would be risky! If someone ever clicks on a button, it affects layouts and stuff that everybody can see!… And apparently some people are not very disciplined and therefore it is tough to keep control on the class.
Well… I taught in penitentiaries where I had 78 inmates under my supervision… I do believe I can control an audience of 4 or 6 people quite easily! I can do it in real life, why would it be different in a virtual classroom? I have been teaching for 25 years… I think I can allow my students to have fun and enjoy their learning journey without losing control on the bonne marche of my classes.
On March 8, I will have a free assessment session to evaluate people who want to participate in a series of intermediate French classes… There will be six people and, this time, I will set them as presenters! After all, they are adults and I doubt anyone will start playing with buttons just for the fun of messing things up! Also with such a small group, I doubt we will experience widthband problems… All I want is a “real” virtual classroom! And I know I can achieve it… trust me, I will! Stay tuned because I will keep you posted…
“Les miroirs feraient bien de réfléchir un peu avant de renvoyer les images.”
Jean Cocteau