Chair's Corner

I have two-and-a-half semesters of experience teaching through Zoom. I hear from colleagues distressed by their students' “bad” behaviors on Zoom.

Complaints include that students are eating during class (“gross”), in bed, or they just appear as a black box. Notice a theme? Students can’t win. If they keep their cameras on, then we have proof of their undesirable behavior and are definitely not learning. If they keep their cameras off, then obviously, they are disengaged or otherwise doing something wrong.

Even during a pandemic and an attempted coup, we expect students to look engaged as evidence of engagement and learning. We persist in the belief that if a student looks like what we think a student should look like and is acting how we think a student should act that they are a serious student. All this means is that they have the economic and cultural capital to know how to appear like a serious student.

Faculty face similar pressures. Depending on my workday, I may need to eat during a Zoom meeting. I turn off my camera while I eat. I turn off my camera for lots of reasons. Sometimes, I need to step out to use the bathroom, answer a question from my kid, or close the front door because the dog is barking at a delivery driver. Sometimes I get the dreaded Zoom message: “UNSTABLE INTERNET.” I turn off my camera.

I had students keep their cameras off because their learning space was the kitchen table or a garage. If other household members started to appear then they would turn their cameras off. Students know that these were things that could distract them, could distract other students, and could be used to discredit them as serious students. Some students would only turn their cameras on when they spoke. Students have plenty of understandable reasons why they may want to keep their cameras off. I trust my students to make this decision for themselves.

“But I want to see my students!”

I also cannot see my students in a 100% online course. I know my students by their names. And I agree that it is weird talking to a bunch of black boxes with names. However, I learned my students names more quickly because I saw their names all of the time on Zoom.

I do not want to be one more obstacle to my students’ learning. I am grateful that my students are making time for our course. Our students are doing the impossible. They are attending school during a pandemic, social unrest, an attempted coup, and climate disaster.

That students are showing up at all should be recognized. They are helping their own children and siblings with their remote schooling. They are trying to work more hours because they or someone in their family has become unemployed or had their hours cut. They have been sick with Covid, cared for loved ones with Covid, and lost loved ones to Covid. They are scared and worried about the future, but they still have hope. I know they have hope because they keep showing up. To show up says that they believe the future will be better. It makes me happy to see their faces, but it also makes me happy to see their black box.

I have no interest in becoming the Zoom police. I trust my students. My teaching philosophy and course policies are built around trusting my students. Policing Zoom behavior that is not creating a hostile, illegal, or otherwise dangerous situation is something I am not interested in doing. I refuse to be one more obstacle to my students’ learning.