As I do all my teaching in person, I wasn’t sure how to adapt it to an online space involving objects. Originally I wanted to create a microteaching session in which I explain the principle of the laser cutter using a magnifying glass. I wanted everyone in the class to have a magnifying glass but this seemed unachievable and unnecessary. I ended up thinking of an idea where the student’s pen acts as the laser beam itself and depending on their grip of the pen changes how the laser is focused to the material.
Laser cutting is a highly technical and scientific process that can be quite daunting if you haven’t used them before. Keeping this in mind, I wanted the drawing task to be simple, fun, and accessible for all no matter your experience. I had the students/observers draw a house 3 times and then we compared the drawings afterwards. I stuck to my lesson plan well during the session, beginning with introducing myself, explaining what the session was going to be about, and asking what everyone’s experience with laser cutters is. I created a simple presentation to keep myself on track and so the students knew what was happening in the session. Overall I felt my pacing was fairly good and I allowed the students to absorb information without overloading them.
The feedback I received from my peers:
- Nicely designed slides, really easy to access and read. Great layout and key information. Perhaps especially good for new induction students.
- I loved learning through drawing, it gave me insight into a concept I would not have understood through just listening or even watching the machine itself. (I set fire to the laser printer in my secondary school and now I understand why!)
- Your speech was very clear, well-paced and easy to understand. Good use of non-technical language and examples to help understanding.
- I really enjoyed the drawing task – was simple to understand your directions and was very effective – I understood what you were trying to explain after the second drawing, but I liked that! I also really liked the language that you used – a mix of specialist terminology and laymans terms that made it much easier to understand but also learn
- You spoke very clearly and explained the key concepts well.
- The task was both fun, being art related and brought up some useful analogies for you in particular…it was a time to process and think and be involved, without being too challenging…
- I also just generally liked learning about lasor cutting – we now have one in a room next to our department and it was fun to learn about what it does!
- I would like to have seen some examples of what can be done with laser cutting, maybe just as supplementary images?
- The bit I enjoyed the most, educationally was probably the Q+A…fascinating questions led to really useful and informative answers…
- Improvements? Maybe there are other questions than ‘have you got any questions?’ !
The feedback I received was extremely helpful and insightful. They stated that my use of non-technical language was very good, it made them understand the process better and feel included. This is something I have learned to do when demonstrating technical processes over the years. As I teach a range of students from all courses, adapting my language has been very important. When planning I forgot to include a section about what can be done on the laser cutters. When delivering this session again I would include more detail about the outcomes you can produce by using this process. This insight helps students to understand the possibilities the equipment has and can inspire their outcomes. Tim mentioned asking other types of questions at the end of the session instead of ‘Have you got any questions’. This is a very helpful piece of feedback and something I hope to develop in the future. Open questions can open up interesting conversations which help solidify students learning. I found the Q&A section at the end of the session reflected the sort of teaching I experience daily in the workshop.