Teachers' Lift - An Inter-institutional Podcast on Teaching and Learning

Abstract

As coronovirus spread and all teaching moved online in universities across Hong Kong, teachers grappled with technologies like Zoom and scrambled to digitize their classrooms . It was this that provided the impetus for ‘Teachers’ Lift’ (TL for short) - a teacher-initiated and teacher-produced inter-institutional podcast designed to provide a comfortable space to chat about teaching, which was made possible through a collaborative effort between teachers from The University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. With teachers’ questions and concerns as well as the need to bounce off ideas about new ways of teaching and learning in mind, TL has taken the form of an informal, unrehearsed, impromptu dialogue between the show hosts and practitioners in the field (e.g. teachers, instructional designers, researchers, and directors of programmes and centres). Since TL aired its first show in early March 2020, it has produced and released 8 episodes on a wide range of topics including student engagement in online classrooms, building communities of practice, production of video lectures, experiential learning, online assessment and academic conduct, and language teaching. In less than a month, it has attracted more than 200 followers on Facebook, and established a presence on Instagram and Twitter. Currently, the TL team includes Patrick Deslodge, Dr. Philip Smyth, Dr. Aditi Jhaveri, and Jonah Lack from The University of Hong Kong; Sean McMinn, Delian Gaskell, Tess Hogue, Levi Lam, and Thomas Chan from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Adam Forrester, Eric Tindall, and Jessica Xia from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. TL hopes to build and sustain a community of practice, and enable the sharing of best practices among university teachers in Hong Kong. It also aims to create opportunities for academic staff to engage in meaningful professional development at various levels. To subscribe and listen to TL visit: https://teacherslift.com/.