Teaching, Remote Learning & Rona - Nic Robertson

Beyond The Rona

Following on from our previous episode on Young People, Mental Health and Rona, in this episode we chat with high school teacher & entrepreneur Nic Robertson. Nic has 13 years experience teaching in both the private and public school systems in Logan, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Nic is also the founder of SwapU - a swapping marketplace. It's a fantastic idea and a great alternative to buying/selling with money. Check out: https://swapu.com.au/ - In our conversations, he says that rather than holding on to our things and then eventually throwing them away, we could swap and trade our goods and end up with richer experiences in life. There’s an added bonus of less waste ending up in landfill. The app also is a chance to open up opportunities for disadvantaged kids so they might get a chance to try something new. For example, try a new sport etc. The app challenges people to change their sense of ownership. As Nic says; “don’t let the item own you”.

During our chat Nic shares with us his thoughts on The Courier Mail's sensational article published in early December: "Dire teacher shortages rattle Qld schools": https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/dire-teacher-shortages-rattle-qld-schools/news-story/3bc1f8232acf5899dbf21030ffa0c5bd (paywalled). The article mentions rumours of a mass exodus of teachers from the profession if teachers are mandated to be vaccinated against Covid19. Nic believes this is nonsense and discusses other reasons why teachers might be considering leaving the profession.

Andrea and Nic discuss the provision of PPE for teachers and confusion in messaging for teachers and students during the covid outbreak and then go on to discuss the change in workloads as schools closed and moved to online learning during 2020. Nic describes what the online learning environment was like for teachers during lockdown.

Nic describes the differences between a well resourced school and a more disadvantaged school when it comes to online learning, the differences between public and private schools and the differences in educational outcomes in terms of availability of devices for students and affordability of internet access for families in the school communities.

Other disadvantages discussed include how different the online learning environment is compared to how teachers were trained to teach and also how certain students are able to learn.

Education for the future is discussed including Free University…. And Free Tafe in Schools. Nic likes the idea of students keeping in touch with industry and education at the same time.

Nic discusses with us the concept of lifelong learning that we all have to do in our professional lives and also that we all have different ways of contributing to our community, (including volunteering), but we all want to contribute in a meaningful way throughout our lives in some way. And we prefer to be doing something we enjoy - even more preferably - doing something we love.

Nic’s three big ideas from a teaching and education point of view are:

1. Change - embrace the changes that come with Covid19 and move away from the things that weren’t working

2. Connection - online connection is great but keep face to face going too

3. Training - both the teachers and the students need training for online education

Beyond the Rona Podcast is recorded in Logan, Queensland on Yuggera country. We acknowledge the traditional owners past, present and emerging.

Join us next time on Beyond The Rona Podcast: http://beyondtherona.com/

If you're interested in coming on the show, please contact us, we would love to hear from you!