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Edutopia
Strategies to Encourage Students to Turn Their Cameras On
Incorporating SEL approaches, playing games, and giving students options can inspire them to show their faces.
By Liz Byron Loya
November 9, 2020
While there is a tremendous amount of value to being able to see your
students’ faces during distance learning, we can’t force them to be on
camera, just as during in-person teaching, we can’t force unengaged
students to lift their heads or remove hats or hoodies that obscure
their faces.
With experimentation and persistence, however, you can arrive at
strategies that work. Whether they need options, encouragement, or
trust in order to turn their cameras on, there’s likely a solution that
is the right fit for your classroom, circumstances, lessons, and
students.
SEL STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE CAMERA USE
If you want to incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL)
strategies to prompt camera use among your students, start with the
recognition that words matter: Our communication with our students
needs to be rooted in community, not compliance.
From there, you could leverage any number of SEL approaches.
Build relationships. Focus on trust, both teacher to student and
student to student. Students who know they are safe and cared for by
their community will be more comfortable having their cameras on.
Survey students. Ask students individually or in a Google form what
deters them from using a camera and what would make them comfortable.
Once you identify the barriers to camera use, you can collaborate with
students to reduce or remove those barriers.
Use icebreakers. Try community-building activities that encourage
camera use. For example, prompt students to “find the largest yellow
thing in your house that you can safely bring back to the camera.” As a
variation, try within reach. Pass the pen is also a playful approach to
building community remotely.
Play games. Rock, paper, scissors works well in a remote classroom
setting, as do Pictionary and charades. Explore 25 games to play on
Zoom, which includes options that work for different ages.
Visually vote or share understanding. Have students vote with their
thumbs up or down on a topic, or poll the class with a Fist-to-Five, a
simple signaling system that can engage reluctant students and build
consensus within a group.
Encourage students who have social capital to use their cameras. The
best role models are likely in your classroom already. Consider using a
Google form to ask students to name three classmates with whom they
would most like to be in a breakout room or with whom they would most
like to work on a group project. The students with the most requests
are likely the students with the most social capital and can be
positive role models for camera-on activities. You can also consider
using a sociogram to identify the best role models when it comes to
camera use.
Be empathetic. Share with your students times when you haven’t felt
like being on camera in a meeting. Talk about how you prepare yourself
to turn on the camera, even when you’re not in the mood. If you’re
self-conscious about looking prepared or about multitasking while on
camera, talk about it. Sharing will bring out your humanness.
ZOOM TIPS TO ENCOURAGE CAMERA USE
Admit students into class one by one. Arrive to class five minutes
early and enable the waiting room. As students arrive, admit and greet
them individually, and check in with them about camera use. You might
be able to check in with only a few students before needing to “admit
all,” but those who arrive early and have their cameras on will gain
comfort from being in a small group to start. Plus, as the other
students enter, they will register that some cameras are already on.
Use the “Ask to Start Video” option. As the host, you can invite
participants to turn on their cameras by clicking the participant’s
black screen; then click the horizontal “…” and select “Ask to Start
Video.”
Send a private message in the chat. Use the chat feature to welcome the
student, check in with them, and encourage them to turn on their camera.
Encourage virtual backgrounds. It could be that a student is resistant
to using their camera because of their home environment, so teach them
how to use Zoom virtual backgrounds or introduce them to Unscreen.
INSTRUCTIONAL TIPS TO ENCOURAGE CAMERA USE
Let students know when cameras can be optional. Brainstorm with your
class times when it is fine to have the camera off and when it’s best
to have it on. Discussing camera-optional policies and having camera
routines provide students with predictability and autonomy.
Allow students to show only part of their body or space on camera. Some
students are particularly self-conscious about exposing their face on
camera. Consider allowing students to dip their toe into their onscreen
time by encouraging them to turn the camera so that only a portion of
their body appears.
Provide options for rubrics that include camera usage. At the onset of
a lesson or unit, share rubrics or criteria for success for a given
objective. If having the camera on is relevant to your objective, then
consider including it as a criterion for success. Many students will
align themselves with the rubric if they know the expectations upfront
before instruction begins. To avoid forced compliance, consider
providing options for students to create their own rubric based on the
objective.
Have students submit a prerecorded video demonstrating skill or
objective. If students need to visibly demonstrate a skill, allow them
to make a recorded video. While the whole class won’t see it, you can
still assess the student and build their comfort with being on camera.
Ask students to suggest alternatives. Your students might have insights
into other ways to participate and share their learning visually. Many
educators have found that students will share videos on TikTok, Vimeo,
or private YouTube channels or Instagram accounts.
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