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There are two misconceptions that we think hinder teachers' creativity when thinking about teaching online. The first is a tendency to think of ways of approximating their face-to-face teaching into an online format as much as possible - instead of considering the possibilities afforded by the new medium, with the diverse opportunities for engagement and communication. The (problematic) assumptions behind this include a belief that text is less personal, that immediacy is inherently more valuable, and that approximating face-to-face is beneficial. The second, which relates to the first, is the belief (as Kolowich suggests) that increasing the "human" element of an online course is best done by either showing the face/voice of the teacher (e.g., as in pre-recorded lectures used in many xMOOCs), approximating a non-interactive lecture-based face-to-face class, or interacting synchronously (as in Google Hangouts), approximating a discussion-based face-to-face class. An automatic preference for synchronous (usually audiovisual) interaction with students is often a "mistake". It would, teachers imagine, be just like a face-to-face class, only online. Right? Actually, usually not. Maha has had experiences facilitating web-based video dialogue, and even though she sees it could have enormous potential when it works well, very often it does not. When we learn online, we are not together in one room, and we need to recognize not only the limitations of that, but the openness of its possibilities. The strengths of online learning, especially in massive courses such as MOOCs, and especially for adult learners, might lie in their asynchronous interactive components.

Gems: "While education technology has grown as an industry, its acceleration isn't up-to-speed with other sectors, such as business and health care." "It's up to edtech companies to give... unis tools that can help them adapt to changing needs... And it's the responsibility of HE decision-makers to incorporate these tools into their vision for modern education" Yes!

She wowed the world with her poetry at President Joe Biden's inauguration. But we first introduced you to Amanda Gorman back in 2017 - when she was just 19 and an OZY Genius Award winner. Read on for our original story. Every year, OZY gives ten college students the opportunity to pursue their outstanding ideas and envisioned innovations with grants of up to $10,000. The OZY Genius Awards aims to support and celebrate the next Albert Einstein, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey or Wendy Kopp, as they write groundbreaking books, film thought-provoking documentaries, launch tomorrow's industry-disrupting companies, or create the next game-changing social movements. Meet one of our 2017 recipients, Amanda Gorman.

The global pandemic has pushed educators around the world to a transformative moment for online learning. Since February 2020, an unprecedented number of teachers, students, and parents have become exposed to a new mode of teaching. Teachers did not have the luxury of options, as online education came towards them, shouting "Ready or not, here I come!" The transformation is deep and wide: All levels of teaching, from pre-k classes to doctoral programs, moved to the cloud. Every discipline, from physics to physical education, from chemistry to creative writing, has a chance to test their limits and potentials in the new modality of teaching.

As educators who deliver online courses in a teacher education program, we wanted to find the most effective ways to facilitate online learning and teaching. We collected survey data and conducted interviews with three hundred university students about how they engaged with their online courses and found that, above all else, teachers help students feel connected and supported in their online studies and are essential to students' emotional engagement.

Excellent blog post about how to manage social media as a professional. Valuable advice includes keeping profile pics and bios up to date and use of different tools for distribution, retweeting etc.

Collated by Dr Tony Bates This is just a selection, of course, with a particular focus on North America, and will be added to as new reports emerge. They are roughly in sequential order of the date of publication, although not all full dates were available.

"Join A/Prof. Chie Adachi (Director, Digital Learning), A/Prof. Marcus O'Donnell (Director, Cloud Learning Futures), Dr Jo Elliott (Lecturer, Digital Learning Innovation) and Joan Sutherland (Senior Educational Developer) as they capture, share and celebrate the stories of teaching staff who share their personal experiences and provide insights into what is needed to innovate in the digital learning space. These insights into what they have learnt along the way, what has worked, and what they are doing to further enhance the teaching and learning experience at Deakin can influence your teaching practice. Topics range from the power of social media during COVID-19 through to facilitating connection through digital polling in the online space. "

This article is part of the guide https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/sustaining-higher-education-in-the-coronavirus-crisis Experts in online teaching have been debating and researching the question of synchronous versus asynchronous for decades. Since the 1990s and the rise of online video conferencing, though, it has been possible for educators to choose which activities in their distance-education courses to conduct synchronously and which to leave as asynchronous. The overall advice from experts is to mix both formats in any given class.

Pat Thomson starts a series of posts about blogging and posting as a guest.

"At this point the Zoom call has almost come to define learning and working in the age of COVID-19. But a few months ago, people began realizing that all these video calls were making them tired-exhausted even-more so than a day of in-person class or all-day meetings. The phenomena even has a name: Zoom fatigue. And it's backed by some pretty interesting brain science. "

"Of all the behaviors necessitated by the pandemic-wearing face masks, ordering takeout or groceries online, working from home-only one has taken over the lexicon, serving variously as a verb, adjective or noun: Zooming. "

"As online learning becomes a more common model for higher education courses, institutions and instructors should investigate the benefits of including both synchronous and asynchronous elements in online learning to maximize the benefits of both these environments." Bichronous? This is a new one to me. Interesting disucssion around why this term is so relevant to online learning and teaching today.

It's probably an obvious change coming, but it's important to keep an eye on.