EdTech 2021 - The New World of Learning took place fully online, over three sessions spanning three weeks, allowing participants to combine it with their primary work responsibilities and providing sufficient time between the sessions for reflection and short assignments.
The first session, led by Nikos Mylonopoulos, took place on 20 October. It was focused around the challenges, expectations, experiences, and success factors in the new world of learning. We started with the key insight that it is neither technology nor location that makes the difference, but our preparedness to adapt our styles and methods to take advantage of the native capabilities of each learning modality, instead of attempting to replicate our long-standing teaching routines across different contexts. The aim of the first session was to open the mind to the possibilities of mixed and hybrid delivery by stimulating new thinking around presentation, performance, and the implementation of a multitude of teaching methods.
During active discussions, Nikos Mylonopoulos pointed out that better communication with the students results in better expectations, and that is as important as ever when it comes to hybrid teaching. As teachers, we need to clarify in advance what each group (online and onsite) can expect and make sure that online students are not just observers but full participants. To achieve that, he pointed out a few basic principles that truly should not be missed, such as slowing down the pace, increasing interactivity, accentuating gestures, and using online collaboration tools. As he says, even encouraging informal gossip between participants through the chat, can make a big difference when it comes to cultivating the relationships and sustaining the culture of the class.
In the second session, Kaja Prystupa-Rządca focused on innovating from online to hybrid teaching methods and gave us a 4-step instruction on how to do it: build easy-to-follow course structure, allocate ¾ of your time for students' assgnments, introduce a code of conduct and introduce more interactive formats based on current dillemas. Kaja also shared her own experience and examples of virtual collaboration and teaching, as well as led the participants through a peer-consulting exercise.
The third and the last session was led by Omar Luethi and was reserved for special advanced topics that the participants voted on, depending on their most pressing needs. Together with Kaja and Nikos, Omar took us thorough some of very practical samples on the topics of Online Exams, Productive Outcomes and Video Recording. The participants went into two rounds of discussions based on their preferences and finished the day strong with »Hack the Future of Business Education« breakout session. The participants were encouraged to rethink teaching and program design, let go of old habits, dare to innovate and step out of their comfort zones.
Highly interactive and engaging seminar was concluded with greeting words of CEEMAN President Danica Purg and ended on a high note with the following words of Omar Luethi: »Ideate and prototype fast. Don’t try to avoid or solve every single possible mishap before it even occurs. Improve along the way. Your network is rich of experiences, use it. THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION STARTS TODAY. WITH YOU!«
All seminar participants received a bonus session with Explain Everything whiteboard, where participants learned how to use this extremely powerful tool and received a free license to use until the end of the academic year. Each participant also embarked on a challenge to record a short video using the whiteboard, creating a “pitch” presentation of a teaching innovation.