Enhancing Connection in Live Sessions with "mmhmm" 🎥✨
Discover how ASL instructor Emily uses mmhmm to boost engagement and visibility in virtual classrooms 👩🏫💬👀
As we continue exploring effective ways to build a strong teaching presence, I’m excited to welcome Emily Gowin as a guest writer in this issue of Quick Bites! 🎉 Recently, Emily, an ASL instructor, was introduced to the “mmhmm” app by our colleague Morgan Bennett and decided to test it out during her live sessions. In ASL instruction, visual connection is crucial 👀—Emily needs to see her students clearly, and vice versa. Standard screen-sharing doesn’t always provide the flexibility she needs for a dynamic and interactive learning environment.
Read on to discover how Emily has been using “mmhmm” in her sessions and the valuable feedback she’s received from her students about this innovative approach! 💡👏
As a virtual American Sign Language teacher 👐, I have been scouring the internet 💻 to find a way that would allow the lesson to be shown on the same screen as me (without having to share my screen)! I found when I shared my screen, my students would strain their eyes 👀 to see me since I was so small from screen sharing. No matter what settings we tried, sharing my screen was not the answer. 👎 I even tried holding up flashcards for the students but that didn’t allow the word and the sign to be shown at the same time. Again, not the answer. 👎 I brought my dilemma up in a faculty meeting and I was recommended the app “mmhmm” by a fellow coworker and it has been a game changer for live sessions! 😀
After exploring 🔎 the app and seeing all of the options “mmhmm” provides, it quickly became clear that this was exactly what I was looking for all this time. I introduced it to my students and have received wonderful feedback! No more screen sharing, no more strained eyes, and no more clumsy flashcards! 👍
The versatility that “mmhmm” offers is amazing! It’s a one stop shop app and how wonderful that is to hear for teachers! If you need your background hidden, there’s an option for that. 👍 If you need to draw ✍️ to make a lesson more clear or play a game, there’s an option for that! 👍 I use that option to play Hangman with my students and they love it! Do you want to resize your presentation or yourself? You can do that! 👍 Do you want to reinforce your lesson by both you and your slide being shown? You can do that, too! 👍 It’s where brick and mortar meets virtual! 🌟
Here is a little video to show how I use “mmhmm” for my live classes with my students! 👐
Leave a comment below on how you might use mmhmm in your live Zoom classes to enhance your teaching presence! 💡💬
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