Broadcast or Two-way communication?
Are you broadcasting or are you using two- way communication? Broadcasting is a recorded audio or video clip that your students can access on their own. Youtube, Instagram video facilitate broadcasting. It is one-way communication. Alternatively, two-way communication is a live medium where you can see and/or hear your students in real time. Live conferencing apps such as Zoom, Facebook Live or even Skype are two-way communication.
Representing your Content
How are you representing your content? Your role as a yoga teacher is to guide your students towards understanding of their place in the world. Sometimes you’ll teach physical ideas, such as deep stretches for the hips. Sometimes you’ll teach philosophical ideas such as right thought and right action (the yoga yamas and niyamas). But whatever you’re teaching, your class content is a description of how the yogi relates to the world around her. How will you use media to represent your content? If you are creating a Youtube video, how will you adequately describe each pose so your student can do the practice without watching the screen the entire time. Your goal as a yoga teacher is to represent the abstract ideas of yoga in a way that students can interpret yoga for themselves. If you are structuring a class around the yamas (right thought), how will you use examples from your own experience that students can relate to? Your selection of media must represent yoga in a concrete way through descriptive words and clear demonstration of a concept.
Learning as Social Activity
Are you facilitating learning as a social activity? There are three types of learning interactions: student-teacher, student-material and student-student. With each video or podcast or blog or social post you put out, how are you facilitating each of these interactions? Are you available to your students? Can your students comment on your post and see each other’s comments? The quality of the material is based on these three interactions. Can the students add to the content with their own posts?
Flexible Teaching
You are offering flexible teaching. You will present your knowledge using media so that learning is built around the physical, geographical and time constraints of learners. The use of media removes physical, geographic and time constraints. Your students don’t have to commute to class; they don’t have to worry about whether they have the right outfit and they don’t have to adhere to a studio schedule. Nobody can see them and they can unroll their mat whenever and wherever.
Teaching Methodology Assignment:
Create a video of your own. Choose a theme. Sequence using the eight-step path. Watch your video and note your voice and delivery. Suggested length: 15-20 minutes. This assignment incorporates sequencing, theme and voice& delivery. Upload here and also post the link to the Google Classroom. Some theme suggestions:
- physical theme i.e “hips and spine”
- inspired by the season or the weather
- mantra i.e. “may all beings be happy and free”
