Different types of learning environments

Classroom

I teach both campus students and distant students in my course. I use several different types of learning environments depending on the character of the activity. For lectures I often use a traditional classroom, with tables and chairs arranged in rows facing a whiteboard and a smartboard. This creates an active space in front of the participating students, as mentioned by Leijon (2016). The active space gives me the possibility to show experiments, write on the whiteboard, and use digital resources as a complement to the lecture. The classroom is though not ideal for large groups of students, as only students sitting on the first rows, fully can see presented experiments. It is clear that this type of setup directs all attention towards me as a teacher and indirectly limits students’ possibilities to interact with each other’s. When I took a photo from the back of the classroom I saw all the rows of chairs facing the whiteboard and the podium, it became apparent that the arrangement of the furniture’s says something of what to expect from those who enters the room. Students instantly become audiences who implicitly are expected to follow a certain speech pattern. How formal or informal such a speech pattern becomes, is mostly decided by the teacher. Based on my own experience I believe it is important to choose a suitable environment for each occasion, depending on what we as teachers want to accomplish, and what type of interaction we strive for. I also use the same type of classroom for more student-centered activities, like seminars and practical work. The tables and chairs are at such occasions rearranged, so that the students can interact and work together face to face.

Zoom

I have recently started to use the digital tool Zoom more frequently, together with my distant students. I think it is very user friendly and also stable compared to the previous platform Adobe Connect. I usually use two different cameras, the ordinary web camera and an additional camera that I use for writing and showing how to solve physics problems. Zoom, for me, build upon interaction. I have started to use a flipped classroom approach with these distant students, where I use prerecorded lectures that I expect students to watch before our meetings. I believe that this approach makes the students interact more, as they can ask questions based on the recorded lectures. The challenge for me as a teacher here becomes to see and interact with all students.