Category: Distance Education

In the online facilitator’s course I’m taking right now I was asked to create a discussion starter for the “break room” forum in my class. I played off of my previous posts on passion and professional development to come up with this, which I thought I’d share here.

A passionate student is a learning student. We have to tap into our students’ passions as people to tap into their desire to learn.

As an educational technologist I often say that “pets and babies will teach teachers more about technology than I ever will.” I’m finally experiencing this myself – I’ve got a four month old baby boy named Clark. Suddenly I’ve got digital video camera and a new interest in sharing video online. My first YouTube video was Clark “discovering wind” in the park – he loves it!

What passions do you have that most motivate you to learn?

I’d be particularly stoked if anyone would like to respond here as well. It’s been a long while since I did any sort of “getting to know my readers” activity on this blog. :)

PS. Here’s the actual video: Clark Discovers Wind. (I put no effort at all into editing it, you can see his dramatic reaction to the wind at about 2 min and 20 seconds into it.)

This post was also written in response to a discussion prompt in the class I am taking (on facilitating online classes). We were asked to match each of the six elements of an online class you see below to specific tones described in Chapter six of Facilitating Online Learning.

I set out to write this and realized a table was the way to go. Obviously multiple tones will work for many of these elements, but for the sake of the table I’ve focused on a just one or two for each.

Appropriate Tones for Elements of Online Classes

Elements	Tone(s)	Explanation
Announcements	Neutral, but engaging	Announecments need to serve a pragmatic purpose. They are the gateway to the class and need to be a clear and concise as possible.
Personal stories	Informal or humorous	Personal stories are an opportunity to connect with the participants. They can also serve to releive tension within a hard working learning community.
Responses to questions posted in Facilitator Forum	Neutral, but receptive and thoughtful	Facilitators need to be careful not to judge participants (at least not harshly) in their responses. They need to "hear" participants concerns and respond with care – both in the details they provide and in their efforts to remain supportive of the participants.
Comments in a class discussion	Analytical or Whimsical	An analytical tone is appropriate in discussion comments if the facilitator is contributing something new (and thought provoking) to the discussion. Use of a variety of tones is good, though, and even whimsical responses can add a bit of levity to a heavy discussion.
Feedback on an assignment	Neutral or immaginative	Feeback on an assignment must serve it’s purpose clearly and conscisely – and without offending the participant. However, if the facitlitator can also inspire participants to take their ideas further, greater learning and innovation might result.
Private messages to a participant	Nurturing or curious	Private messages can serve a wide variety of purposes and thus can carry nearly any tone, as long as it is fit for the purpose. However, in most cases the facilitator will need to support participants privately. In some cases, though, where a participant needs to be confronted about a missed due date or inappropriate behavior it might be best to express some curiosity about the infraction rather than to blame or "lecture" the participant.

I’m currently taking an online class in facilitating online classes. After having been a student online for many years at the beginning of my doctoral program, I’m looking forward to teaching online in the Fall. In the meantime, as a student who has to make discussion posts, I once again have new fodder for blog posts.

In this assignment we were asked to compare and contrast face-to-face and online teaching, based on reading an online facilitator’s reflection and chapter one of Facilitating Online Learning.

As I read the assigned reading for this week I was reminded of an article I wrote a while back. It was based on my experience as a professional developer, and I called it “Passion and Professional Development: Four Philosophies For Lead Learners.”It was focused primarily on face-to-face learning. In fact, one of the philosophies was called “the face-to-face philosophy.” However, many of the principles carry over into online facilitation. I’ve structured my comparison and contrast of face-to-face and online teaching based on these philosophies.

The Lead Learner Philosophy… Online

At the time I wrote that professional developers (and teachers really) should think of themselves as Lead Learners, rather than trainers or instructors. I believe this philosophy can still be an asset online. It complements the “guide on the side” philosophy advocated by our text book.

The Face-to-Face Philosophy… Online

Though it shouldn’t come as any surprise that some of this philosophy doesn’t apply online. I think other parts do. For instance, I wrote that lead learners should respect the participants in their sessions by tapping into the participants’ experience, passions, and creative energy. In essence I was arguing against wasting anyone’s time with a lecture. This may be doubly important online. As the “What It Means to Teach Online” reflection suggested, even grading becomes “secondary to the connections… being made with and between students.” Also, this need to tap into participants’ passions is the reason behind the protocols and rituals the text book advocates we include at the start of a course. The conversations in our break room are an example of this. In this case, my philosophy might be better called the Personal Connection Philosophy… or something like that. ;)

The “And Life” Philosophy… Online

This extends the philosophy of personal connect further. The idea is connecting with participants’ lives outside of school might help them learn more than staying focused purely on ‘academics.’ The text book presents this as the first principle of effective moderating: “Moderating takes place in both a professional and a social context” (p. 5) This also works for the facilitator; the best facilitation will happen when we are personally connected to the class. As the facilitator in the reflection said, “I realized that I could share myself with my class, through my writing, in a way that would truly help my students get to know me.”

The Kindergarden Philosophy… Online

I’ll just repeat the essence of this one, because it is just as true for adults learning online as it is for Kindergartners learning in a classroom: “Each positive experience a student has in kindergarten is a $1 deposit in their ‘love of learning’ bank, but every negative experience is a $10 withdrawal.”

Other Thoughts

What we loose in body language, nuances, and immediacy, I think we more than make up for in participation and reflection. I now find it much harder to be a student in a face-to-face context (though I still enjoy leading workshops). As a student I miss several key features of online learning:

• Everyone can participate… as much as they like.
• No one is interrupted… and conversely the opportunity to jump in is never lost.
• There is time for reflection – and for composition of answers.

Without these things, I feel much “stupider” face to face. I’d like to help participants take as much advantage of these elements when teaching online as possible. ;)