SEL STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE CAMERA USE
If you want to incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL) strategies to prompt camera use among your students, start with the recognition that words matter: Our communication with our students needs to be rooted in community, not compliance.
From there, you could leverage any number of SEL approaches.
Build relationships. Focus on trust, both teacher to student and student to student. Students who know they are safe and cared for by their community will be more comfortable having their cameras on.
Survey students. Ask students individually or in a Google form what deters them from using a camera and what would make them comfortable. Once you identify the barriers to camera use, you can collaborate with students to reduce or remove those barriers.
Use icebreakers. Try community-building activities that encourage camera use. For example, prompt students to “find the largest yellow thing in your house that you can safely bring back to the camera.” As a variation, try within reach. Pass the pen is also a playful approach to building community remotely. Read more.