Do you know that a concept or idea can be taught in as little as a few seconds? I told a teacher of six year olds this once and she challenged me, saying this was an impossible thing to do. So I asked her…

Suppose you were writing a passage and you came to an example you wanted to share. But you got stuck because you didn’t know whether to use a colon or a semicolon. So, naturally, you ask someone. Now suppose they gave you the answer like this:

“Colons (:) are used in sentences to show that something is following, like a quotation, example, or list. Semicolons (;) are used to join two complete thoughts that could stand alone as complete sentences.”

Now that you understand the difference you say, “Oh, thank you,” and then select the punctuation mark that you need to continue writing. In this very likely scenario, did you not just learn a new concept? And it took literally a few seconds.

Why does this work? because the teacher had enough previous knowledge to connect the dots with the new idea. So if a teacher finds that she requires a large chunk of time to teach a young child a new concept it essentially means two things (all things being equal of course!): 1. The concept being taught is likely beyond the child’s range of learning or, 2. the teacher has poor communication and/or teaching skills.

So how can a teacher ensure that concepts are taught through online teaching? First, the teacher must know her students individually and ensure that the online videos provided are within the child’s learning range. Second, the quality of the videos must communicate the ideas to be taught in an effective, child-friendly and accurate manner.