Carpe Diem: Seizing the Opportunities of Online Learning

Abstract

<p>The COVID Pandemic has not been an easy time to be a teacher. The stressors on individuals (teachers, students and parents) have been of an extraordinary nature and duration and featuring prominently amongst these many stressors has been a rapid, dramatic movement into online teaching. While teaching Latin online is now my default position (the University of New England where I work has been a leader in distance education since its inception as an independent University in 1954), when I made the transition from teaching face to face it was tough.¹ There are many problems in adapting teaching that is largely centred on responsive human connection (as old as Socrates but not so annoying) to a digital platform, particularly if you have to do it very quickly, without the necessary infrastructure in place. I have referred to this previously as the 'falling down a set of stairs into online teaching' model.² Many teachers during the pandemic have felt underappreciated, overworked, and vulnerable, more so than usual. What I would like to suggest, however, is that online teaching is not only a necessary evil in these times, but that it also has the potential to be very good for our discipline.³</p>