Read, watch, and listen to stories from Columbians who taught and learned during the pandemic.
Voices of Hybrid & Online Teaching and Learning: Kalisa Ndamage
Student, School of Engineering and Applied Science; CTL Student as Pedagogical Partner
In this audio clip, Columbia undergraduate seniors Kalisa Ndamage, Jasleen Chaggar, Ella Frederickson, and Casey Boynton share positive aspects of learning online. Below, Kalisa describes why he chose to submit an audio clip.
This short voice memo aimed to share what made this semester worthwhile for some and demonstrate how effective teaching and learning can take place in a virtual setting.
The very name of this initiative prompted me to reach out to various friends and simply listen. While everyone, rightfully, shared their frustrations with attending college online, they also shared aspects of the experience that were pleasant and meaningful to them. Although I was listening to them from thousands of miles away as I sat in South Africa (somewhat indicative of the value technology has brought to this semester), we still connected over our experiences as if we were only feet apart.
My initial intention was to transcribe their narratives and submit a written piece, but after hearing the earnestness in their responses, I knew their voices had to be heard.
Read the Video Transcript
“Attending your senior-year online is one of the toughest experiences. Add a pandemic to that, and doing this sounds nearly impossible. Nevertheless, I do believe there are little pockets of joy silver linings in this hurricane that make this experience worthwhile. In some ways, pedagogy has improved through increased flexibility. I’ve loved being able to revisit lecture material anytime I need now that lectures are recorded. We’ve even been able to have experiences that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. So, I think that the best thing about having everything digital is that we’ve actually been able to have some really great guest speakers come, who live far away or who otherwise would not have been able to come and speak to us just because everything is online. And lastly, we’ve come to appreciate some of the little things, we took for granted. A silver lining for me this semester has been the little pockets of time that I have between my classes now that I don’t have to physically move from class-to-class. So, although I can not deny that this is a tough time, there’s still room for a lot of good.”