For students, a sudden shift to online learning can be quite confusing. In a physical school environment, structures and routines like class schedules, designated venues, etc. are in place to allow learners to organize their days and weeks, leading to a certain rhythm of life throughout a semester.
With the recent onslaught of online learning, all these familiar structures suddenly disappear, morphing into a list of links, platforms and tasks. Faced with many of these moving parts, students might fall for the temptation of #TMDD (Too much! Didn’t do)!
Here’s a simple tool to help you organize your new online learning life:
So, you suddenly get the announcement that classes are suspended, BUT classes will continue ONLINE! 😕Here are a few things that might help your transition to becoming an online student:
Set your time.
Being given the flexibility of time doesn’t mean you have all the time in the world to do the online tasks assigned to you. Time will continue to move even if you don’t. What often helps is to create a schedule for yourself and to allot specific time periods to do specific tasks. You can even schedule your break times as well! Creating space for brain breaks between learning tasks is as important as engaging in the tasks themselves. If you’re shifting to online studying for a long period of time, you may even want to come up with a weekly schedule.
If it’s your first time to study online, then you might be excited to finally get a chance to take classes in your bed, or while your tv is on and your smartphone within reach for any notification—or worse, while binging on Netflix!
Can you really pay full attention to your learning while doing all of the above? Recent studies show that multitasking is a myth! If you really want to study, you have to set up your space for it. Where in your house are you able to focus the most? What is a place that you find comfortable enough, but not distracting? Once you find that space, feel free to customize it. How can you make your space more conducive for learning? What can you add or remove from the space so that you can really focus on your task more?
We have different answers to these questions, so go figure this out on your own: What is the right space for you? When you do find it, use it! In as much as classrooms are built a certain way to make them conducive for learning, there’s probably something in your space that makes it conducive for you.
For students accustomed to a face-to-face classroom environment, you are probably used to having your teachers control the pace and path of your learning. Now that you’re more on your own, it’s important to know that learning doesn’t happen by chance, but by design! There’s actually a science and art to learning.
Since self-paced learning is “teaching yourself,” here are some things we know about learning that you can consider:
Retrieving beats reviewing. If you want to master something, the best way to do so is to remember it, to explain it, and to use what you have learned. So, let’s say there is a text that you’ve been asked to read. Instead of reading it over and over again, come up with questions to test yourself and try to answer them without the text (ex. coming up with flash cards might help). Or imagine explaining it to someone or using it in a situation.
Concrete examples clarify. If you’re studying something quite abstract like a mathematical operation or a theoretical framework, you might want to connect that to examples that you’ve encountered or that you’re familiar with. Examples help us remember and understand concepts more deeply. Share these examples with your online classmates! Listening to one another’s examples can help further clarify concepts.
Draw and discuss. One way to help you understand things better is not just to rehearse explaining something, but also to visualize what you are studying. It doesn’t need to look like a work of art. Doodles and diagrams will do. Mixing doodles with words and using them to discuss concepts tap into our ability to “dual code”: to learn through words and visuals.
We all know that school is not just about studies. It’s very much about being around friends too! One idea is to set-up virtual dates with friends or just keep each other updated in class or block messenger groups. It can also be a venue to exchange notes about your experience.
Set your time. Find your space. Pave your path.
These are some things you may want to consider as you begin your journey as an online learner. Happy learning!
Here’s a nifty infographic you can pass on 🏃🏽🏃♀️🏃🏾♂️🧂
If you’re a teacher who’s new to online learning and want to–or have to!–try it out , we have the perfect guide for you!
No need to be high-tech or trained professionally. As long as you’re willing to learn–especially in these times!–you can transform yourself to some kind of online learning designer. Nothing like necessity to mother your self-reinvention!
We will suggest several tools and strategies here, but no pressure to use all of them! Think of this as a menu or a go-to guide when you are planning your online lessons.
The key idea is NOT just to upload all your slides and required readings online (even if that’s the easiest thing to do). Rather, make an effort to DESIGN an engaging online learning experience for your learners. You can do it!
The Loyola Schools of Ateneo de Manila uses Moodle, so if you know how to use that, that’s great! Moodle has many useful features that will surely come in handy in these times.
But there are other learning management systems that are available online for free–like Schoology, Edmodo, Google Classroom, Canvas, Brightspace, Neo, etc. Some teachers also prefer to use social media or messaging applications like Facebook Groups, Slack, Viber, FB Messenger, etc.
We will focus on two of these alternative LMS: Schoology and Facebook Groups. We think that they’re the easiest to learn and are also accessible to most teachers and students.
To begin, just make sure that both the teacher and students have:
their device (preferably, with speakers!), and
a reliable Internet connection.
All set? Let’s begin!
Where would you like to set up your Virtual Classroom?
Last October 29 to 30, 2019, a multidisciplinary group of educators from the Loyola Schools stole away from the Ateneo de Manila campus to gather at the Eugenio Lopez Center in Antipolo. Their task? To talk about a twenty-year old Ateneo dream: a possible Ateneo de Manila Institute or School of Education.
The participants find time to pose for the obligatory group photo between conversations.
Last May 7, the Ateneo SALT Institute, together with the Loyola Schools Office of Placement and Career Services and the Ateneo EDGE, organized an afternoon PassTheSALT panel on Careers in the Academe and Further Studies Abroad at the JJ Atencio Lighthouse for New Learning
Professors Cuyegkeng, Sarmiento, Veric, and Canuday share about their experiences with students
In a lecture with faculty, students, and development workers at the Areté’s Loft, an acclaimed US professor introduced and deepened concepts that find their roots in Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy.
Dr. Antonia Darder speaks to a full crowd at the Areté’s fourth floor
Watch videos of the presentations from the International Conference on Educational Frontiers, a gathering of more than 300 educators, researchers, professors and teachers at the Ateneo de Manila University last October 3 to 6, 2018.
In this first video, McCann Worldgroup’s Gino Borromeo talks about findings on the youth.
In this second video, Education University of Hong Kong’s Dr. Christine Halse speaks about ways to create and foster intercultural education.
In this last video, the Society of Jesus’ higher education secretary Fr. Michael Garanzini talks about frontiers for Catholic and Jesuit schools.
All videos were done by the Ateneo de Manila University’s University Communications and Public Relations Office.
What better way to open the JJ Atencio Lighthouse for New Learning than by hosting a symposium on “Learning New”?
Last October 10, the Ateneo SALT Institute launched the JJ Atencio Lighthouse for New Learning at the Loft of the fourth floor of the Areté with an inaugural symposium that offered talks and panel discussions with art historians, teachers, entrepreneurs, and journalists.
The symposium culminated in a performance art, the blessing of the Lighthouse and the marker for a scholarship fund, and a program to celebrate the life of Dr. Rosario Bustos-Atencio.
Benefactor JJ Atencio welcomes the students to the inaugural symposium
This was how Fr. Michael Garanzini SJ started his plenary speech for the post-conference for Jesuit educational institutions at the International Conference on Educational Frontiers last October 6, 2018 at the Leong Hall Auditorium.
Fr. Garanzini is the Secretary for Higher Education of the Society of Jesus and had also been the President for 14 years of Loyola University Chicago.
Fr. Garanzini talks about new frontiers for Jesuit schools
Despite the changes in technologies and the world, one thing has not changed: “Being young is about finding yourself, your people, and your place in the world.”
On the first day of the International Conference on Educational Frontiers, Gino Borromeo of McCann Worldgroup spoke about the youth of today and shared the findings of their organization’s international study with 33,000 interviews and a sample covering those aged 16 to 30.
From the key trends and ideas that Gino discussed, we distill five important ideas. Note that there are significant country and cultural differences, and this is but a short–and necessarily limited–summary.
Gino Borromeo delivering the keynote lecture (Photo credits: Mr. Samuel Macagba III)
