This was the scenario:

“ A year ago we were forced to work online with the implementation of emergency remote teaching and learning because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It seems that in many instances we may still be approaching our teaching practice in the same way without using any of the existing theoretical models for blended and online learning to inform our practice. An analysis of student surveys reflect that students are not very happy with how educators have been responding to the challenge. We need to rethink how we design hybrid, blended and online learning that works in both physical- and virtual rooms; and how we combine synchronous and asynchronous activities that encourage students’ engagement and learning.”

I was not able to participate much in the PBL due to an acute health issue. However, the scenario is quite “spot-on” in relation to the work I normally do with my students at the Ingesund School of Music. Basically, I have three strands of responsibility – all of which were heavily influenced by both the pandemic and my health issues during 20/21.

1. Vocal training: I have the responsibility for the development of seven young students of classical voice. Although I know that most of them could find some benefits in the online lessons that we had to rely on during about a third of their available lessons, I myself was not at all pleased with the way vocal coaching was carried out in Zoom. I advocate another and better hard- and software solution – and I am presently engaged in such a development in conjunction with Swedish company Elk Audio and their device the “Aloha”. In order to try to “combine synchronous and asynchronous activities that encourage students´ engagement and learning”, I developed a combination of real lessons (in a large church in Stockholm) with Zoom lessons – and, importantly: a rigorous system for follow-up and documentation. This system was basically a shared document, wherein each student share their personal goals, their development curve – and their accumulated repertory with me. This turned out to be an important and well-working tool for aligning their individual studies with an overall plan.
2. I am also responsible for the Bachelor´s thesis work. Now, in comparison with musical studies, such academic work is much more functional over Zoom. Not the least when I started using tools such as Menti and Padlet. Thanks to my own learning curve when it comes to digital tools and online learning, I can conclude that this part of my assignment was working quite well. However, one important point will always be missing when our communication goes online: the capacity of actually communicate with more than just words and facial expressions. We know by now that bodily language and small but still very important ways of communication that we use when sitting together IRL in a room – are lacking in the online world. In my experience, this can at worse lead to misunderstandings and bad communication – that might be hard to rectify online.
3. I am engaged in various research projects in the realm of Practice based research within music and technology. These projects have a practical side (musical expression and technology development) that has to be carried out in a real-world context. Furthermore, these projects have an academic side (meetings, writing of articles etc) that work well online.

All in all, the scenario and its prompt is actually close to the situation that I found myself in during 2020 and spring 2021. Such a “rethinking” will certainly colour my future work.

” We need to rethink how we design hybrid, blended and online learning that works in both physical- and virtual rooms; and how we combine synchronous and asynchronous activities that encourage students’ engagement and learning.”

Carl Unander-Scharin, June 14, 2021