My experience of using Zoom as Online Teaching-Learning Tool

 

Okay, Now!!! I will talk about my experience of using Zoom as teaching-learning practices. I and my students hadn’t used Zoom before. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic times, my school didn’t use any online classes, so, it was our first time experience of using Zoom for our online classes. One of the major reasons behind not using online classes during the pandemic times was the lack of internet facilities and smart phones to the students. I and my students had no idea of using Zoom as it was a completely new thing for us. I have heard about it but never used it before.

After getting this assignment of creating an online learning community by using Zoom and engaging the members in various learning activities, I and my students watched some YouTube videos on how to use Zoom for online classes as , already mentioned, we, both were unknown about it. After watching some videos on YouTube and trying it on our mobiles, we, somehow, managed to know some basic functions of Zoom. To conduct any online class on the Zoom, the host must schedule a meeting and provide a Meeting Id and pass code or send an invitation to the participants through e-mails. The participants can directly join the online class without any Sign-up or sign-in, just by simply clicking on ‘Join a Meeting’ from the first home page.

I teach in a primary school, so I conducted my online classes to grade 5 students. All the students were so eager and interested in having online classes. They have never been on any online classes, so they were over excited and also confused about it. I encouraged them to join online classes and hopefully, they joined the classes. Some students were so excited that they even reached my home to know how to use the Zoom and how to join a meeting. There are altogether 19 students in Class 5 but 13 of them joined the online class in the first day. We conducted the online classes for four days and stopped it due the holiday of Tihar and Chhath festival. The students were so happy with the online classes that they were demanding regular online classes. I was also enjoying giving them the online classes but the 40 minutes time limit was ruining our enjoyment. Due to the 40 minutes time limit, the classes were interrupted and I was unable to conduct my full classes. The online class was from 7 pm to 7:40 pm.

In the first class, 13 participants joined the class and we talked about the problems and difficulties faced by the students while joining the class. The students were fast learners as, they easily joined the class. We talked about ourselves and even watched few minutes of YouTube videos. We even recorded our online class. at the first class, the students even didn't know how to mute and unmute the audio. 

Likewise, in the second class, 9 students attended the class as 2 students were absent due to the birthday party. We read our lesson and I asked some questions to the students and they answered me. We again watched some YouTube videos and concluded our class. The class was noisier while teaching the students and I had to mute all the students. One interesting thing was that when I used to start the recording, the students remained silent and disciplined. I assigned them to draw the pictures of different types of clouds as their home works. They even chatted with their friends in the chat box.

In the third and fourth classes, we continued our lessons and watched some YouTube videos related to the lessons. The students were happy as they were experiencing a new type of learning-teaching methods. I and the students discussed on various topics such as water cycle, different seasons, morning, noon and evening time etc. The students were so obedient that they showed me the assignment given to them the day before through their camera. I assigned them to draw pictures, make presentations and resent in the next class. The average number of participants throughout the online class was nine. In this way, we conducted and attended the first ever online classes. Overall, it was a great experience teaching my students for the first time Using Zoom.