Episode 47: The Blueprint for a Smart Campus with Dr. Narine Hall, CEO at InSpace Proximity
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the pandemic of the last couple of years and the process of having to move from a traditional classroom experience to that of a Zoom one. There are plenty of anecdotes about 'Zoom fatigue' or 'Zoom bombing,' and numerous instances where students turn off their video to browse social media or even watch Netflix while a teacher is in the middle of explaining something. They're typically not able to do this in a physical classroom—or at least not as easily.
The bigger issue, however, is that just because a student is in front of a teacher in a classroom, that doesn't mean the student is being any more attentive, especially if the teacher isn't entertaining or interactive. Rather, the Zoom experience accentuates the problem of a non-engaging teacher, so there are probably some mixed trade-offs. It's been a year of growth, pushing boundaries, and seeing what we can do. As a result, educators have been trying different approaches and figuring things out while they navigate potentially uncharted territory. Keeping students engaged and inspired in a classroom requires a lot of technique, and since technology does a lot of the heavy lifting, it can feel constraining for a lot of teachers.
Keeping the Human Element in Mind
Dr. Narine Hall, co-founder and CEO at InSpace Proximity, started to feel like she was just teaching black squares during the adjustment period of Zoom learning, almost to the point that she contemplated quitting. Instead of quitting, she asked herself, "What if we forget everything that's out there and think from scratch? How do we build an environment where learning happens, where we can put students and teachers at the center, then evolve the platform around that, instead of trying to fit them into the technology that exists?" This was the foundation of InSpace Proximity.
When you're in a real classroom, in person, you can see all your students and their expressions, whether they're bored, excited, and so on. There's an interactivity that's included, such as social learning, emotional learning, and peer-to-peer learning. Project work and working in groups are extremely important for hands-on learning because students aren't just being active listeners, they're active participants as well. There's also the often-forgotten discussion before and after class. For example, before an exam, students might typically have quick discussions about where they are, what knowledge they can compare, and just overall wellness in general. Those little interactions that happen before and after class are important, but difficult to replicate in a Zoom classroom setting. From a teacher's perspective, the immediately noticeable component missing from a Zoom environment is the visibility into what's happening in the classroom. For example:
How are the students doing?
Are they actively participating or not?
Do they feel like they belong here?
In Dr. Hall's experience, when she initially began teaching virtually, the biggest problem was feeling like she wasn't a part of their learning experience. When students went into breakout rooms (splitting into separate Zoom rooms), she lost the overall awareness of what was happening among the students. Being able to see everybody who is in the classroom is important from a social perspective, not just for the teachers, but for the students as well. On the other hand, those small group discussions are necessary because it gives every student an individual opportunity to contribute, instead of just one person talking and everybody listening. What is the best way to go about combining those things?
Real World to Virtual
Dr. Hall's "aha" moment was taking the concepts that were happening in real classrooms and bringing them to virtual classrooms. That's when she got one of the ideas for InSpace Proximity: Everybody's group has a video circle, allowing the teacher to click and move around. They can go to a breakout room, come out, and have that ability to just seamlessly go back and forth. Every student is also visually seeing where everybody else is in the classroom, which puts them in the context of the classroom instead of just having three people meeting separately and having no idea what anybody else is doing. One of Dr. Hall's favorite parts is that students are doing group work, but also getting a little competitive. Having that dynamic in the classroom where a sort of healthy competition can be fostered is really important for encouraging learning.
In general, most students have already grown accustomed to technology. In addition to taking classes online, they pay their bills online, stay connected with their friends and family online, and shop online. Of course, some things are better done in person and there will always be systems in place for those people, but the future is becoming more and more digital. The entire campus should be digitized, not just individual classroom settings. A smart campus might include a virtual student union, a virtual cafeteria, a virtual water cooler area, or a virtual advising center. These currently visible gaps include a social and emotional component that pays dividends during a student's overall education experience.
Convenience and Community
One of the biggest benefits of online learning is the added flexibility. A lot of times, online learning can be completely asynchronous, and that level of flexibility is now a necessity because higher education appeals to people from all walks of life with unique circumstances and commitments. The main thing missing from a lot of it all is the community. One of the most exciting things about going to college in the traditional way is building your network and finding a community. From the online end, students are interacting with the content but not so much with people.
Education has changed a significant amount over the past few decades. It used to be that you would have to go to school to learn something because information was scarce. These days, students have very convenient access to Google and YouTube, as well as to professors who post recordings of their classes online, allowing anybody to go online and find the best lecture topic from the best professor on any topic. And now, the value of education is observing this overload of resources, then taking those resources and making them your own. That's going to continue to be the future of education, so having the tools to support, encourage, and elevate that is the key, whether it's online or in the classroom. It's the job of educators to be there with the technology, because nobody is going to want to take an online Zoom class. When you introduce an interactive experience that opens up doors that we haven't even knocked at before, the possibilities are unlimited.
Connect with Dr. Narine Hall: https://www.linkedin.com/in/narineworks/
Learn more about Inspace Proximity: https://www.inspace.chat/
Subscribe and listen to our podcast at IlluminateHigherEducation.com
--
This episode is brought to you by N2N’s Illuminate App, The iPaaS for Higher Education.
About N2N Services
Founded in 2010, N2N is committed to serving educational institutions and helping them figure out how to serve their students, faculty, and staff using the most innovative technologies and solutions available in the marketplace. Over the last decade, N2N has served over 300 academic institutions and enabled their student success journeys.
N2N Services Inc. is a leader in enterprise application integration and strategic advisory services for higher education, At N2N, we are committed to providing the highest quality solutions and collaboratively building student-centric solutions.
Learn more at https://illuminateapp.com/web/higher-education/
Subscribe and listen to more episodes at IlluminateHigherEducation.com