What If Curiosity Is the Perfect Tool for Remote Learning?

Congratulations! You are now a remote teacher--and learner!

Now what?

What do I do? Who do I ask for help? How are my students going to manage? When will everything get back to “normal”? Where in my home will I be teaching--and learning!? Why wasn’t I more prepared for this? Huh? Does anyone really know how to succeed at remote teaching? Wait! What if what I’m doing--and learning!--now is preparing me to be a better teacher--and learner!--in the future?!




Whew! Now that you’ve got all of that out of your system, what if you turn to curiosity as the key to unlock what you can do next?

Curiosity is the cornerstone of all deep learning and doing. Asking “what if?” and leading with wonder is how we naturally learn. Curiosity makes learning relevant and gives learners a deeper connection to what they are learning by giving them a sense of ownership to what they learn; learning is transformed from being for someone else’s sake into an answer hatched from the mind of the person doing the learning.

Remote teaching might be terrifying to you now, but what if that terror can be measured by the distance in the gap between what you know and don’t know about remote learning?

What if you put on your “learning hat” and use some curiosity to help you close the gap between what you know and don’t know about remote teaching and learning?

How can being curious help you be a better remote teacher? Consider these characteristics of curiosity.

Curiosity personalizes learning; while remote teaching and learning may not be a personal choice, learning becomes easier and gains a greater sense of personal purpose when it’s connected to a curiosity of personal interest. Not sure where to start when it comes to remote teaching? What if you ask your students what they’re curious about and build it from there?


Curiosity isn’t just about making learning and work more personal, it also makes it more collaborative. Curiosity’s tendency to seek collaboration is another benefit of using curiosity as a learning tool. The collaboration curiosity encourages opens endless avenues of deeper learning along pathways of empathy and inquiry, resulting in collaborative actions.





Learning based in curiosity cannot be confined by time or age either, making it perfect for everyone. It’s easy to say, “I’m too old for new technology,” but you’re never too old for a little curiosity, so when you put your curiosity first in learning about remote learning, you’re more likely to learn in a way that suits you and your situation best instead of a “one-size-fits-all” approach to learning and teaching remotely.

Using curiosity to power learning about remote teaching and learning can be as easy as asking “what if?” What if remote teaching is not that hard? What if remote learning is actually better in some ways than how we were teaching before? What if things you learn and develop while becoming a remote teacher can also make you better in other aspects of your life? What if your transition into remote teaching is also an opportunity to identify and transition into other opportunities now that you’ve developed this new skill and perspective?

Dig deeper into Princeton Hive to make your learning about and teaching remotely more curious, productive, and enjoyable.