EDFD459 Article 7: Critical and Analytical reflections about online

Critical and Analytical reflections about online

Online learning and teaching has been an experience that has been frustrating, exhausting and challenging. However, that being said it has been extremely rewarding, exciting and has allowed me to connect with other people including students, teachers and an entire community in more ways that I could have imagined. I believe that if there is one thing than post-pandemic life has taught me is that when it comes to teaching when there is a will, there is a way. And with that way, we can thank technology for it. Reflecting on the past 18 months I could not have even slightly envisioned that such a large proportion of my social and professional life would be reliant and built on online environments.

Furthermore, I think that teachers need to be given so much more credit and recognition than they do to even remotely understand the effort they have put into making learning online as successful that it has been. Additionally, a model such as Salmon’s 5 Stage Model has honestly been the backbone of many of the online teaching experiences, particularly those that have been where I as a pre-service teacher and my placement students are learning as a group how to best navigate the online environment so that it is beneficial for all. From a practical perspective, I found that using the model as a guide has helped me become a confident teacher.

References:

Salmon, G. (2011). E-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online (3rd ed.) (pp. 31-55). New York, N.Y.: Taylor & Francis Group.