TLC: Teaching, Learning & Coping during Covid-19

In March 2020 our world of learning and teaching was flipped. Although we do not necessarily mean flipping into the innovative blended learning model which focuses on student engagement and active learning. For many of us, our teaching and learning strategies, habits, expectations, and comfort levels were turned topsy turvy as our entire academic routines were moved online within just a few weeks. The pivot was widespread across academia as instructors, faculty, and staff hastily met with instructional designers and academic technology services to get organized and transition their classrooms online. 

Students across all disciplines were also severely impacted. Wherever they might be sheltering-in-place, they were forced to stay and continue along with their studies and their lives. The Linguistic Society of America’s Student Ambassador team is represented by a diverse group of students: we are both undergraduate and graduate students from different countries and in various stages of our academic journeys. Many of us are simultaneously juggling responsibilities as students, instructors, researchers, even parents, and of course, as human beings. 

So, we polled our Student Ambassador community to learn about how we as a collective are managing our teaching, researching, and learning responsibilities, while also staying both physically and mentally healthy during this trying time. It is no surprise that our linguist enthusiasts came up with a myriad of innovative ways to keep learning and teaching, while also prioritizing self care. Our student ambassador team shared a wide variety of strategies and tools including podcasts, audio books, distraction-free apps, video, multimedia, specific tech tools, and much more. This 3-part series blog, organized with a little TLC, Teaching, Learning, and Coping, shares some specifics. 

Part 2. Learning

First and foremost we are students, which means our studies, classes, homework, papers, and exams are our top priority. Within the field of linguistics, we study many subfields, such as pragmatics, corpus linguistics, syntax, semantics, foreign languages, pedagogy, second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, indigenous languages, language revitalization and maintenance, and much more. Together we represent a diverse collection of students studying a wide gamut of topics. This past term, which very rapidly moved online, we discovered and leveraged a variety of tools and strategies to help support various aspects of being a student.

Below we share five ways we developed as learners, which you might consider for your own learning:

1. Leverage social networking for resources

Social networking sites, email listservs, and other digital communities have the ability to connect us with hundreds of scholars and colleagues from around the world and instantaneously. For example, the friend network and specific niche groups on Facebook help us locate resources for many purposes. Whether we are studying for our comprehensive exams/QEs, writing an annotated bibliography, looking for sources, phonetic transcription software, statistical analysis packages, or participants for research surveys, etc. one simple post to a group or recommendation request may result in a multitude of helpful ideas, saving us time and connecting us to potential colleagues and mentors.

2. Access free (or free trials) of educational online databases

Online databases like digital libraries Jstor and Scribd offer free access to hundreds of digital archives, journals, books, and more to students affiliated to participating institutions to help support scholars, researchers, and students during this challenging time. While many of these promotions do have expiration dates in 2020, familiarizing yourself with the many offerings available is definitely worth your time, since many students have access through their institution.

• LSA Linguistic Academic Depository

LSA members have access to this collection of pedagogical materials for a variety of topics across fields. *In response to Covid-19, the Linguistic Academic Depository is now available with open access to all LSA members as well as non-members.

3. Attend virtual (& often free) conferences put on by expert scholars

There are many positive aspects to moving forums, colloquiums, conferences, and lectures online. For example, we now have the opportunity to attend events we might not have been able to due to cost, travel, or scheduling limitations. Doing just a bit of Googling or social networking in search of a discussion or forum can often result in the perfect and most relevant discussion to help support your studies. Following are a few ideas provided by our student ambassadors: 

• The Brazilian Linguistics Association (ABRALIN), hosts free and live lectures (later viewable as recorded) regarding a variety of topics, such as multilingualism, sociolinguistics, grammar, digital discourse, etc. For example, on May 4th Abralin hosted “Noam Chomksy - The Delphic Oracle: her message for today”. Follow @abralin_oficial on Instagram to stay up-to-date on their upcoming and previous linguistics lectures.
• The Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics Virtual Colloquium is hosting informal virtual conference-style lectures. The discussions are held on Fridays, go through July 10th, and offer a range of topics including Yucatan Spanish, grammatical gender, and CV building (hosted by Learning Scientist at Duolingo, Cindy Blanco). See the schedule here.*Fun fact - this event was discovered through the Hispanic & Lusophone Linguistics Facebook Group.
• You might also consider organizing your own learning session via Zoom! You could facilitate a roundtable discussion or panel of a topic you are interested in learning more about and sharing that knowledge with your colleagues. Or you could create a writing community group, such as Shut Up & Write, along the lines described by the Student Ambassador founder and coordinator:
  
  “This began as an in-person recurring event I organized on the campus of UNAM during my dissertation writing stage in Mexico City. While not common in local culture, I went ahead and created this writing group for myself and others also working on multiple writing or research projects that require a continuous time commitment and discipline. The first hour is dedicated to sharing experience and feedback on our theses, articles, and projects, which is followed by a silent 3-hour writing marathon. Moving it online was easy and successful, as everyone kept looking for extra support and motivation to make steady progress while having lost their typical daily structure and network.” - Valentyna Filimonova, Indiana University

4. Stay focused and keep track of time using free apps and tools like:

• Forest “When you start working, you can go to the app and “plant a tree”, which “locks” your phone. Then if you get tempted and leave this app to use your phone, the little tree “dies”. Through this app you can track your focused time. What’s more, once you have accumulated enough points, you can redeem the points to plant a real tree!” - Yanfei Lu, The University of Western Ontario
• KanbanFlow & Trello are tools to help you stay organized individually and on a team.
• Pomodoro technique helps manage your time by breaking down your projects and tasks into intervals.
• YouTube or Spotify offer endless playlists of unimposing background music to help you focus and stay productive. You might also try a platform like Focus@Will to create a personalized playlist.

5. Get crafty with hacks

Save valuable time by learning certain shortcuts and hacks to accessing information and navigating the digital world. For example,

• Pin or Spotlight a speaker’s video during a Zoom call! The Zoom pin tool keeps the presenter on the screen when other people are speaking, which can make online presentations much easier for some learners to follow. 
• Use Google Books or the Look Inside feature on Amazon books to locate information, quotes, and content from texts you might not be able to access for free online or if your school’s library is closed.
  
  "The closure of university libraries is a challenge for many researchers and students. In many cases, Google Books can be very useful. Even when the entire book is not available, the preview usually allows you to read a good number of pages and sometimes even entire chapters, which can be very helpful.” - Cristina Lastres-López, University of Santiago de Compostela

We are lifelong learners. We constantly seek out opportunities to learn about the world of linguistics, connect with others, and expand our knowledge. Of course we learn course content and master key concepts, but some of the best learning results from overcoming the most challenging situations. This past term was difficult. In many aspects we were pushed to persevere. As we continued to learn from our instructors, colleagues, and mentors, we also learned from ourselves and discovered how much stronger and even more creative we can be. We are grateful for all the resources, support, and collaboration that allowed us to continue along our degree paths and succeed as learners.

Stay tuned next week for ways we looked to healthy habits to help us cope during these difficult times!

We would love to hear from other LSA student members regarding creative ways you developed as students while engaging in online learning. Share in the comments below!

Please note-

*The authors, editors, and contributors of this blog post, as well as the LSA, are not affiliated with any of the companies (i.e. tech tools or platforms) mentioned in this blog post, and have no partnership benefits or financial gain in the promotion or mention of them.