October 30, 2020 • 25 mins
This week, I discuss some of the common challenges that we face with remote teaching and learning. I delve into the challenges of fostering trust, communication, setting boundaries, and engaging in a lot of reflection, perspective-taking and empathy.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Heather Woods (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to the SEL in action
podcast, the podcast where wediscuss what social emotional
learning looks like ineducational and professional
settings. I'm your host, HeatherWoods. And on today's episode,
episode eight, we'll be talkingabout some of the challenges
that, you know, we're facingwith the current work from home
context and working remotely andlearning remotely during the
(00:27):
covid 19 pandemic. So, you know,working in remote teams and
virtual teams, or working fromhome, whatever we might call it,
if we're working away from ourprimary office or away from our
classrooms, you know, it'sbecoming more and more common in
the 21st century, but mostcertainly, it's become very,
very common with the currentpandemic. And so, you know,
(00:52):
we're having these virtualteams, which there are benefits
to it, employers are able tofind the best suited employees
from a much larger pool ofcandidates doesn't necessarily
have to be local anymore. Butyou know, there, there's also
the flexibility that workingfrom home oftens offers. And,
(01:13):
you know, there's less thantravel costs and potentially
improved work life balance,according to some research. But
before we jump into kind of thisdiscussion, I encourage you to
kind of think about, you know,what are some of the challenges
and benefits that you'venoticed, with remote work and
(01:33):
with remote teaching, whether,you know, it's, it's something
you're experiencing now, orsomething that you're quite well
versed in and have beenexperiencing for a while, in
your professional or educationalsetting. And so one of the like,
really big aspects of remote,you know, teaching and learning
(01:54):
that I hear come up again, andagain, has to do with this idea
of trust, when you're, you know,engaging with an audience
online, whether it's yourstudents or your colleagues,
trust is facilitated in a muchdifferent way. So, you know,
it's a huge factor that oftengets overlooked. And how do you
build that trustingrelationship? When you know, we
(02:18):
can't see each other, we can'tsee the work that people are
putting in. People can't see howcaring or organized and smart we
are, how can we trust our teamand foster our team and our
students trust in ourselves. Andso research is showing that, you
know, we need opportunities todemonstrate reliability. And in
(02:41):
previous podcast with JulieDick, you know, she talked about
that, how she really went out ofher way to make sure that her
superiors knew that she wasreliable and could take on this
extra role, when she was tryingto engage in building her career
within her company. And we needto show that we're reliable at
(03:03):
work, we're reliable, in allsettings, but also there's this
sense that we also need todemonstrate vulnerability, and
to show empathy. So it'sstriking that balance to build
that trust that we're reliable,but we're also human, you know,
we have feelings, we'revulnerable things happen. And
then being able to show thatempathy and respect for others
(03:26):
that other people are also humanand need, maybe need some
support and grace. So trustreally comes from demonstrating
what we know and beingtransparent about what we don't
know. And then providing thatopportunity for others to do the
same. And then this provides anopportunity for discussions and
(03:48):
and really opening the room asto what to expect and the
ability to set realisticexpectations, and, and goals for
the group in an online setting,and one of the probably biggest
pieces of that's changed withkind of this work from home and
working remotely learningremotely, is the shift in
communication. Communication onany given day is a complex
(04:11):
challenge. So there's a shift inthe type of communication that's
happening. You know, we're usingemail phones, you know, chats,
like instant messaging, and likethings like that much more
frequently. And then with thatcomes an added space for
miscommunication andmisinterpretation. And so
relying kind of on these textbased communication, or perhaps
(04:34):
a voice only communication hasthe potential to be
misunderstood. There's a lack oftone, there's a lack of body
language, both from theindividual like from both ends
of the the conversation, righthave the individuals engaged in
this discussion. And so first,there's that lack of body
language and tone from thespeaker. And research has found
(04:55):
that texts and emails tend to beinterpreted more negatively then
in person or through voice orvideo communication, you know,
and that's why we've gotemoticons, although maybe not
acceptable in some professionalsettings, but they can really
help to set the tone of acommunication. We can all think
of a time when our sibling orpartner or a friend texted just
(05:17):
k instead of Ok, like, o k, or Ok a y, you know, and we
immediately jumped to thinkingthat perhaps we've done
something or said somethingwrong, you know, if there's no
kind of exclamation, or anythinggoing along with this. So just
being conscious of this, wereally have to be extra self
(05:38):
aware of how we're conveyingmessages how the tone that we're
using through text basedmediums. I often joke with
students sometimes that using anapplication like Grammarly or
something helps to identifytone, because it'll assign like
a an emoticon to the tone ofyour message that you're
sending, so that you're takingthe time to reflect on how
(06:01):
things are being said. And, youknow, how are you conveying your
ideas and information throughthis less expressive mode of
communication for making apresentation like is if we're
sharing our ideas andinformation in kind of a bland
way, you know, are peopleengaging with it the same way
that they would be if we were,you know, face to face and
(06:23):
presenting it. And you could seethe dynamic movement and
embodied presentation. But onthe flip side of that, there's
also a lack of body language andtone from the listener, or the
receiver of the message. So inperson, we can generally tell if
students or a team member,understanding what we're saying,
by their body language, youknow, if there's a furrowed
(06:45):
brow, or enthusiastic nodding,you know, you can get that
feedback from somebody andeither address a concern or, you
know, feel encouraged to keepgoing. And so we have to create
space for what is already achallenging task and asking for
clarification, or asking forhelp and creating those pauses,
(07:06):
and invitations for thatfeedback that maybe you aren't
seeing, you know, and if youknow, text, and email is such a
problem, there's obviously theother side where we could say,
well, like, let's just go toVideo conferencing for
everything.
But you know, particularlyduring the pandemic, we're
(07:27):
starting to see more and morethat, you know, we're overdoing
the video conferencing, and it'sjust, you know, there, there's
zoom fatigue, as some people maycall it, and then how we convey
messages, you know, through avideo chat is still a little bit
different, but having to havesomebody sit there in front of
their computer all day, on azoom call, like there is
(07:48):
something going on that requiresquite a bit more cognitive load.
And it's, it's tiring forpeople. And so it's really
striking that balance betweenhow do we engage in zoom calls,
but also, you know, find thatbalance between some other modes
of communication that are maybemore text based or, you know,
phone calls or something likethat. And, you know, we've got
(08:13):
the the flexibility with remoteworking. And with that, comes
some communication issues inamongst itself, remote workers
can work when and where theywant to, in some cases, and how
does that influence kind ofteamwork or collaboration,
leadership? You know, there's acertain level of we mentioned,
(08:34):
the pros being that, you know,employees or collaborators or
guest speakers, even in a classcould come from anywhere in the
world. It really breaks down theremote working really breaks
down that barrier of kind ofproximity. But with that comes a
need for cultural and geographicawareness. Do we know how other
(08:56):
groups from around the worldwould prefer to communicate and
how and when, for example, inNorth America, we tend to be a
little more unstructured in ourcommunication. However,
Europeans prefer more formalmeetings and plans for
communication.
And the one challenge that comesup time and time again, is what
(09:17):
I like to call the thewatercooler challenge. So not
with everyone working remotely.
And separately, you know, whathappens to the ideas, the
learning the informal verbalmemos that happened around the
watercooler in the break room.
So coming from like acommunities of practice
perspective, in the kind oftheoretical lens, those are
(09:42):
spaces where information andlearning occurs, people can
share their knowledge and whatthey've been learning about and
how they do things. And thenother people can take that into
their own practice, that sort ofthing. And so suddenly, that's
not happening anymore. And Youknow it, like the watercooler
(10:04):
example, kind of allows forknowledge and best practices to
be shared informally, andcreates a space where employees
are more comfortable and betterable to understand what other
people do within theirorganizations. And so this
information then really has aninfluence on how they work with
their colleagues and what theyexpect. So for example, you
(10:24):
know, in my role as a PhDcandidate, I may meet colleagues
in the hall who work inadministration, they could
mention a process that's moreefficient if I drop off a form
directly to them, or how to fillout a form even though it you
know, it may there's like justthis hidden knowledge that is
(10:44):
around that could be gettingfrom different people within
campus. It's not formallypresented anywhere, but it's
something that I can kind ofshare with other graduate
students or that sort of thing.
It's a pretty simplisticexample. But hopefully, you get
the point.
And, you know, the next kind ofarea, I think that's a concern
(11:06):
for remote learning. Andteaching is just support, you
know, working at a distance withyour team members or students,
trying to find ways to supportyour team and colleagues becomes
much more difficult, you're nolonger able to see when they may
be struggling or notice, youknow, when they've missed
understood an idea. And, as withthe classroom, in remote work
(11:30):
and learning settings, unlesssomeone tells you they don't
understand or are strugglingwith something, you're not going
to see when to step in, youknow, you're not going to see
that person rubbing theirtemples, as they're trying to
like struggle through something,or, you know, putting their head
down for a second, or they'retrying to grapple with
something. So we need to find away to create space for these
(11:54):
individuals, where they're ableto identify what they don't know
or need help with, and beconfident in asking for that
support. So whether that'screating like a chat room that's
more informal, or specificallyabout support, that sort of
thing. And this confidenceincludes not only their self
(12:15):
confidence, and being able toask for the support, and knowing
that it's okay to not knowsomething, but it's also the
confidence in their employeesthat they're not going to be
criticized for not knowingsomething.
And one of the next pointsthat'll bring up is kind of the
isolation that comes up withworking remotely. And I mean,
(12:40):
I'm sure many of us haveexperienced it through the
pandemic. But, you know, one ofthe biggest challenges for
online learning and working aspart of a remote team can be
this isolation, it can beincredibly lonely. One thing
that I hear a lot from teachers,right, in talking about my
dissertation topic, and socialemotional learning is that
(13:04):
during a crisis, this is thebiggest time to kind of check in
with students and colleagues andtry to build that community.
It's not easy. And you know, asI've mentioned, you know,
setting these things up to makesure that people feel included
and safe are things that reallykind of, we have to struggle
(13:28):
through. And many times have tochange our way of thinking, and
be much more aware of how we'recreating those spaces now that
they're not in person. And so,you know, how do we kind of
balance the two much videobeing, you know, exhausting with
trying to create this community,with your classroom or your
(13:49):
team? I suggested, some of theresearch suggests that using
message rooms, like a slack, orif you have something built into
your platform, is a great way tocreate channels for sharing
knowledge about work and schoolrelated things. And having a
(14:10):
space aside from that for moreinformal conversations, where
maybe colleagues and studentscan support one another in a
more social way, and then youknow, having a video call that
is maybe just at a regularlyscheduled time, and just for
people to have coffee and chatwith one another. So for
(14:30):
example, I've opened up myoffice hours every other week, I
do a open office hour, whichincludes, I call it a brunch,
anyone can come from my course.
And we just sit there and chatas a group about whatever
they're struggling within thecourse and I may take more of a
backseat role and let otherskind of give their input and
support one another indeveloping their research
(14:53):
project or whatever they mightbe working on. And then finally,
Think checking in. So checkingin individually with people or
as a group, it's not onlyimportant just to check on their
well being, but check on thewell being of the class or the
group, do kind of a survey ofhow people are feeling and get a
(15:16):
sense of your things that maybecould help or maybe what people
need in the time of workingremotely, on a fairly regular
basis.
And then one thing I've noticed,in working from home is, the
boundaries that require arerequired to be set, it's
(15:38):
definitely a little bitdifferent. One of the most often
cited kind of challenges is theability to set boundaries
between work time and personaltime. And so, you know, we can
see that in the research andjust our daily lives that we we
(15:58):
know that this has been achallenge for remote workers for
even last 20 years or so. Andindividuals mentioned that they
struggled kind of shut off fromwork. And so often they're
working into what should bepersonal or family time. And
particularly right now, with thetechnological advancements,
we're connected to our laptops,or our phones kind of
(16:19):
constantly, which makes us feelperhaps particularly as leaders
that we need to engage orrespond to, even outside of work
hours. Often teachers right noware citing that they're, you
know, just responding to emailswell into the night and on
weekends. And yeah, so havingthat technology is a boundary
that needs to be established to,you know, protect our time. And
(16:44):
so for educators, or leaders whohave team members around the
world, this is again, Furthercomplicating things, because
we're in different time zones.
And so we're striving forefficiency and creating a
supportive climate. And then itgoes back to this communicate,
communication and clarifyingwhat the expectations are and
what the availability of peopleis. And so while research is
(17:04):
suggesting that remote workershave an improved work life
balance, it's also important tonote that these boundaries need
to be set into place to set timeaside for that social and family
time. Um, for instance, there'slike, this lingering assumption
that if you're working fromhome, you're always available.
(17:25):
And people may call you or askyou to do favors during the time
that you've set aside forworking. So it kind of goes both
ways where people may think thatyour time is too flexible,
because you're working fromhome. And so they may ask you to
do things outside of work duringyour set aside work time. And
then so it's kind of like thereverse. And, you know, there
(17:48):
may be expectations from seniormembers about expecting you to
work outside of your time thatyou've set aside for work. So it
kind of is this fluid thing. Sosetting those boundaries is
very, very important anddifficult. And so one important
point to kind of think aboutthough, is when we're critically
(18:11):
thinking about this situation isif we're in a social or family
setting, where maybe bothparents are working from home,
who's responsible for childcare,and what perceptions might go
along with, for example, themother working from home, and
kind of the, the ensuing kind ofsnowball effect of those
(18:31):
assumptions or expectations ofwho is doing, what role and how
you navigate that, I thinkthat's really come to light with
a lot of the media articles thatI've been seen recently about
mothers particularly arestruggling during the pandemic,
but with working from home andbalancing the work and family
life.
(18:54):
And so specifically toeducation, I want to think
about, have you think about alittle bit about your online
education experiences, if youhave any, and what those
challenges might have been. Solearning online, and in higher
ed, like post secondaryeducation, college university,
and high school isn'tnecessarily a new concept. It
(19:16):
allows for students to be ableto access education no matter
where they are, and without theadditional cost of potentially
moving for school. I know it'squite common in Newfoundland,
for example, for students inhigh school to do majority of
their studies online just due tolocation and being in remote
locales. However, there is kindof like this steep learning
(19:40):
curve, right that that happenswith the different digital
technologies. You've gotdifferent learning management
systems, you've got to engage ina higher level of time
management, and then feelings ofisolation again, come through
here. And so there's also thewhole asynchronous versus
synchronous versus high flexdebate. You know, there's just
(20:02):
various ways that we can presentinformation online for learning
purposes. I mean, one, onepositive, is have that
flexibility to work around yourschedule if you're doing courses
online. But again, it comes backto that boundary issue, right.
And so there's the synchronousversus asynchronous debate. And,
(20:24):
you know, there's the challengesof communication. And it's
really at the heart of kind of alot of these barriers is being
able to communicate, but thenalso being able to communicate
your expectations andavailability and values in terms
of what you are envisioning foryour online or distance learning
(20:48):
and working as a team. And sohow are we communicating and
engaging our students andmeeting their needs for learning
within their schedules? Well,asynchronous is providing that
flexibility. So that's, youknow, of course, it's posted at
the start of the week, thestudents can work through it on
their own time. There's no lifecomponent that they can work
(21:12):
through at their own pace. It'snot ideal for all situations,
for example, skills basedlearning and counseling, where
you need to practice that with apeer. And then, you know,
there's also there's research onthe hybrid mixed, which has
worked well, which, you know,there's synchronous or live
(21:33):
interactions, and then there's,you know, facilitated
discussions kind ofasynchronously for those that
are not able to attend, I willput in the show notes, a kind of
quick infographic that I madeabout Hy-flex learning, and this
kind of hybrid model where youcan try to meet the needs of
both the students who want thestructure of a synchronous class
(21:56):
and attending live. But then forthose that can't attend, there's
an asynchronous option for them.
So it's a really interestingdynamic. And I think there's a
lot of social emotionalcompetencies that, you know, are
facilitated or taken intoconsideration with a high flex
model. So maybe that will be anepisode on its own at one point,
(22:18):
you know, and in withineducation, there's often this
kind of idea about a one sizefits all approach. And so this
has always been a concern ineducation, but particularly in
online education. You know, weknow from teaching and physical
classrooms that not everybodyengages with the content in the
same way, or demonstrates theirlearning in the same way. And
(22:42):
so, you know, how do wedifferentiate learning in an
online setting? And so,differentiation, online learning
relies on creating community andfrequent formative feedback. So
it does require quite a bit moreengagement from the professor or
teaching team, and reallyproviding opportunities for
(23:02):
students to make links to theirown interests. And, you know, so
that there's engagement and anopportunity for them to create a
deeper connection to the contentthat they're learning. And so,
yeah, I think there's quite afew considerations regarding
(23:23):
social emotional competencies.
You know, there's a selfawareness that's needed, what
our expectations are, how we'dlike to work, you know, what our
expectations are of others,there's the social awareness of
knowing how your other teammembers are going to interact
with you. Communication andrelationship building is huge
and facilitating trust andfinding ways to communicate that
(23:44):
are clear and convey the sameemotion that you could convey in
person, it definitely takes somework. I mean, there's just that
natural tendency to for negativeattribution when reading text
based messages. And so you know,we do have to go a little bit
out of our way and be aware andwork on those communication,
(24:10):
those nonverbal communicationskills, those written
communication skills, and, youknow, it requires a lot of, I
think, empathy and perspectivetaking. It definitely has
heightened kind of these aren'tnew concepts to leadership or
teaching, but I think there's agreater emphasis now on them. So
yeah, I hope that, you know, youfound some interesting things to
(24:34):
think about, and I encourage youto share your thoughts. Maybe
you have some solutions, I'lldefinitely be sharing some
resources through social mediaabout,
you know, how we can kind ofmitigate some of these
challenges, because I don't wantto leave you with just the
challenges and no solutions. ButI think that is all for today,
(24:58):
and I really appreciate youtaking The time to listen. So
you have been listening to theSEL in Action podcast. I'm your
host Heather Woods. And, again,thank you for taking the time to
listen. If you have any commentsor thoughts, please feel free to
leave a comment on the episodewebpage or engage with us
(25:18):
through Instagram or Twitter.
It's sel.in action. And thewebsite is SEL-inAction.com.
And, again, thank you forjoining and we'll talk to you
next time.
Hello, and welcome to the SEL in action
podcast, the podcast where wediscuss what social emotional
learning looks like ineducational and professional
settings. I'm your host, HeatherWoods. And on today's episode,
episode eight, we'll be talkingabout some of the challenges
that, you know, we're facingwith the current work from home
context and working remotely andlearning remotely during the
(00:27):
covid 19 pandemic. So, you know,working in remote teams and
virtual teams, or working fromhome, whatever we might call it,
if we're working away from ourprimary office or away from our
classrooms, you know, it'sbecoming more and more common in
the 21st century, but mostcertainly, it's become very,
very common with the currentpandemic. And so, you know,
(00:52):
we're having these virtualteams, which there are benefits
to it, employers are able tofind the best suited employees
from a much larger pool ofcandidates doesn't necessarily
have to be local anymore. Butyou know, there, there's also
the flexibility that workingfrom home oftens offers. And,
(01:13):
you know, there's less thantravel costs and potentially
improved work life balance,according to some research. But
before we jump into kind of thisdiscussion, I encourage you to
kind of think about, you know,what are some of the challenges
and benefits that you'venoticed, with remote work and
(01:33):
with remote teaching, whether,you know, it's, it's something
you're experiencing now, orsomething that you're quite well
versed in and have beenexperiencing for a while, in
your professional or educationalsetting. And so one of the like,
really big aspects of remote,you know, teaching and learning
(01:54):
that I hear come up again, andagain, has to do with this idea
of trust, when you're, you know,engaging with an audience
online, whether it's yourstudents or your colleagues,
trust is facilitated in a muchdifferent way. So, you know,
it's a huge factor that oftengets overlooked. And how do you
build that trustingrelationship? When you know, we
(02:18):
can't see each other, we can'tsee the work that people are
putting in. People can't see howcaring or organized and smart we
are, how can we trust our teamand foster our team and our
students trust in ourselves. Andso research is showing that, you
know, we need opportunities todemonstrate reliability. And in
(02:41):
previous podcast with JulieDick, you know, she talked about
that, how she really went out ofher way to make sure that her
superiors knew that she wasreliable and could take on this
extra role, when she was tryingto engage in building her career
within her company. And we needto show that we're reliable at
(03:03):
work, we're reliable, in allsettings, but also there's this
sense that we also need todemonstrate vulnerability, and
to show empathy. So it'sstriking that balance to build
that trust that we're reliable,but we're also human, you know,
we have feelings, we'revulnerable things happen. And
then being able to show thatempathy and respect for others
(03:26):
that other people are also humanand need, maybe need some
support and grace. So trustreally comes from demonstrating
what we know and beingtransparent about what we don't
know. And then providing thatopportunity for others to do the
same. And then this provides anopportunity for discussions and
(03:48):
and really opening the room asto what to expect and the
ability to set realisticexpectations, and, and goals for
the group in an online setting,and one of the probably biggest
pieces of that's changed withkind of this work from home and
working remotely learningremotely, is the shift in
communication. Communication onany given day is a complex
(04:11):
challenge. So there's a shift inthe type of communication that's
happening. You know, we're usingemail phones, you know, chats,
like instant messaging, and likethings like that much more
frequently. And then with thatcomes an added space for
miscommunication andmisinterpretation. And so
relying kind of on these textbased communication, or perhaps
(04:34):
a voice only communication hasthe potential to be
misunderstood. There's a lack oftone, there's a lack of body
language, both from theindividual like from both ends
of the the conversation, righthave the individuals engaged in
this discussion. And so first,there's that lack of body
language and tone from thespeaker. And research has found
(04:55):
that texts and emails tend to beinterpreted more negatively then
in person or through voice orvideo communication, you know,
and that's why we've gotemoticons, although maybe not
acceptable in some professionalsettings, but they can really
help to set the tone of acommunication. We can all think
of a time when our sibling orpartner or a friend texted just
(05:17):
k instead of Ok, like, o k, or Ok a y, you know, and we
immediately jumped to thinkingthat perhaps we've done
something or said somethingwrong, you know, if there's no
kind of exclamation, or anythinggoing along with this. So just
being conscious of this, wereally have to be extra self
(05:38):
aware of how we're conveyingmessages how the tone that we're
using through text basedmediums. I often joke with
students sometimes that using anapplication like Grammarly or
something helps to identifytone, because it'll assign like
a an emoticon to the tone ofyour message that you're
sending, so that you're takingthe time to reflect on how
(06:01):
things are being said. And, youknow, how are you conveying your
ideas and information throughthis less expressive mode of
communication for making apresentation like is if we're
sharing our ideas andinformation in kind of a bland
way, you know, are peopleengaging with it the same way
that they would be if we were,you know, face to face and
(06:23):
presenting it. And you could seethe dynamic movement and
embodied presentation. But onthe flip side of that, there's
also a lack of body language andtone from the listener, or the
receiver of the message. So inperson, we can generally tell if
students or a team member,understanding what we're saying,
by their body language, youknow, if there's a furrowed
(06:45):
brow, or enthusiastic nodding,you know, you can get that
feedback from somebody andeither address a concern or, you
know, feel encouraged to keepgoing. And so we have to create
space for what is already achallenging task and asking for
clarification, or asking forhelp and creating those pauses,
(07:06):
and invitations for thatfeedback that maybe you aren't
seeing, you know, and if youknow, text, and email is such a
problem, there's obviously theother side where we could say,
well, like, let's just go toVideo conferencing for
everything.
But you know, particularlyduring the pandemic, we're
(07:27):
starting to see more and morethat, you know, we're overdoing
the video conferencing, and it'sjust, you know, there, there's
zoom fatigue, as some people maycall it, and then how we convey
messages, you know, through avideo chat is still a little bit
different, but having to havesomebody sit there in front of
their computer all day, on azoom call, like there is
(07:48):
something going on that requiresquite a bit more cognitive load.
And it's, it's tiring forpeople. And so it's really
striking that balance betweenhow do we engage in zoom calls,
but also, you know, find thatbalance between some other modes
of communication that are maybemore text based or, you know,
phone calls or something likethat. And, you know, we've got
(08:13):
the the flexibility with remoteworking. And with that, comes
some communication issues inamongst itself, remote workers
can work when and where theywant to, in some cases, and how
does that influence kind ofteamwork or collaboration,
leadership? You know, there's acertain level of we mentioned,
(08:34):
the pros being that, you know,employees or collaborators or
guest speakers, even in a classcould come from anywhere in the
world. It really breaks down theremote working really breaks
down that barrier of kind ofproximity. But with that comes a
need for cultural and geographicawareness. Do we know how other
(08:56):
groups from around the worldwould prefer to communicate and
how and when, for example, inNorth America, we tend to be a
little more unstructured in ourcommunication. However,
Europeans prefer more formalmeetings and plans for
communication.
And the one challenge that comesup time and time again, is what
(09:17):
I like to call the thewatercooler challenge. So not
with everyone working remotely.
And separately, you know, whathappens to the ideas, the
learning the informal verbalmemos that happened around the
watercooler in the break room.
So coming from like acommunities of practice
perspective, in the kind oftheoretical lens, those are
(09:42):
spaces where information andlearning occurs, people can
share their knowledge and whatthey've been learning about and
how they do things. And thenother people can take that into
their own practice, that sort ofthing. And so suddenly, that's
not happening anymore. And Youknow it, like the watercooler
(10:04):
example, kind of allows forknowledge and best practices to
be shared informally, andcreates a space where employees
are more comfortable and betterable to understand what other
people do within theirorganizations. And so this
information then really has aninfluence on how they work with
their colleagues and what theyexpect. So for example, you
(10:24):
know, in my role as a PhDcandidate, I may meet colleagues
in the hall who work inadministration, they could
mention a process that's moreefficient if I drop off a form
directly to them, or how to fillout a form even though it you
know, it may there's like justthis hidden knowledge that is
(10:44):
around that could be gettingfrom different people within
campus. It's not formallypresented anywhere, but it's
something that I can kind ofshare with other graduate
students or that sort of thing.
It's a pretty simplisticexample. But hopefully, you get
the point.
And, you know, the next kind ofarea, I think that's a concern
(11:06):
for remote learning. Andteaching is just support, you
know, working at a distance withyour team members or students,
trying to find ways to supportyour team and colleagues becomes
much more difficult, you're nolonger able to see when they may
be struggling or notice, youknow, when they've missed
understood an idea. And, as withthe classroom, in remote work
(11:30):
and learning settings, unlesssomeone tells you they don't
understand or are strugglingwith something, you're not going
to see when to step in, youknow, you're not going to see
that person rubbing theirtemples, as they're trying to
like struggle through something,or, you know, putting their head
down for a second, or they'retrying to grapple with
something. So we need to find away to create space for these
(11:54):
individuals, where they're ableto identify what they don't know
or need help with, and beconfident in asking for that
support. So whether that'screating like a chat room that's
more informal, or specificallyabout support, that sort of
thing. And this confidenceincludes not only their self
(12:15):
confidence, and being able toask for the support, and knowing
that it's okay to not knowsomething, but it's also the
confidence in their employeesthat they're not going to be
criticized for not knowingsomething.
And one of the next pointsthat'll bring up is kind of the
isolation that comes up withworking remotely. And I mean,
(12:40):
I'm sure many of us haveexperienced it through the
pandemic. But, you know, one ofthe biggest challenges for
online learning and working aspart of a remote team can be
this isolation, it can beincredibly lonely. One thing
that I hear a lot from teachers,right, in talking about my
dissertation topic, and socialemotional learning is that
(13:04):
during a crisis, this is thebiggest time to kind of check in
with students and colleagues andtry to build that community.
It's not easy. And you know, asI've mentioned, you know,
setting these things up to makesure that people feel included
and safe are things that reallykind of, we have to struggle
(13:28):
through. And many times have tochange our way of thinking, and
be much more aware of how we'recreating those spaces now that
they're not in person. And so,you know, how do we kind of
balance the two much videobeing, you know, exhausting with
trying to create this community,with your classroom or your
(13:49):
team? I suggested, some of theresearch suggests that using
message rooms, like a slack, orif you have something built into
your platform, is a great way tocreate channels for sharing
knowledge about work and schoolrelated things. And having a
(14:10):
space aside from that for moreinformal conversations, where
maybe colleagues and studentscan support one another in a
more social way, and then youknow, having a video call that
is maybe just at a regularlyscheduled time, and just for
people to have coffee and chatwith one another. So for
(14:30):
example, I've opened up myoffice hours every other week, I
do a open office hour, whichincludes, I call it a brunch,
anyone can come from my course.
And we just sit there and chatas a group about whatever
they're struggling within thecourse and I may take more of a
backseat role and let otherskind of give their input and
support one another indeveloping their research
(14:53):
project or whatever they mightbe working on. And then finally,
Think checking in. So checkingin individually with people or
as a group, it's not onlyimportant just to check on their
well being, but check on thewell being of the class or the
group, do kind of a survey ofhow people are feeling and get a
(15:16):
sense of your things that maybecould help or maybe what people
need in the time of workingremotely, on a fairly regular
basis.
And then one thing I've noticed,in working from home is, the
boundaries that require arerequired to be set, it's
(15:38):
definitely a little bitdifferent. One of the most often
cited kind of challenges is theability to set boundaries
between work time and personaltime. And so, you know, we can
see that in the research andjust our daily lives that we we
(15:58):
know that this has been achallenge for remote workers for
even last 20 years or so. Andindividuals mentioned that they
struggled kind of shut off fromwork. And so often they're
working into what should bepersonal or family time. And
particularly right now, with thetechnological advancements,
we're connected to our laptops,or our phones kind of
(16:19):
constantly, which makes us feelperhaps particularly as leaders
that we need to engage orrespond to, even outside of work
hours. Often teachers right noware citing that they're, you
know, just responding to emailswell into the night and on
weekends. And yeah, so havingthat technology is a boundary
that needs to be established to,you know, protect our time. And
(16:44):
so for educators, or leaders whohave team members around the
world, this is again, Furthercomplicating things, because
we're in different time zones.
And so we're striving forefficiency and creating a
supportive climate. And then itgoes back to this communicate,
communication and clarifyingwhat the expectations are and
what the availability of peopleis. And so while research is
(17:04):
suggesting that remote workershave an improved work life
balance, it's also important tonote that these boundaries need
to be set into place to set timeaside for that social and family
time. Um, for instance, there'slike, this lingering assumption
that if you're working fromhome, you're always available.
(17:25):
And people may call you or askyou to do favors during the time
that you've set aside forworking. So it kind of goes both
ways where people may think thatyour time is too flexible,
because you're working fromhome. And so they may ask you to
do things outside of work duringyour set aside work time. And
then so it's kind of like thereverse. And, you know, there
(17:48):
may be expectations from seniormembers about expecting you to
work outside of your time thatyou've set aside for work. So it
kind of is this fluid thing. Sosetting those boundaries is
very, very important anddifficult. And so one important
point to kind of think aboutthough, is when we're critically
(18:11):
thinking about this situation isif we're in a social or family
setting, where maybe bothparents are working from home,
who's responsible for childcare,and what perceptions might go
along with, for example, themother working from home, and
kind of the, the ensuing kind ofsnowball effect of those
(18:31):
assumptions or expectations ofwho is doing, what role and how
you navigate that, I thinkthat's really come to light with
a lot of the media articles thatI've been seen recently about
mothers particularly arestruggling during the pandemic,
but with working from home andbalancing the work and family
life.
(18:54):
And so specifically toeducation, I want to think
about, have you think about alittle bit about your online
education experiences, if youhave any, and what those
challenges might have been. Solearning online, and in higher
ed, like post secondaryeducation, college university,
and high school isn'tnecessarily a new concept. It
(19:16):
allows for students to be ableto access education no matter
where they are, and without theadditional cost of potentially
moving for school. I know it'squite common in Newfoundland,
for example, for students inhigh school to do majority of
their studies online just due tolocation and being in remote
locales. However, there is kindof like this steep learning
(19:40):
curve, right that that happenswith the different digital
technologies. You've gotdifferent learning management
systems, you've got to engage ina higher level of time
management, and then feelings ofisolation again, come through
here. And so there's also thewhole asynchronous versus
synchronous versus high flexdebate. You know, there's just
(20:02):
various ways that we can presentinformation online for learning
purposes. I mean, one, onepositive, is have that
flexibility to work around yourschedule if you're doing courses
online. But again, it comes backto that boundary issue, right.
And so there's the synchronousversus asynchronous debate. And,
(20:24):
you know, there's the challengesof communication. And it's
really at the heart of kind of alot of these barriers is being
able to communicate, but thenalso being able to communicate
your expectations andavailability and values in terms
of what you are envisioning foryour online or distance learning
(20:48):
and working as a team. And sohow are we communicating and
engaging our students andmeeting their needs for learning
within their schedules? Well,asynchronous is providing that
flexibility. So that's, youknow, of course, it's posted at
the start of the week, thestudents can work through it on
their own time. There's no lifecomponent that they can work
(21:12):
through at their own pace. It'snot ideal for all situations,
for example, skills basedlearning and counseling, where
you need to practice that with apeer. And then, you know,
there's also there's research onthe hybrid mixed, which has
worked well, which, you know,there's synchronous or live
(21:33):
interactions, and then there's,you know, facilitated
discussions kind ofasynchronously for those that
are not able to attend, I willput in the show notes, a kind of
quick infographic that I madeabout Hy-flex learning, and this
kind of hybrid model where youcan try to meet the needs of
both the students who want thestructure of a synchronous class
(21:56):
and attending live. But then forthose that can't attend, there's
an asynchronous option for them.
So it's a really interestingdynamic. And I think there's a
lot of social emotionalcompetencies that, you know, are
facilitated or taken intoconsideration with a high flex
model. So maybe that will be anepisode on its own at one point,
(22:18):
you know, and in withineducation, there's often this
kind of idea about a one sizefits all approach. And so this
has always been a concern ineducation, but particularly in
online education. You know, weknow from teaching and physical
classrooms that not everybodyengages with the content in the
same way, or demonstrates theirlearning in the same way. And
(22:42):
so, you know, how do wedifferentiate learning in an
online setting? And so,differentiation, online learning
relies on creating community andfrequent formative feedback. So
it does require quite a bit moreengagement from the professor or
teaching team, and reallyproviding opportunities for
(23:02):
students to make links to theirown interests. And, you know, so
that there's engagement and anopportunity for them to create a
deeper connection to the contentthat they're learning. And so,
yeah, I think there's quite afew considerations regarding
(23:23):
social emotional competencies.
You know, there's a selfawareness that's needed, what
our expectations are, how we'dlike to work, you know, what our
expectations are of others,there's the social awareness of
knowing how your other teammembers are going to interact
with you. Communication andrelationship building is huge
and facilitating trust andfinding ways to communicate that
(23:44):
are clear and convey the sameemotion that you could convey in
person, it definitely takes somework. I mean, there's just that
natural tendency to for negativeattribution when reading text
based messages. And so you know,we do have to go a little bit
out of our way and be aware andwork on those communication,
(24:10):
those nonverbal communicationskills, those written
communication skills, and, youknow, it requires a lot of, I
think, empathy and perspectivetaking. It definitely has
heightened kind of these aren'tnew concepts to leadership or
teaching, but I think there's agreater emphasis now on them. So
yeah, I hope that, you know, youfound some interesting things to
(24:34):
think about, and I encourage youto share your thoughts. Maybe
you have some solutions, I'lldefinitely be sharing some
resources through social mediaabout,
you know, how we can kind ofmitigate some of these
challenges, because I don't wantto leave you with just the
challenges and no solutions. ButI think that is all for today,
(24:58):
and I really appreciate youtaking The time to listen. So
you have been listening to theSEL in Action podcast. I'm your
host Heather Woods. And, again,thank you for taking the time to
listen. If you have any commentsor thoughts, please feel free to
leave a comment on the episodewebpage or engage with us
(25:18):
through Instagram or Twitter.
It's sel.in action. And thewebsite is SEL-inAction.com.
And, again, thank you forjoining and we'll talk to you
next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!