Thank goodness, only one more day to go!Today's task is to reflect on what I have learned from the Comment Challenge and apply into my teaching.
The skills of facilitation
From a teaching point of view, I think the main thing that has been re-enforced to me is how to facilitate conversation ie
- include lurkers in discussion;
- honor what everyone has to say;
- ignore the troublemakers;
- have boundaries and
- have fun.
Do you think it's as easy as I have made out or do you think that face-to-face teaching and communication is a very different kettle of fish to online teaching/communication?
Image: 'Friendlies' moriza
www.flickr.com/photos/44373968@N00/2565606353
2 comments:
Sarah, in some ways I think it can be harder to facilitate discussions online. You can't read body language or hear tone to try to correct any misunderstandings that may occur with what you say. I think part of the challenge, too, is seeing writing as a "conversation." We're used to having a back and forth with questions, etc. when we have verbal interactions, but I don't think it's as natural for us to do in the written context. So we end up having to remind ourselves that we ARE facilitating discussion, even if it's written conversation.
I know what you're saying Michele and to be honest, as soon as I pressed the 'publish' button I thought 'oh no, Sarah , it's not as easy as that'. What I feel does aid online facilitation is that there is time for reflection and answer.
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