Community Over Compliance: Rethinking “Cameras On” Mandates During Remote Learning
by Dr. Mary Townsend, Dr. Steve Gregor, and Matt Hiefield
Building classroom communities is a foundational requirement for teachers. Making students feel comfortable, accepted, and heard creates trust and an environment that is more collaborative and engaging. The pandemic, of course, has made building healthy online environments challenging, and it can become even more difficult when students decide to not turn their cameras on. Teachers and students are left to wonder if the student behind the darkened box is paying attention and listening or is doing something else. This has led some districts to mandate that all students turn their screens on during instruction, often in the name of Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and students are penalized when they don’t. On the face of it this seems like a logical policy, but digging a bit deeper might reveal a different story.
Misapplication of SEL in the “Cameras On” Debate
The emergence of SEL has been a positive development in many districts. Focusing on empathy for others, managing emotions, setting goals, and working collaboratively is a way to engage the whole student and not simply just their academic mindset. When implemented in a thoughtful way, developing students’ emotional sides do indeed help their academics. However, the pandemic and distance learning has made SEL much more challenging, and in some cases it can be used inappropriately. In their Education Week article “When Social Emotional Learning is Misused,” authors Eve Colavito and Kalila Hoggard discuss how the social-emotional learning can be used to “regulate rather than empower, whether intentionally or not — frequently stems from a failure to design and implement it through an equity lens.” The stakes can be high, especially if you are not a white student. In a Communities for Just Schools article ‘When SEL is Used as Another form of Policing” the case is made that SEL practices, when based on white and patriarchal values, can “further enact emotional and psychological violence onto Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ youth of color, in particular.” Although the statement does not address zoom screen policies specifically, it does clarify the idea that real harm happens when SEL is used to punish rather than nurture.
In many classrooms throughout the nation, students are being asked/coerced to turn their cameras on. This practice, which aims to build classroom community, seems straight forward and the implementation is often “comply or don’t comply’. When students don’t turn their cameras on, they can be graded down or simply kicked out of class. This direct method does get results (every student remaining has their camera on) but it lacks the empathy that is supposed to come with SEL. For some students, Zoom takes up too much bandwidth and their computer crashes or freezes. Leaving their camera off allows them to stay connected. For others, there is a hesitancy to reveal living conditions. In an Edsource Article on this issue, senior Hunter Valdez, a senior in San Jose, is happy that cameras are not required: “My room is my private space. I don’t like having my camera on and people being able to look at it and judge my posters or how messy or clean it is. It weirds me out. Being able to have my camera turned off gives an added sense of privacy.” As many of our most vulnerable students are being asked to care for siblings while their parents are at work, turning on a camera can reveal chaos or perhaps a less than desirable living situation in comparison to their peers. Forcing students to turn their cameras on, instead of building community, can actually destroy it.
Rethink Mandatory Cameras On Policies
If your district has a cameras on policy that values compliance and punishment, then it might be time to at least start a meaningful discussion. Some current “cameras on or else” policies may achieve the desired outcome on a surface level but can harm and disenfranchise some of our most vulnerable students. When teachers start asking why some of the cameras are off, this can lead to deeper questions based in SEL: what challenges are students experiencing at home? Is it simply a matter of inadequate connectivity, or does it perhaps have something to do with the Pandemic and current living situations? Providing a way to ask those questions can be a strong way to build trust and emotional connections.
A Few Humble Suggestions for the Classroom: Focusing on Engagement
Some suggestions for how to deal with students’ dark computer screens in zoom revolve around engagement rather than compliance. Teaching remotely with a new set of digital tools has been challenging for most educators, and there certainly is no magic solutions. With that said, teachers need to focus continually on ways to build a sense of community rather than a transactional classroom. Classroom management becomes less of an issue if students feel they belong and have a purpose for being there. Having a camera on can be more of a distraction for students and can cause its own policing issues. In some tools, it is difficult to see the students while in presenter mode and students could be actively distracting each other rather than focusing on the content.
Students can demonstrate engagement without having their cameras on in many different ways. Giving students low stakes opportunities to engage can help ease the stress of participating. For example, they can contribute to a Jamboard that tells how they are feeling that day. Jamboards are great tools for SEL check-ins. There are many templates that already exist for using Jamboards. Ditch That Textbook has lots of resources for creating engaging spaces.
Another technique is asking students to “raise your hand if you…” This can be used with the raise your hand feature of Google Meets, Zoom, and other such tools. This can be a fun warm up and low stakes engagement tool. Asking students to share a little bit about themselves by raising their hands if a statement is true for them can be a fun way for them to get to know each other. Having students use the chat feature in the virtual classroom can be a good way to involve them. Many platforms have polling features, and this allows everyone to gauge the knowledge/mood in a class with a collective snapshot. Broadcasting the results of a question from platforms like Go Formative is another way to get instant feedback. Asking questions and rewarding participation rather than punishing students for not joining in can encourage greater engagement.
Using breakout rooms effectively is another way to build community. Of course, when breakout rooms are used poorly students will tell you that they are a waste of time. For example, if a teacher says “Go talk about this subject for awhile in smaller groups”, the lack of structure can lead to painful silences. Assigning discussion roles (facilitator, note taker, timekeeper, etc.) can foster involvement with a more direct goal. Additionally, when students can work together to solve a problem, complete a virtual escape room, or complete a Google Doc or Google Slides presentation together in their breakout room, then the time together in small groups is seen as purposeful rather than purposeless.
Moving Beyond Good Intentions
The Covid 19 pandemic has been difficult for teachers and students alike. Teachers have had to learn how to rethink pedagogy and how to best engage their students in difficult conditions. Often, new teaching strategies are a matter of trial and error and then of adjusting to better meet the needs of students. With that said, we would argue that a camera on approach is perhaps a well intentioned idea, but that upon further reflection it does more harm than good. By focusing on engagement instead of compliance, educators have a much better chance of building stronger communities. When students feel respected and engaged, they are more likely to share their screens if they are able to do so.
Mary Beth Townsend, Ed.D. she/her/ella. Henry Sibley High School Social Studies Teacher, West St. Paul, MN Digital Learning Coach. Digital Storytelling PLN Editor. Mobile Learning PLN Leadership Team. Twitter: @MaryBTownsend1
Dr. Steve Gregor. Pronouns: he, him, his Director of Secondary Education Washington Township Public Schools Sewell, NJ District Equity Officer. Contributor to Sustainable New Jersey’s Roadmap for Digital Learning. District Equity Officer
Twitter: @WTDirectorSecEd
Matt Hiefield, (MAT)
TOSA — Social Studies, Digital Equity, Digital Curriculum. Beaverton School District Pronouns: He, Him, His, Él ISTE Digital Equity PLN Leader
BSD Equity Team Member
Twitter: @MattHiefield
