Elliott teaches physics and chemistry at La Minet High School in Papeete. Polynesia was booked for the first time last year. Teachers are forced to adapt in order to establish educational continuity, at a distance. Then Elliott came up with the idea of shooting a series of videos: “In my subject I teach concepts that are difficult for students to understand, especially from a distance. The video makes his concepts more realistic by combining animation, text and audio. It also allows students to review passages that they find difficult to understand at will.”
To make the concepts affordable, the teacher tries to contextualize them as much as possible: “using situations (eg sports) that are part of their daily life and that they enjoy.”
start Video channel For his students, which is a great initiative, but requires more time to be devoted to preparing for the lessons. Elliot had to learn to use animation and video editing software, to record his voice… “It takes a long time. (…) It is necessary to take a lot of time to remove noise from audio recordings (unfortunately I do not have a studio, only a small microphone). Finally, editing and rendering is a particularly time-consuming process. Unfortunately, no I make as many videos as I want.”
Elliott also faces other difficulties: Not all of his students have access to digital media in the same way. “Some have access to a computer but have to share it with all their siblings, some are on the phone, some are online but not infinite… (…) we have to face many technical issues in addition to the usual learning difficulties” . “
Distance teaching also implies a certain autonomy for students. “Students who organize themselves and work regularly achieve satisfactory results. But the situation is clearly not ideal, it is better to see them in class to help them. We are doing our best and adapting to the healthy situation because we have no other choice.”
In recent weeks, with a new shutdown in place, Elliot has decided to relaunch his YouTube channel. He’s already preparing a new video: “I’m thinking of releasing a video next week for my Terminale classes, to teach them how to use video analysis software to analyze paths in mechanics.”
