Being a student during the pandemic is a bit of a challenge given all of the technical hurdles and “culture” shock that they have to go through just to be able to learn.
And it’s not just students, but teachers as well. They have their own slew of challenges to overcome and adapt to. So every bit of help and support counts when it comes to making the whole learning process more convenient and effective.
Meet Carmen Castrejon, an educator who has recently demonstrated a very simple, yet very effective way of helping students be on the same page as you are when it comes to learning the material.
Meet Carmen Castrejon, a teacher who invented a simple, low-tech hack for showing notes to online classes
Image credits: Carmen Castrejon
On her Facebook, Carmen shared how she is showing her “whiteboard” to her students over her camera on Zoom. Instead of writing things down or having them prepare on a sheet of paper that is held in front of her face each time, she simply proposed doing some mirror wizardry.
The idea is to tape a pencil to the back of your laptop screen. Several short strips of tape should do the trick. Then, simply put a CD on the pencil with the reflective side down. The CD has a very convenient hole for hanging it on the pencil.
The hack involves a pencil, an old-school CD, a penny, and some scotch tape
Image credits: Carmen Castrejon
Finally, make sure to tape a small weight—a quarter, for instance—to the side of the CD so that it tilts in a way that covers the camera and is within its scope. This way, the camera will pick up the CD’s reflection of anything that you put underneath it.
The thing that Carmen decided to exemplify this teacher hack with was some good, old-fashioned math. So, instead of having the kids look at you, they will now look at the matter at hand… or at keyboard.
And if you want the students to look at you, then simply pick up the CD and voila, all eyes on you. Carmen does note that you may need to finagle with some settings in order to make sure your final image is tilted the right way—it can end up being mirrored or upside down depending on the default preferences.
She explained the whole process in a now viral post that included some pictures as well
Image credits: Carmen Castrejon
And this can be used with more than just lessons—meetings, group hangout (where you’re playing hangman, for instance), and loads of other things that involve you needing someone to see your notes and doodles. Students can also use it to show their homework and stuff.
There is a bit of a drawback, though—if you plop down a sheet of paper and attempt to write something on it, you might end up pressing some of the keys on the keyboard below. Or piercing the paper if it’s not thick enough.
The CD reflects the notepad in a way so that the camera can see it and hence the students also see it
Image credits: Carmen Castrejon
Also, why do this if you can share your screen? But then again, if you have nothing digital to share, or wouldn’t like to accidentally flip to an unwanted window in front of your entire class, this is an easier and safer setup then.
The post went viral soon after it was published. While Carmen’s post got some attention, it really started making rounds on Facebook when Hugo Maestra shared it, getting over 44,000 reactions and nearly 200,000 shares.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comment section below!
People loved this innovative low-budget life-hack so much that it went viral
Link nguồn : https://www.boredpanda.com/teacher-shares-screen-hack-zoom-class/
