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Working Remote? These Are the Biggest Dos and Don'ts of Video Conferencing

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Working Remote? These Are the Biggest Dos and Don'ts of Video Conferencing

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Teachers worried about students zoning out during distance learning can lean on these programs for help.

Pollyana Ventura / iStock

We've all been there: We ask our class a question and no one responds. Awkward silence. Students start to look at the ceiling or flip through their notebook to avoid eye contact. Eventually, someone volunteers an answer, someone is called on, or worse, we simply move on without any participation.

Getting your students to participate is hard enough when you're in your classroom. Getting them to participate in a virtual classroom is a whole different ball game. The social pressure of uncomfortable eye contact just isn't the same on a videoconference call. In fact, it's nearly nonexistent with current technology.

Luckily, the technology exists to help provide supplemental strategies to get your students responding-you may even want to bring some of these strategies back to your classroom once schools open up again.

Ways to Boost Online Participation

Video chat polling features: Many video chat platforms come with polling features where the students see a question pop up on their screen. This is a great feature for a few reasons.

It helps you gauge what your class understands and what they may need you to review again. If you just spent five minutes reviewing a concept and end with "OK, any questions?" what do you usually hear back? Crickets.

Instead, ask a comprehension question using the poll feature. If only 35 percent of the class answers the question correctly, maybe it's worth spending a little extra time reviewing.

Check out how to use these features in individual apps:

Discussion breakout rooms: Polling is great for helping break up concepts in a lecture, but what if your class is discussion based and you want your students to break out into small groups to work on a shared assignment?

There is technology for that, too. First, start out with all students on the same video call, and then, with a click of a button, split your students up into small groups to work on an assignment using a collaborative tool like Google Docs.

They will be on a call with only their group mates. You as the host can hop among all the groups to check in and facilitate. Once the time is up, end the breakouts and bring everyone together again. Call on each group to share their work.

Zoom: You can have up to 50 breakout sessions at once and can hop between them as you'd like. Check out Zoom's support page to learn exactly how to set it up for your class.

GoToMeeting: This platform has shared documents built in and will store them for you to review once the meeting ends. More info here.

Microsoft Teams: This feature is reportedly coming soon.

Some of the videoconferencing platforms have this impressive feature built in already. See the list below to learn more about each one:

This is a great feature to use if you have access to it. Not only does it get students working together on shared assignments, but also it helps students get used to talking to each other through a computer.

Chat feature: Simply ask a question and have your students answer through the chat feature. This is not ideal, since all students will see the answers of other students, so you may not see an accurate representation of their understanding. But you will have a record of each student's participation.

External quiz apps: You can also use external quiz tools like Kahoot or Quizizz. Simply set up the quizzes ahead of time, and prompt your students to go take the quiz during your meeting by sharing the quiz code. Students can take a few minutes to navigate to the quiz website and answer a question or two before moving on. The best part about these platforms is that they're free for both teachers and students.

Kahoot!: The base platform is free and fun to use. If you're interested in more advanced features, such as advanced reporting, individualized quizzes, additional question formats, and more, Kahoot offers paid plans starting at just $3 per month.

Quizizz: This platform is 100 percent free and connects to Google Classroom. It has engaging gamification built in and an entire place to store your favorite teaching memes.

Quizlet: The free version of this platform is excellent. If you're interested in tracking student progress over time, removing ads, and adding personalized content, the paid version starts at just $3 per month with additional savings for schoolwide plans.

Mentimeter: This platform's free version is limited to only a couple of questions, but the integration with online interaction is definitely worth your time to explore. The paid version starts at $10 per month, or you can reach out to your school's admin to explore a schoolwide payment option to make it cheaper per instructor.

Here are links to some student-approved quiz platforms:

Expectations and Accountability

The above tools are great-but now let's explore how to implement these and set your students up for success. Clear expectations set the stage for student participation.

Let your students know what good participation looks like. Is logging in to the video call enough to count as participation? That may be all that your administrators are looking for, but what does good look like, according to your standards?

Counting each time a student talks or adds to a discussion can be time-consuming. So let technology work for you.

A great way to measure participation is by requiring a permanent product-this is something your student leaves behind after they leave the call. It can be anything from an answer to an online discussion prompt to their quiz score, a response left in the chat, or the shared product from a group assignment.

Be present: Join the call and stay for the duration of class time.

Comprehension checks: Answer each quiz question that pops up, perhaps with extra points for answering 100 percent correct.

Discussion assignment: Work with your team to complete the assignment.

Whatever your definition of good is, be sure it is measurable and achievable.

Regardless of which online tool you use, it is clear that we cannot rely on in-person tactics to encourage virtual class participation. Luckily, the tools and tactics here can help enhance your online teaching. You may even find yourself bringing these back to your classroom when schools reopen.

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How to Keep Students' Attention in a Virtual Classroom

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Teachers worried about students zoning out during distance learning can lean on these programs for help. Pollyana Ventura / iStock We've all been there: We ask our class a question and no one responds. Awkward silence. Students start to look at the ceiling or flip through their notebook to avoid eye contact.

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3 Ways to Use Video Conferencing with Students Learning Remotely

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3 Ways to Use Video Conferencing with Students Learning Remotely

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3 Ways to Use Video Conferencing with Students Learning Remotely - Dr. Catlin Tucker

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Need support preparing for fall? Check out my self-paced online course Prepare for Fall 2020: Blended & Online Learning. Thank goodness for Zoom and Google Meet! During this time of social isolation and remote learning, these video conferencing tools are lifesavers. They make it possible for teachers to maintain a human connection with their students [...]

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4 Tips for Productive Online Discussions

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4 Tips for Productive Online Discussions

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It has become part of the new normal for teachers to deliver their lessons online via videoconferencing tools. The situation reminds me of when I utilized similar technology to coach my students for inter-school debate competitions.

There are a number of rules I follow at various stages of online discussion sessions.

Establish Online Etiquette and a Discussion Agenda

At the beginning of the session, the teacher has the responsibility to draw students' attention to basic etiquette rules, such as muting the microphone while others are talking, unmuting the microphone when they need to speak, and avoiding talking over each other. If any of these rules are breached, the teacher should remind the students of their right to speak or listen.

Of equal importance is asking the student leader to set the agenda or the intended outcomes of the discussion in order to make the discussion purposeful. When students veer off into another direction, the leader should bring them back to the subject matter.

Make Time for Research

A discussion session should never start with a discussion. If we start by asking students to express their views on an unfamiliar topic, they will probably not be able to contribute much, since activating schemata depends on prior knowledge. On the other hand, if students are very knowledgeable about a particular topic, it can be tempting for them to bluff all the way through without providing substance.

It is therefore vital that we ask students to carry out research before the session. If this isn't possible, we should give them time at the beginning of the session, say 5 to 10 minutes, to perform informational searches. This research stage enables students to develop a solid understanding of the topic and ensures a high-quality discussion.

Students should be asked to organize their ideas effectively during the research stage. In the framework we use in the debate team, ideas are categorized as background information, arguments or evidence useful for Side Proposition, and arguments or evidence useful for Side Opposition. After categorization, debaters should post the source link (which is usually a web address) and an excerpt. If needed, an article can be revisited by clicking the link at the discussion stage later.

Be Purposeful About Group Size and Role Assignment

The group size should be small to increase students' involvement in discussions. If the group size is large, I will break the team into groups of three or four. Turn-taking will then be rigorous, and passive students will have more opportunities to interact with their group mates.

To increase students' sense of ownership, there should be a clear definition of roles in each group, similar to how we carry out cooperative learning in a real classroom. The types of roles can include a leader, who facilitates the discussion; a secretary, who types and notes any important consensus reached; a timekeeper, who keeps track of the amount of time for each sub-task; and a strategist, who suggests the main approach that should be used in defending the team's side and rebutting the opponent's arguments.

The choice of leader is critical to increasing participation. If it is a mature group, we can of course leave it to the students' own devices. For junior students, we should pick a very responsive participant to be the leader, since these are the students who are best suited for generating group dynamics and arousing a heated debate or discussion within the group.

Facilitate Discussion

Teachers should avoid dominating the discussion. One of the problems that's often overlooked in a language classroom is the amount of time the teacher talks. It's almost inevitable for very passionate teachers to deliver lengthy monologues in an online session without realizing it. Not only does this significantly reduce students' participation in lessons and demotivate them, but also it denies students opportunities to practice their speaking and critical-thinking skills.

However, while the student leader is supposed to act as the facilitator, the teacher still has a role to play in the discussion.

The teacher should constantly encourage the leader to invite others to respond once one student participant has finished talking. If several students are of the same position but the argument may be logically flawed, the teacher should act as a devil's advocate and introduce another perspective by asking what-if questions. Never should the teacher explicitly point out the mistake, since this hampers critical-thinking development, nor should the teacher refute students' arguments directly by expressing his or her personal views, as they can be easily perceived as authoritative ideas that can't or shouldn't be disputed.

It's also the teacher's responsibility to ask for clarifications about the reasoning in slippery-slope cases. "Why" questions are especially useful in helping students build cases and arguments. If the discussion dries up in the middle, the teacher should prompt students with yes-or-no questions, or questions involving another consideration, so that the discussion engine can be switched on again.

All in all, teachers should cultivate a welcoming rule-based and student-led environment to maximize interactions in online discussion sessions.

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4 Tips for Productive Online Discussions

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It has become part of the new normal for teachers to deliver their lessons online via videoconferencing tools. The situation reminds me of when I utilized similar technology to coach my students for inter-school debate competitions. There are a number of rules I follow at various stages of online discussion sessions.

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Video Conferencing: Establishing Routines and Structuring Online Time with Students

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Video Conferencing: Establishing Routines and Structuring Online Time with Students

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Video Conferencing: Establishing Routines and Structuring Online Time with Students

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As teachers consider their routines for this upcoming year, I encourage them to take the ideas and values that guide the design and facilitation of their in-class work with students and adapt them for the online environment. For example, most teachers use flexible grouping strategies in the classroom based on the objectives of a lesson.

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7 Strategies Designed to Increase Student Engagement in Synchronous Online Discussions Using Video Conferencing

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7 Strategies Designed to Increase Student Engagement in Synchronous Online Discussions Using Video Conferencing

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7 Strategies Designed to Increase Student Engagement in Synchronous Online Discussions Using Video Conferencing - Dr. Catlin Tucker

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One of the primary roles that a teacher plays in an online class is the facilitation of learning. Facilitation is the teacher's ability to clearly communicate learning objectives and support learners as they make progress toward those objectives. When teachers are working with students online, their role as facilitator encompasses their interactions with students in [...]

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Video Conferencing with Students Learning Remotely

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How to Keep Students’ Attention in a Virtual Classroom

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How to Keep Students’ Attention in a Virtual Classroom

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Teachers worried about students zoning out during distance learning can lean on these programs for help.

Pollyana Ventura / iStock

We've all been there: We ask our class a question and no one responds. Awkward silence. Students start to look at the ceiling or flip through their notebook to avoid eye contact. Eventually, someone volunteers an answer, someone is called on, or worse, we simply move on without any participation.

Getting your students to participate is hard enough when you're in your classroom. Getting them to participate in a virtual classroom is a whole different ball game. The social pressure of uncomfortable eye contact just isn't the same on a videoconference call. In fact, it's nearly nonexistent with current technology.

Luckily, the technology exists to help provide supplemental strategies to get your students responding-you may even want to bring some of these strategies back to your classroom once schools open up again.

Ways to Boost Online Participation

Video chat polling features: Many video chat platforms come with polling features where the students see a question pop up on their screen. This is a great feature for a few reasons.

It helps you gauge what your class understands and what they may need you to review again. If you just spent five minutes reviewing a concept and end with "OK, any questions?" what do you usually hear back? Crickets.

Instead, ask a comprehension question using the poll feature. If only 35 percent of the class answers the question correctly, maybe it's worth spending a little extra time reviewing.

Check out how to use these features in individual apps:

Discussion breakout rooms: Polling is great for helping break up concepts in a lecture, but what if your class is discussion based and you want your students to break out into small groups to work on a shared assignment?

There is technology for that, too. First, start out with all students on the same video call, and then, with a click of a button, split your students up into small groups to work on an assignment using a collaborative tool like Google Docs.

They will be on a call with only their group mates. You as the host can hop among all the groups to check in and facilitate. Once the time is up, end the breakouts and bring everyone together again. Call on each group to share their work.

Zoom: You can have up to 50 breakout sessions at once and can hop between them as you'd like. Check out Zoom's support page to learn exactly how to set it up for your class.

GoToMeeting: This platform has shared documents built in and will store them for you to review once the meeting ends. More info here.

Microsoft Teams: This feature is reportedly coming soon.

Some of the videoconferencing platforms have this impressive feature built in already. See the list below to learn more about each one:

This is a great feature to use if you have access to it. Not only does it get students working together on shared assignments, but also it helps students get used to talking to each other through a computer.

Chat feature: Simply ask a question and have your students answer through the chat feature. This is not ideal, since all students will see the answers of other students, so you may not see an accurate representation of their understanding. But you will have a record of each student's participation.

External quiz apps: You can also use external quiz tools like Kahoot or Quizizz. Simply set up the quizzes ahead of time, and prompt your students to go take the quiz during your meeting by sharing the quiz code. Students can take a few minutes to navigate to the quiz website and answer a question or two before moving on. The best part about these platforms is that they're free for both teachers and students.

Kahoot!: The base platform is free and fun to use. If you're interested in more advanced features, such as advanced reporting, individualized quizzes, additional question formats, and more, Kahoot offers paid plans starting at just $3 per month.

Quizizz: This platform is 100 percent free and connects to Google Classroom. It has engaging gamification built in and an entire place to store your favorite teaching memes.

Quizlet: The free version of this platform is excellent. If you're interested in tracking student progress over time, removing ads, and adding personalized content, the paid version starts at just $3 per month with additional savings for schoolwide plans.

Mentimeter: This platform's free version is limited to only a couple of questions, but the integration with online interaction is definitely worth your time to explore. The paid version starts at $10 per month, or you can reach out to your school's admin to explore a schoolwide payment option to make it cheaper per instructor.

Here are links to some student-approved quiz platforms:

Expectations and Accountability

The above tools are great-but now let's explore how to implement these and set your students up for success. Clear expectations set the stage for student participation.

Let your students know what good participation looks like. Is logging in to the video call enough to count as participation? That may be all that your administrators are looking for, but what does good look like, according to your standards?

Counting each time a student talks or adds to a discussion can be time-consuming. So let technology work for you.

A great way to measure participation is by requiring a permanent product-this is something your student leaves behind after they leave the call. It can be anything from an answer to an online discussion prompt to their quiz score, a response left in the chat, or the shared product from a group assignment.

Be present: Join the call and stay for the duration of class time.

Comprehension checks: Answer each quiz question that pops up, perhaps with extra points for answering 100 percent correct.

Discussion assignment: Work with your team to complete the assignment.

Whatever your definition of good is, be sure it is measurable and achievable.

Regardless of which online tool you use, it is clear that we cannot rely on in-person tactics to encourage virtual class participation. Luckily, the tools and tactics here can help enhance your online teaching. You may even find yourself bringing these back to your classroom when schools reopen.

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How to Keep Students' Attention in a Virtual Classroom

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Teachers worried about students zoning out during distance learning can lean on these programs for help. Pollyana Ventura / iStock We've all been there: We ask our class a question and no one responds. Awkward silence. Students start to look at the ceiling or flip through their notebook to avoid eye contact.

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We all have so many questions in our heads-How can I teach effectively given this new situation? How can I build relationships with all of my students via online conferencing platforms? How will distance learning and screen-time impact my students in the long run?

In this mini-episode, Catlin Tucker shares ways to build community online and engage students. She reminds us that, just like in the classroom, students need to feel safe, so plan to start with simple, online ice-breakers to build trust and increase students' comfort levels. She also stresses the importance of personalized feedback and recommends assigning both online and offline work.

Seeking helpful tips for achieving greater balance in this new teaching environment? Listen now.

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We all have so many questions in our heads-How can I teach effectively given this new situation? How can I build relationships with all of my students via online conferencing platforms? How will distance learning and screen-time impact my students in the l...

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Note: I talk and write about trauma, and when I do, I always remind people that reading and learning about trauma brings up difficult emotions. Trauma will be discussed in this piece: please leave or take breaks from this article as needed.
A few weeks ago, a conversation began to bubble up in higher education: should we require students to keep their cameras on during synchronous, online sessions (a.k.a in Zoom)?

The short answer is no, absolutely not, because requiring students to be on camera is contrary to everything we know about universal design for learning, about inclusive and trauma-aware teaching practices, and about making effective use of the affordances of online learning. We live in the most interesting times, in a global pandemic, and it's really not time to equivocate. Let me use my precious time with you wisely and say quickly and clearly that forcing students to be on camera is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad policy. If you're pressed for time and don't feel a need to read further, you can stop after this sentence: just don't do it.

Here are some more details on why we shouldn't require students to turn on their cameras, and some alternative approaches to engaging learners in live, online sessions.

Trauma-Aware Teaching

Prior to the onset of this pandemic, it was a safe bet that about two-thirds of the students in your courses had a trauma history. Trauma? Why should I care about trauma, you might be wondering. I'm not a counselor; I'm a teacher. Well, you need to care about trauma because it impacts our ability to learn and to teach. While the myriad of impacts of trauma on our bodies, brains, and minds are beyond the scope of this piece, the short version is that trauma redirects our brains' resources away from many of the skills needed to succeed in higher education: focus, concentration, decision-making, time management, self-regulation, and various higher-order thinking skills.

In light of the current COVID-19 crisis, that earlier two-thirds estimate I mentioned? It's been blown out of the water. Trauma and toxic stress are universal, and they're impacting both our ability to teach and our students' ability to learn. Our brains are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing during this crisis: focusing on survival. Fewer resources are available for the type of thinking processes that higher education demands. That doesn't mean this work of teaching and learning is impossible; it means that anyone who wants the honor of calling themselves a higher educator, whether they're a college president, teaching faculty, an advisor, or department chair, needs to be aware that trauma is the elephant in the Zoom room.

The Many Mirrors of Zoom

Image Attribution: Photo by Gabriel Benois on Unsplash

Forcing students to appear on-camera is no different than forcing them to stand in front of a mirror. Mirrors are present unique challenges for trauma survivors and for folks with mental illness. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's leading experts on trauma, writes in his book, The Body Keeps the Score, about people living with trauma who have lost the ability to recognize themselves in mirrors, an extreme form of disassociation. Imagine for a moment how terrifying it would be to stand in front of a mirror (or your webcam) and not see yourself. Is it right to require that student to turn on their webcam?

Consider a student living with depression, who has not had the energy to shower or change her clothes this week. Or the student who has been fighting off a panic attack for the past 24 hours, who needs to pace back and forth across her bedroom in order to burn off some of that nasty adrenalin. Another student didn't sleep last night. His head is pounding from the lack of sleep. He was worrying about whether he's going to have a job next month, and if he'll lose his house, and if his kids are going to be okay, and he's still reeling from the grief of his aunt's passing, an aunt he couldn't mourn properly at a funeral, and he spent too much time reading the news, searching for some glimmer of hope that this will all be over soon, and finding none, and this is all just too much.

Is it right to require these students to turn on their webcams?

Are these extreme examples? Absolutely not. I've heard similar stories coming from many of my privileged and well-resourced colleagues. We are all living in this muck. For those who are granted less privilege and access to resources, and for those who continue to face massive health inequities, the effects are only amplified. Trauma-aware teaching practices do not ask educators to become counselors, but rather, to acknowledge the muck we're all living in and to adapt our teaching choices to these realities, with the intention of best supporting student learning and success with a focus on compassion and adaptability.

Requiring students to appear on camera in Zoom discounts everything we know about how our traumatized brains learn. Don't do it.

Design for Learning, not Compliance

Image Attribution: Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion further support flexible approaches when working with students in synchronous, online sessions.

UDL suggests that we offer students multiple means of engagement. In a Zoom classroom, that means giving students choices about whether to engage with the class on camera, via audio, through polls, collaborative Google docs, or in the chat. Demanding one type of engagement is counter to UDL principles. Forcing students on camera implies that this is the only one way to engage in our courses. As someone who's been using synchronous, online sessions with students and faculty for almost a decade, and attending them myself as a learner, I can assure you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this is just not true.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) models ask us to consider that students might not feel comfortable or safe appearing on camera and revealing their home environments for a variety of reasons including but not limited to the impacts of poverty on their home environment or the desire for privacy around cultural or religious practices. Your institution very likely has a reference to DEI in your mission statement. Are you living that mission when you require students to appear on camera?

UDL and DEI guide us in designing courses that support all learners. Forcing students on camera is not about learning; it is too often about compliance.

Alternatives Abound

Faculty success leads to student success and is also worthy in its own right. As such, I want to recognize some very real concerns that faculty have expressed to me about teaching live, online sessions.

"But when they're not on camera," they tell me, "it's so hard to teach. I can't tell whether or not they're engaged. I can't read their signals." Some of the problematic Zoom policies we're seeing are not born out of a focus on controlling students' behavior, but rather, from a desire to connect with students. How can we balance that desire with our students' varied needs?

First, let's start by recognizing that even if students are on camera, we cannot police their engagement. I have attended countless webinars, meetings, and courses in Zoom or its competitors, been looking right into the presenter's eyes through my webcam, and not been paying any attention whatsoever (sorry!). On the other hand, last month I attended an amazing online conference, was not on camera in most of the sessions, and was actively engaged. I contributed to discussions via audio, chat and backchannel messages. I added ideas to shared Google docs. I often had other work running on my computer to the side, and at varying times would shift away from the sessions to that work, and then back again. It was one of the most memorable and engaging conference experiences of my career, and I was off camera for 90% of it. Engagement and attention are fluid, and they don't look the same for every learner.

A camera does not guarantee engagement.

Encourage students to be on camera, but allow them to make that choice. Some students will choose to contribute via audio only. Maybe that's due to trauma, toxic stress, being camera-shy, or just having a bad hair day (currently, my hair looks like something a bird lives in, and while I'm completely okay with that most days, I don't really feel like advertising it via Zoom). Maybe they just attended another class and spent the entire time on camera, and now they're tired and need a camera break. The reasons don't really matter. What matters is that we treat students as human beings, and that we focus on what we can actually control: our own teaching choices. Here are a few good ones I can vouch for that can support both faculty and student success in synchronous, online sessions:

Break up larger lectures into smaller chunks of no more than ten minutes. No one's attention span lasts longer than that.

Create a structured note-taking template to help students focus on your mini-lectures. Some students enjoy taking notes in Padlet, which is a bit more playful.

Punctuate your sessions with questions, and ask students to respond in polls or in the chat.

Facilitate breakout rooms to allow students to collaborate with peers in smaller groups.

Tell stories. Brains love stories.

Ask students how they're doing today. Tell them how you're doing.

Have students collaborate in a shared Google doc during the session. Here are some cool ideas for collaborative docs.

Let one or more students lead the class.

Be willing to experiment. Let it be messy. The best stuff in life usually is. Here's a great list of Zoom activities that might be messy and fun.

Prioritize care, compassion, and adaptability - today, tomorrow, and in the future.

That word "higher" in higher education is supposed to mean something, and one of the things it means is that we reach beyond the tempting, band-aid solution. We reach beyond the desire to control others because we feel as if we can't control our own circumstances. We reach toward what we know about the science of learning, toward empathy for ourselves and our students, and toward our shared humanity. We reach higher, cameras be damned.

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Note: I talk and write about trauma, and when I do, I always remind people that reading and learning about trauma brings up difficult emotions. Trauma will be discussed in this piece: please leave or take breaks from this article as needed.

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Larry Ferlazzo’s Tips for New Teachers this Fall

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Larry Ferlazzo’s Tips for New Teachers this Fall

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Larry Ferlazzo’s Tips for New Teachers this Fall

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Increase Engagement in Video Conferencing Sessions with Mentimeter

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Increase Engagement in Video Conferencing Sessions with Mentimeter

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Last night I had the opportunity to be a guest lecturer for students in the credential program at UC Riverside. As I was planning my presentation, I knew I wanted to engage the group attending my lecture. As much as I like the chat and basic polling features in video conferencing platforms, like Zoom and Google Meet, I wanted something more dynamic. The chat window can be hard to manage while also presenting.

I decided to use Mentimeter to encourage audience participation throughout my presentation. Mentimeter is an interactive online presentation software that has a variety of question types to increase engagement during a presentation (in person or online). Presenters can choose from the following question types:

The audience can use any device to access Mentimeter. Particpants enter a six-digit code that takes them directly to your presentation. They only see the slide that you have projected. As soon as you move to the next slide, their view also changes. Mentimeter updates the responses on the slides in real-time as participants respond to the questions. I also share my screen, so their responses are projected via the video conferencing platform we are using.

I began our session by asking participants to tell me the first three words that came to mind when they heard the phrase "blended learning." The larger words in the cloud have been entered by multiple participants. This word association activity creates clarity about what the group is thinking about a particular issue or topic.

I also used Mentimeter to ask open-ended questions. Instead of asking participants to enter their responses into the chat window on Zoom, they submitted their answers via Mentimeter. This made the responses easier to see and discuss. I also found that their responses were more thoughtful and developed compared to the typical chat responses I see in video conference sessions.

The scales question feature allows participants to toggle between two different extremes. I shared the TRACE acronym for the tenets of school culture, which Jason Green talked about in our conversation on my podcast, The Balance. Then I asked the students to think about how clear each tenet at the schools where they were doing their student teaching. They were able to drag the dots to the location between "not a clear value/priority" and "a crystal clear value/priority" that reflected their perception of that tenet at their school. It quickly identified "risk-taking" as the aspect of school culture that was the least visible. However, as we discussed, "risk-taking" is a critical aspect of experimenting and innovating on a school campus.

I also used the multiple-choice question feature to quickly gather data about what the participants thought about a few of the issues we discussed. Their responses helped me to customize the presentation to their specific needs and concerns. I was able to emphasize specific points that I thought would resonate with them while skimming over aspects of the topic where they seemed more confident.

Finally, I ended our session by inviting participants to ask questions using the Mentimeter question slide. The questions would pop up, we would discuss them, and I would "mark as answered."

This strategy worked so well that I have begun using it for all of my virtual conferencing sessions to increase engagement. I even used it this morning when presenting a webinar on online learning for a large group of educators in Africa. It changed the whole dynamic of the webinar. Instead of talking for 45 minutes to a group that is passively listening, I built a different type of question into each section of the presentation to keep them thinking and sharing. It worked beautifully!

If you have struggled to keep kids engaged in video conferencing sessions or felt overwhelmed managing student responses in the chat window, I would suggest trying Mentimeter. The free version allows you to create two slides with different question types and a Q&A slide. I always have my content for the virtual session on a Google Slide or Keynote presentation. Then I use Mentimeter to complement that content.

Up until recently, I have found the free version more than adequate. However, now that all of my presentations and training sessions are happening online, I decided to pay for the basic education version ($6/mo). It has unlimited slides per presentation and additional functionality that is useful for distance learning (e.g., quiz features).

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Increase Engagement in Video Conferencing Sessions with Mentimeter

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Last night I had the opportunity to be a guest lecturer for students in the credential program at UC Riverside. As I was planning my presentation, I knew I wanted to engage the group attending my lecture. As much as

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11 Little Tips for Better Video Chat (For Teachers...and Everybody Else)

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11 Little Tips for Better Video Chat (For Teachers...and Everybody Else)

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11 Little Tips for Better Video Chat (For Teachers...and Everybody Else)

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Morning Meeting Activities for Distance Learning

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Morning Meeting Activities for Distance Learning

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Virtual Morning Meeting Activities for Distance Learning (Zoom and Google Meet)

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Just this week, I found myself leading an all-day webinar on antiracism for a group of over 100 Vermont educators. I was originally due to co-lead the session in person with the nation's foremost expert on poverty, Dr. Paul Gorski of the Equity Literacy Institute, but due to the bizarre time in history this has become as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak, we were asked to lead the session online. Great, I thought. For the 19th time this week I'll be allowing a group of strangers into my home office. Into my life.

Given these unprecedented times, I am using videoconferencing software platforms almost daily. I have interviewed for new job opportunities thrice now on WebEx, BlueJeans, and Hangouts. I have an upcoming interview with a major federal agency on Skype. This Saturday, a group of professional women and I will hold a mental health check-in via videoconference. And my best friend-whom I haven't seen in I don't know how many weeks-is pining for a watch party on Netflix so we can at least feel as close and we would ordinarily be.

When I think of how I am eager to participate in these platforms as an adult, I immediately juxtapose that with how I might have felt as a student: MORTIFIED. As I write, every school in my state has been closed indefinitely, and students have no choice but to FaceTime with friends, videoconference with teachers, and even complete their assignments with laptops and sometimes synchronous class "meetings" online. College students are home making memes of their hilarious professors, and ultimately making the best of their courses on Zoom or whichever online platform allows us to "see" one another in real time.

I'll get right to it. Each time I participate in a videoconference, I know the other participants can look over my shoulder. They can see what's in my office-with glimpses of my entire home-and they will subsequently judge me for it. Lucky for me, I have a fantastic sense of style (I am a professional interior designer in my head), but even then I have a secret. I live in a tri-level home that I purchased as a short sale. This was the worst home in the best neighborhood I could afford, and I have depleted my savings just to make the home habitable, much less presentable.

I am single, I am my own breadwinner, and the descendant of American slaves. I have no access to intergenerational wealth, and as the highest income-earner in my family, I am constantly sharing my salary. As someone who grew up in a poor family, my income will never be my own. My office and the rest of my home are just videoworthy enough for me to escape embarrassment not because I am wealthy, but because I have learned the art of being a "Craigslist Crackhead." That is, I use giveaway items from Craigslist FreeStuff to transform others' trash into magazine-worthy décor. It is rather time-consuming, but it's the only way. It's my own means of decorating.

If I had to participate in videoconferencing as a child, I would have been terrified. I can't help but think about the scores of children (and adults) who at this point have no choice but to participate in schooling and work by way of inviting their classmates and colleagues into at least a portion of their home. As a diversity consultant who teaches and trains others about implicit bias-and specifically the negative ideas we espouse about people who are experiencing poverty-I worry about the psychological effects and downright trauma of having those who learn and work alongside us having a requisite glimpse into our homes, making inferences about our social class, and subsequently judging us for it. I worry.

My childhood home was not glamorous. Even now I wonder what small corner of the house I would have been willing to let others see. As a matter of fact, I didn't have a laptop until the end of my senior year of high school, so my first concern would have been the embarrassment of having to borrow a laptop or request one from the school. Dr. Paul Gorski has also written about the digital divide, or the incredible disparity in access to technology hardware and internet access, and the COVID-19 has only highlighted that gap. But that is a different article...

As embarrassed and ashamed as I would have been allowing even a portion of my home to be seen by my friends and teachers, I think of my other school friends. I think of my friend who was homeless throughout most of our K-12 schooling together. I think of my Vietnamese and Hmong friends who lived in homes with as many as 20 fellow refugees. I think of my African and Asian friends who lived in small homes in large groups with extended family members. I think about my classmate who was raised by a single mom and shared a room-sometimes a bed-with her younger brother until we became freshman at Harvard.

During this unprecedented time of virtual meetings, distance learning, and the new normalcy of videoconferencing, I am thinking of my fellow brothers, sisters, and non-binaries who either experienced poverty growing up, or who still feel uncomfortable sharing portions of their personal lives on Skype. People can see what is behind us, and that makes us nervous. As I move toward my online interview next week, I plan to rearrange the books on my shelf, angle the camera just-so, and hopefully maintain a sense of parity and dignity as total strangers peer over my shoulder and make judgments about where I live, how I live, and what I can afford. They will see the paint on my walls, the drapes on my window, and perhaps even a glimpse of my neighborhood if they truly "Zoom" in.

If you have never given serious thought to how you are presenting socioeconomically online, then what a blessing. But if you are like scores of people like me who grew up in a less than glamorous home, and even now, a home that is decorated entirely from other people's garbage, then please refer to this article often, with a fresh set of "nosey" eyes, and with the understanding that for some of us, videoclassism is real, and videojudgment is a terrifying proposition. When all this is over, we will return to physical settings with you, and you will have that much information to use against us about who we are. You will know our homeless shelters, our crowded apartments, our small and humbly decorated homes, the "auntie" or grandma's house we live in as part of a non-traditional family, or any number of our dirty little secrets. And that makes us uncomfortable.

From where I sit, here is a non-exhaustive list of at least FIVE recommendations for interrupting videoclassism and checking the implicit bias that many of us will fall into as we videoconference with our peers and colleagues:
1. Be Introspective: Check Your Class Status
The first, most helpful thing you can do for class-anxious videoconferencers like me is to be introspective about your own class status. Did you own the technology you needed to videoconference or did you have to travel to a public library, visit a more technologically-wealthy friend, or borrow equipment from a school? Were you anxious about which room of the house you would position as your background? Are you afraid of being judged negatively by the atmosphere, artifacts, or actors (family members, children, animals, etc.) that may appear in your video?
2. Be Empathic: Check Your Thoughts
During the videoconference, we should be asking ourselves what we are viewing, learning, and thinking about the other person based on what we can see. Do we approve of their attire and "outbreak" hair? What inferences are we making about what they can and cannot afford? Where are we allowing negative assumptions and implicit bias to distract us from the content at hand? As an expert trainer on implicit bias, I can tell you that practicing both introspection and empathy during videoconferencing will positively impact your ability to "catch yourself" and identify biased thoughts. Only when you make repeated efforts to check your thinking can you work toward more productive, less judgmental thoughts and behaviors.
3. Be Content-Focused: Check Your Comments
If I were a child videoconferencing with my friends or teachers, I would have been altogether frightened by the idea of people posing questions. If my Asian mother and Black father were nearby (which was inevitable, given the modest size of my childhood home), what questions about my heritage and multiraciality would I have had to answer? Multiple parts of my home were unfinished given the nature of how my home was built during our hurried return from the Iranian Revolution, so would someone have asked me about exposed drywall? Would a less-than-kind classmate have bullied me online by making an inappropriate comment about the secondhand smoke and tar on my walls? When participating in a videoconference, be mindful of the comments and questions you pose that are OUTSIDE the purview of the conference itself. It is of course appropriate and deeply humane to pose questions about someone's health, or even toilet paper supply, but be careful about extraneous comments relating to the things, people, or situations they may or may not have. At any given moment, we are all doing the best with what we have...
4. Be Open: Check Your Knowledge about Class and Poverty
As an educator, I implore you to continue historicizing poverty in the United States to better understand and contextualize how class functions in this nation both contemporarily and historically. There is a reason many students live in low-income neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty. My own father purchased a plot of land in a state where interracial marriage was legal, therefore revealing the intersections of race and class and the unfair limitations thereof. In a meritocratic, individualistic society, we often make judgments about what people have and why. And if we find that they don't have something, we overlay our own assumptions about how they haven't worked as hard, or pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, or been more resilient. As someone who has been living her life BOOTLESSLY, I would encourage you to read any number of resources about the clash of race and class in this country. Then you might better understand redlining, restrictive covenants that extended well into the 1970s, and all manner of racist and classist laws that have kept me in the neighborhoods I am confined to.
5. Be an Accomplice: Check Other People Who Class-Shame and Videojudge
One of the most impactful trainings I lead is, "Moving from Actors to Allies to Accomplices." In it, I challenge participants not only to govern their own behavior, but to stand in solidarity with others who cannot and should not always have to shoulder bullying, classism, and all manner of discrimination alone. If you find yourself participating in a videoconference call with someone who is making inappropriate comments, teasing, or cyberbullying someone else, I urge you to at least be an ally and disrupt that behavior in real time. If, however, you wish to be an accomplice, or someone who acts in anti-classist ways in public or private, in partnership or alone, I would ask that you look for ways to support students and colleagues who are experiencing poverty. Donate your time, support, and resources to anti-poverty programs and solutions. Vote for candidates who, like Andrew Yang, JUST suggested assisting Americans with cash payments as a method of addressing equity and forwarding the country, and NOT just during a global pandemic. Most importantly, deftly share this article with the offender and everyone you know. Because sometimes, the sharing of good, honest scholarship is the most revolutionary act of solidarity we need.

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COVID-19 and Videoclassism: Implicit Bias, Videojudgment, and Why I'm Terrified to Have You Look Over My Shoulder

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Just this week, I found myself leading an all-day webinar on antiracism for a group of over 100 Vermont educators. I was originally due to co-lead the session in person with the nation's foremost expert on poverty, Dr.