After a hectic Spring semester on Zoom, Summer has been a welcome respite. Without the stress of classes and grades, I am finally able to focus more of my attention on my PIRE project, which ironically ties into the pains of online learning. Classroom mapping, a method of tracing interactions within a group of individuals, has been used in conventional classrooms, but not in an online platform. (At least, not to my knowledge, anyway.) Additionally, knowing more about how classroom dynamics function on a platform like Zoom would only benefit pedagogical practices. So, my PIRE project will use classroom mapping to examine the Zoom interactions of English and German second language students.
The initial plan was to run the first session today, Thursday, but either potential participants didn’t get around to checking their emails, or all of our potential candidates are truly just Zoom fatigued. If it’s the latter, I can’t say I blame them for wanting to throw anything with a screen in a dumpster fire. All the same, my PIRE adviser, Dr. Jackson and I are now planning other potential testing dates for later this month. Since we still have a live sign up sheet going, potential participants will hopefully have enough time to read their emails and, hopefully, sign up to receive specific dates later on. For now though, all I can do is wait for people to sign up and keep up with my other PIRE duties.