The power of teaching through video conferencing in real time
Posted on 9th Jun 2020 in Online Learning, Which London School?
Lucienne Shape, of Amazing Tutor, explains a shifting attitude towards technology...
When I had the vision 12 years ago to teach and work through the technology of Video everyone laughed! How can you possibly substitute the real person face to face was the cry? Now who is laughing!
When we connected that day and we saw the school across the pond in America laughing and joking as if they were all in the same classroom it was as though heaven had arrived. And as we ate our pizza and drank our coffee working with those students offering a real experience using Makaton Signing and doing Shakespeare as a real-life experience working together on Julius Caesar, me from England and the school in America we connected not just through the technology: we created a divine understanding that students from all over the world can learn together in a way that was never expected.
So, what am I saying?
I am saying that technology has its own magic and brings new dimensions that we have not yet even begun to explore.
Within 5 years GCSE will be online and the world has all woken up to illness that prevents us being educated in the same room. Now is the time to develop the underdeveloped way of working in this way, screen to screen.
When I worked with the Manhattan School of music working with a student in England with Autism and doing music with real experts in America exploring jazz and blues how the room sang along and what an opportunity for a young man who was so Musical. Did you know that Autistic learners excel with working like this? The research shows that working remotely brings out the best in Autistic learners.
Why can we not use Speech Therapists and Occupational therapists to work as we construct good educational planning but more than that, my vision was always to create, and be dancers and artists sharing the power of how to create and use the technology to connect to the globe understanding different cultures and how they can enhance our learning and share knowledge.
Working with the new creators of tomorrow do not underestimate the power of this technology. Embrace it and respect it.
Working with the retired in America, how they loved the stories of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her love poems.
There can be no other magic more powerful then to enhance the lives of those who love to listen to that beauty. I have seen them come out of that dementia for a second with that connection.
The students in America who loved to learn about Fashion which as an alumni of Central St Martins I could offer and imagine this. Now I return to that famous place to offer Mentoring to those who gave me so much at St Martins, the difference is that I won’t be travelling!
Work with me on this journey and let us expand the horizon, so that in five years’ time we look back and see that we really did develop the huge potential of ‘real time’ education.
This is not just a technology. It is a way of creating!
Let us develop our knowledge as a globe to each other. It is all a possibility now.
There are thousands of students eager to develop their understanding and we can reach out to them, especially if for some reason they cannot get to school or college. They are the forgotten ones if they have problems. Now we can change that.
Sit and close your eyes for a minute. Imagine the Bolshoi Ballet coming live into your living room! Or, the Royal Shakespeare Company doing Macbeth with you as the King!! Or you as the artist who shares a new concept. It’s the right time now! It is no longer the dream that we had. It is all possible now.
If you want to work with me on a project or a lesson connecting students from different countries, maybe GCSE Literature, exploring the creative aspects Please get in touch. It could be amazing!
www.weddingspeechwriters.co.uk/
Look up www.cilc.org/
This article first appeared in the 2020/21 edition of Which London School? & the South-East, which you can view in full here: