The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. As I read the first chapters of Schwier’s Connections, I felt as if he was responding to my previous post, validating my feelings while gently explaining the facts. His main point? Mediated communication is fundamentally different from other types of interpersonal communication--not necessarily better, simply different. Online connections can help support existing relationships, while also encouraging new relationships to gestate and grow. This much seems obvious. For me, it’s the virtual learning communities, specifically the style of learning that they encourage, that is taking some getting used to.
I’m one of the people that Schwier refers to, a learner who has been trained to expect lesson content to be prescribed and coherent, and who still sometimes sees social learning as an intimidating prospect. I’ll admit, though, that after a year of mostly online classes at PSU, I’m beginning to get my bearings. I enjoy the freedom of making decisions about what I’m going to learn and where my personal academic focus is going to be. I think this kind of learner responsibility is assumed in graduate level courses, but I recognize that VLCs encourage it in a unique way. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if we arrange our desks in a circle, our instructor sitting beside us as an equal; the physical presence of authority is often still there. In well-run VLCs, on the other hand, it is as if the instructor has stepped out of the room. Student-student communication can happen in a direct and unobstructed way, where content is navigated together as connections are built.
Thinking about the role of the instructor in a VLC presents us with a while different viewpoint. Schwier points out that a community of learners is not always appropriate; instructors must take into account the learners’ starting point and move from there, even if they had originally expected something different. This is nothing new, simply standard procedure for a teacher who has ever put together an elaborate lesson plan masterpiece, only to realize in the first five minutes of the class that it will never work. Once the VLC is established, however, the teacher takes on a very different role than he or she would within a traditional classroom, depending on the boundaries of that particular learning community. For instructors of non-digital natives, it seems as if half the battle is helping students understand that they are in control of their learning and encouraging the community to grow and learn from there.
Kate, I really needed to incorporate this new ebook into the course for just this reason! It really helps the students (you!) to understand where I am coming from. I am warm and fuzzy and want us all to be so wonderfully connected and created a super close community, yet, I must be realistic. I also need you (the students) to understand that you are in charge of yourselves. I try my best to lead you and offer as much guidance and support, yet on my best days, I too can feel like a failure to my students. It is difficult to know just how comfortable you are at something when I can never see your faces and judge your expressions! I must trust that you are relying on each other to guide you through this class and also allowing me in to assist you with your learning experience. I enjoy your writing. I often wish I was better at writing! See, we all have things to work on!
ReplyDeleteI think that the online learning environment can be seen with many positives. First of all it gives us all a choice of freedom to be in class when the time is good for us. This could be early morning for a morning person or late at night for a night owl. We all do not have the same built in schedule, so we all must have different types of day that learning would work out best for us.
ReplyDeleteWhat I also like about on-line learning is that a student who might be shy or have difficulty speaking up in class may be at ease typing out his or her thoughts on a particular subject. I had a particular student in my class who was taking an extra class on-line. She was so very shy in my classroom and really expressed how much she loved learning in an on-line situation.
I also love how it allows students to take an extra class they could not fit into their schedule or retake a class that they may have done poorly in.
Lastly, I like your post on how students can rely on each other to help them in during the class. To me it makes for a nice learning community.
First I have to say that I really like your links to graphics, especially the intimidating link. I agree that online learning and taking control of your own learning in general takes some getting use to. I don't think it was until I took my Montessori training and now my masters training that I really felt in control of learning. Actually, teaching children is what taught me the most. For the generations of learners that were taught by more traditional methods change, especially when it comes to technology, can be hard. Luckily similar to growing up with technology, our students won't really know any other way. I also liked how the chapters discussed the power of online relationships. We only have to look at Facebook and other social media to understand just how powerful relationships online can be.
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