Posts Tagged ‘stress reduction’

Dealing with Digital Fatigue

8 Tips for Educators Dealing with Digital Fatigue

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2021/06/8-tips-educators-dealing-digital-fatigue

Feeling mentally exhausted from videoconferencing? Take these steps to stay sharp.

Tip #1: Create a Dedicated Space for Online Teaching

Tip #2: Be Selective When Trying Online Learning Tools

Tip #3: Calendar Block and Automate to Save Time

Tip #4: Delegate Tasks to Teaching Assistants or Students

Tip #5: To Prevent Burnout, Resist the Urge to Multitask

Tip #6: Turn Off Your Camera From Time to Time

Tip #7: Schedule Time for Self-Care in Education

Tip #8: Cut Yourself Some Slack During Online Teaching

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more on burnout in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=burnout

Medicine & Mindfulness

Medicine & Mindfulness: How VR Training Is Helping Healthcare Through The Pandemic

https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestowersclark/2021/02/19/medicine–mindfulness-how-vr-training-is-helping-healthcare-through-the-pandemic/

Virtual Reality (VR) training tools are here to help, ensuring that healthcare professionals can be trained remotely, immersively, and more thoroughly than traditional methods for both front-line medicine and in specialist procedures.

use of wearable contact tracing sensors or VR training tools in the education sector and in an high-pressure medical context

Their VR platform uses personalized prediction software and “gamification and varied content formats to engage users and embed knowledge”, and has been used to “deliver typically labor-intensive training quickly and at scale”

“VR enables medics to immerse themselves in these infrequent scenarios, and can reduce skill fade by 52% and improve learning retention rates by up to 75% (compared to 10% for traditional methods),”

Simulated virtual learning can also ease the psychological burden of notoriously intensive medical training and place more emphasis on wellbeing.

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more on mindfulness in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=mindfulness

mental distress

New study finds the number of Americans reporting “extreme” mental distress grew from 3.5% in 1993 to 6.4% in 2019; “extreme distress” here is defined as reporting serious emotional problems and mental distress in all 30 of the past 30 days from r/science

https://www.psychnewsdaily.com/new-study-finds-number-of-americans-in-extreme-mental-distress-now-2x-higher-than-1993-6-4-vs-3-5/

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more on stress in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=stress

for teachers against stress

Teachers Are Living in a Tinderbox of Stressful Conditions. These Scientific Approaches Can Help.

By Sheila Ohlsson Walker     Jul 1, 2020

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-07-01-teachers-are-living-in-a-tinderbox-of-stressful-conditions-these-scientific-approaches-can-help

Other essential elements include meditation, breathwork, yoga, cultivating and maintaining high-quality relationships, and intentional reinforcement of mindsets that promote human connection, such as gratitude, altruism and collective efficacy. What’s real in the mind is real is real in the body, and it is our perceptions—not “objective” reality—that drive our biochemistry. Accordingly, finding a silver lining—even under the most dire of circumstances—instigates a biochemical “upward spiral” which fosters constructive thinking in a demanding moment and, over the long-term, protects health and psychological well-being.

Academia communication in pandemic

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/07/22/round-the-clock-communication-is-exhausting-teachers.html

Even before the pandemic, texting and school communication apps—like Remind or ClassDojo—had given students and families new ways to contact teachers 24/7. But teachers like Davis say that school closures have increased the pressure to be “always on” for students and parents, as remote instruction has blurred the boundaries between work life and home life.

Teachers want to be available to their students, to clarify their questions and calm their fears. But it’s also crucial that teachers set time aside for themselves, and that schools and districts respect—and even help create—these boundaries

Developing systems that protect teacher well-being should be a priority for schools in the fall, …, as the demands of remote learning aren’t likely to disappear.

An ‘Internal Battle’ Over Boundaries

administration set a policy that teachers didn’t have to respond to messages sent after 5 p.m. until the next day.

or

distributing responsibility. Grade-level teams could take turns having “on” hours