Teachers and students all over the world are adjusting to changed expectations, lost communities and uncertain paths. Two teachers in the USA have been re-imagining the principles of teaching and learning for the times of the Coronavirus crisis: Franklin Yartey hopes to inspire a way through with a video based on the words of a fellow teacher.
The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted many aspects of our lives. The global outbreak of the virus has also disrupted traditional processes of facilitating learning and the usual methods and practices of teaching. Education and Pedagogy, as we have sadly witnessed, are not being spared and there is an urgent need to re-think them to meet the new challenges and needs of students and educators during the current crisis.
Dr. Brandon Bayne, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, created an inspirational 'Adjusted Syllabus' with five principles outlined for his students. These principles sparked the visual project of the video, shared here.
Video by Franklin Yartey, shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and based on Brandon Bayne's Adjusted Syllabus
Adjusted Syllabus Spring 2020
Dr. Brandon Bayne University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Principles
1. Nobody signed up for this.
Not for the sickness, not for the social distancing, not for the sudden end of our collective lives together on campus
Not for an online class, not for teaching remotely, not for learning from home, not for mastering new technologies, not for varied access to learning materials
2. The humane option is the best option.
We are going to prioritize supporting each other as humans
We are going to prioritize simple solutions that make sense for the most
We are going to prioritize sharing resources and communicating clearly
3. We cannot just do the same thing online.
Some assignments are no longer possible
Some expectations are no longer reasonable
Some objectives are no longer valuable
4. We will foster intellectual nourishment, social connection, and personal accommodation.
Accessible asynchronous content for diverse access, time zones, and contexts
Optional synchronous discussion to learn together and combat isolation
5. We will remain flexible and adjust to the situation.
Nobody knows where this is going and what we’ll need to adapt
Everybody needs support and understanding in this unprecedented moment
This story was shared by Franklin Yartey, PhD, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Dubuque, Iowa, USA.
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