Hi Ray,

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At the close of our last session for Term 1, you invited comments from students as to their experiences with other Zoom classes.

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During the last term I attended one other U3A Zoom class, as well as 3 other Zoom meetings on Genealogy, Writing Family History and DNA.? My experience with all has been very positive with many instances of interaction from participants.

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Whilst I appreciate there are some students in the class that prefer to keep their identity hidden for whatever reasons – and I respect that decision – it makes it difficult for the Presenter when looking at a black square with a name in the centre.? Only occasionally do others in all of my other Zoom classes chose to mute their appearances.

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In my Spanish Zoom class, by the very nature of its subject, we are invited to give a small story in Spanish of course, with English translation.? Sometimes we email the story earlier to the Presenter, at other times we “Share Screen” our document via Zoom.? Either way, our document appears on screen – just like your Power Point presentation – and the student reads his/her story as others read it.? The teacher then goes over certain words and students may add a comment or two.? Also, our Teacher puts up a story in SPANISH we have been reading for quite a while now, and we each, in turn as requested by the Teacher, read a tiny portion in Spanish, followed by our own interruption of it off the cuff.? It is very inter-active.

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As well as that, usually a couple of minutes before the lesson starts, students start small conversations, quite naturally, with others responding, about something, anything, that has just happened, e.g. have you had an injection yet?? Very little time is spent on that, but it has created a closer, and caring friendship between us, as well as we learn more Spanish!

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Conversely, in my larger evening Zoom sessions, after the Presenter – usually not the Convenor – has given their Story, participants are invited to ask questions or elaborate on what they have heard.? This period can last from 5 minutes to even up to 20 minutes – and a lot of information is exchanged.?

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If there is difficulty trying to find a time to Squeeze ourself in without being rude, there are a couple of buttons at the very bottom of our Zoom screens that allow either a text message (called a Chat) to be sent to Presenter, or All, or one person, – also another button immediately to the right of that one (still in the middle of the bottom tab) that allows you to add a Yellow put up your hand Signal, which then shows about your face, or picture, and remains until your remove it.

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I know Zoom can be difficult for all of us, but as we try it and explore a bit further from our comfort zones in it, it certainly is rewarding and honestly, not that much different at all from being in real life.? Except, we all have to accept that like camera shots, it never shows us as our real selves, and sometimes not very flattering.? Accept that – we’ll all the same, a bit tatty at times on the outside, but very good on the inside.? Be a bit adventurous, I say, and enjoy what we have been given.

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Kind regards to all – hoping I haven’t offended anyone.

Merlene

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