This week, I gained valuable insights from both the lecture and Meghan. I hadn’t fully grasped the various types of modalities that could be used in the classroom; my perception was limited to face-to-face and online formats. However I now realize there is so much more. For example hybrid learning, blended learning, and online learning are all different.

I was curious what current teachers like and why they like it so I asked a few of my friends and here is some of their feedback:

Kartik – Inquiry Teacher at Oak and Orca Bioregional School.
– “Face to face is always best. I believe that their needs to be a strong connection and relationship between student and teacher. When learning is online it can be more challenging to build rapport with your students. That being said, online learning can allow you to access students who wouldn’t normally be able to learn from a teacher. For example, I teach some child on the gulf islands where they do not have access to an inquiry school.”

What Kartik said really resonated with me. In my personal experience I found teaching to the students in the brick and mortar school allowed for strong connections to be built and I could feel my students trusted me with their learning by them taking risks and asking lots of questions. I also had a few online students and I mostly had to rely on parents to be the liaison for the students learning. So it was difficult for me to really know how much the student was taking away from the lessons that I was assigning.

My friend Aachal is a teacher for University of San Diego and she values the online learning because it allows her to live here with her husband while teaching to students in the US. “If we didn’t have the option for online learning, then I would be out of a job! Online learning makes education more accessible!”

Overall, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to learning! Its remarkable that we’re at a point where learning can take on such diverse forms to truly cater to the unique needs of each student.