Online Microteaching

I enjoyed the use of bright and colourful resources that are appropriate and engaging for 21st century learners. Using animated slides made the lesson interesting, drew the learners in, and provided the teacher with a mechanism for buy in of the learners. Microteaching does allow a good deal of creativity, and the learners get to use their devices and, in that way, learn new skills. With the smaller children not being present in the class makes assessing those who may not be keeping up or having difficulties a bit more challenging. The feedback is different, and it is not always easy to pick up on all that is going on in the class, so distractions can take time to address. My preference from an awareness and contact point of view is still being physically present in the class. However, I do see the value in microteaching and fully support its appropriate use.

I learnt how to make engaging and dynamic PowerPoint presentations, how to edit and use apps in PowerPoint like emojis and jokes, and how to animate slides to hook learners in the introduction of the lesson. The use of an edited YouTube video provided a good brief introduction to the lesson without distracting the learners and encouraged learners to pay attention to the teaching and learning phases of the lesson. Using the blackboard platform for teaching was difficult initially, but once I practiced using the platform, it became more familiar and proved to be adequate for the lesson. I was also exposed to the variety and volume of materials, aids, and pictures, not to mention the information that can be sourced for all classes, not just microteaching, on the various platforms I had previously not fully utilized. There is also a skill to being able to select what you need for your visual material and what information to type onto slides. In some instances, key words and phrases are sufficient, while some concepts require both visuals and labels or prompts. When you begin to strike a balance, you can sometimes rely entirely on pictures and animation, which, with voice, creates real interest and, to some extent, drama in what you are attempting to get across.

I used the blackboard platform as well as YouTube, Kahoot, add in emojis, and joke apps. Kahoot was used as a quiz / assessment to check whether learning had taken place. These were appropriate as the Kahoot questionnaire was engaging, user-friendly and allowed the learners to practice their knowledge, recall, and understanding.

This experience has developed my teaching on an online platform, allowing me to connect with learners in their homes. For example, in a pandemic, this becomes very useful, and it can prove to be a vital resource for any children who need to catch up or who are unable to attend classes physically for any reason. Using any new approach or method invariably gives you additional options to use in your own teaching. It is also true that the more you use a particular application, the more you learn how to use more of its features, which generally improves the quality of your presentations, which necessitates keeping abreast of all the new applications and platforms that are available to you as a teacher and, as a consequence, your lessons.

If I had to use the Blackboard platform as an online tool, then practicing using the Blackboard teaching platform would be my first priority, so that I could become more proficient at sharing applications on Blackboard, as it is not a very user-friendly application and requires you to move between screens when you use animated PowerPoints and when you need to write on the whiteboard, which leaves learners waiting for you to move between screens and inhibits the flow of the lesson. Blackboard does not allow you to share animated PowerPoint slides and see the collab screen, so it is especially important to ask your learners to use the mic to communicate with you verbally, which is not ideal for teaching a large class of foundation phase learners. Sharing the Kahoot application and YouTube videos can become a complicated experience, so for ease of use, I would, however, prefer to use the TEAMS platform with Google Classroom, which is more user friendly and easier to share your slides on than Blackboard.

After this experience, there is no doubt in my mind that microteaching has endless possibilities and applications, and with the advent of artificial intelligence, it will be important for teachers to constantly upgrade their skills and knowledge with regard to the advances in online teaching and learning.