Greetings from Estonia!
I am one of 1.3 million Estonians, a lecturer and a Ph.D. candidate from Estonian Business School. Working in the oldest private university in the Baltic States is a privilege, especially as it is currently a home for 1500 students yearly and you really get to know your students well. Until meeting professor Zoltan Buzady in Budapest last year, I was still trying to find my own teaching approach and chasing those rare “inspirational moments”…
Today, I am happy to announce that I have supported 109 students’ FLIGBY journey while being in Flow myself. FLIGBY has helped me to inspire and open up my students better than any other digital tool used so fare. I am a dedicated fan of online simulations, quizzes (especially those which you can include YouTube videos), polls, educational cartoons and platforms to elaborate on students’ discussions. But most of all, I enjoy introducing my students to Mr. Fligby (see here) and as a result of this leading them to a long-lasting self-discovery as leaders 😉
3 weeks ago, 35 new students from Estonian Business School were instructed and inspired to play FLIGBY. This time teaching has been more demanding for me as a lecturer, as I literally did not see my class – my virtual classroom consisted of blinking face-less names. Earlier times the 1st briefing has taken place in a traditional classroom setting where we have among others drawn Ideal Leader and played through a Crisis Meeting and practiced the Delivery of Bad News to unmotivated staff members. All this was needed in order to prepare the class in safe environment for handling the “difficult characters” of FLIGBY. This time, I was limited to using the polls, virtual teamwork and luckily ready-made videos by Professor Csikszentmihalyi (what a pleasure they are truly inspirational).
As already said, this year the spring is different. All teaching has moved from classes to laptops and what even worse, in some cases to phones (ouch)…
How to inspire the students when in their phones you are a silent midget or in better cases a talking head?
Well, surprisingly inspiring is least needed nowadays as a real leader (-to-be) feels times are going to change and leaders need to change as well! Current Leadership Simulation course was filled with passionate students just by mentioning that they can learn more about themselves and start developing their own leadership skills ASAP.
Time has come for not just looking out from the window (while being isolated in our homes), but also to look inside ourselves and ask if we are ready for new managerial challenges?
From now on, I shall share every week with those of you interested, some online teaching experiences and introduce my brightest students’ leadership dilemmas and tips!
To be continued in our blog series…
Marge Sassi
Flow Enthusiast
Estonian Business School