In the final week of ONL, I did my very first meme for a colleague who was leaving my university. Okay, so I showed that I am a boomer after all – or so I was told. But hey, that simple act was a milestone for me. And so were a myriad of other little things we experimented on in my PBL group. It was getting over the inhibitions and finding out first hand what was possible if only one gave it a go.

Of course, there wasn’t much of a choice to begin with once Covid-19 got a deeper hold across the country and beyond, and all classes went online, it became imperative to just do it, literally. This was what made the ONL course ever so timely and effective; for even as I was struggling to keep the now-online classes going intellectually and pedagogically, I was getting lessons on how and what to think and do to make online learning work. I can’t say I managed to translate them to my classes, not this round. But there is this sense of a confidence that yes, I can try and do better the next round. And knowing where and how to find the resources to do the job.

The best part of the process was seeing how active participation and collaboration can still happen – these being the most worrying parts of going online for me. I remember the unbearable blank screens and silence one sometimes encounter when asking an online class a question. Of course, at the level of the PBL, I had a very motivated and congenial group (one of our facilitators noted the lack of conflict – which opens up another line of discussion of what that might mean and what that does in terms of the group’s learning). Indeed, it was seeing how the social and affective aspects of online learning kicked in as the weeks wore on. In the final weeks, we were actually having fun creating a board game, recording videos, and yes, making memes. Through the process, we got a taste of what, as one of my group members said in a meeting, her students might be experiencing in an online learning environment. It is now up to me, as an educator, to allow my reflections and the echoes of the shared wisdom of my fellow-collaborators in the ONL to inform my imagination of what I can do with this. With some human empathy, of course. I cannot imagine otherwise.

References:

Reyes, M., et al. (2018). Memes and GIFs as Powerful Classroom Tools (facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/memes-and-gifs-as-powerful-classroom-tools/)

Cleveland-Innes, M. (2019). The Community of Inquiry – What is it really about? (padlet.com/larsuhlin/onl201topic4)

Vaughan, N.D., et al. (2012). Teaching in Blended Learning Environments: Creating and Sustaining Communities of Inquiry. Edmonton, Canada: AU Press.