Technology to Teach - part I

Kelly McConkie Stewart's first response to her experience teaching remotely was, "Teaching remotely reminds me of the Suzuki philosophy of the triangle! How would we do this without marvelous parents on the other side helping the lesson go smoothly?! Last week after an entire week of remote lessons I was thankful for EVERY parent on the other end facilitating lessons."

On the cello faculty at the Gifted Music School, Stewart has begun teaching all of her cello students through Whereby, an online face-to-face chat room that the school has been using for nearly all of its online teaching for the last two weeks since the school's temporary campus closure. In two weeks, she has taught nearly forty-four lessons to twenty-two students, exclusively through Whereby! She says, though, she prefers ZOOM for the quality.  

Stewart says it's fascinating to see what differences you make, as a teacher, to ensure a productive use of time. "We've gotten better as a musical community to see progress without halting." 

Through the computer or phone, you can't talk at the same time, and it requires intent listening. Lessons are quickly brought down to "one-point". Instead of covering multiple topics and ideas, Stewart has noticed a flow when she focuses on one point for the entire lesson. 

If she were to pick one ingredienct for success to technological music teaching, Kelly McConkie Stewart's first and final thoughts were, "You couldn’t do this without a parent on the other end!" 

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