Doubtless synchronous discussions are used as an alternative for face-to-face discussions in education. The tenet of these discussions is based on the fact that students can form an online community in which they can elaborate on the materials they have already taken in class. Originally synchronous discussions were created to enable unavailable teachers to communicate with their students. Later on, the idea was so attractive because teachers who already practiced it found out that all students actively participated, even those considered as introverts. Our online discussion yesterday was a good example of them. Although our experience was “a disaster” as Dr. Arola put it, it will be unfair to generalize its results to this type of educational practices.
I think that one of the positive things about our yesterday discussions is that they motivated less “talkative” students to show up and take turns. I am one of them. Since I am a foreign language learner, I sometimes find it difficult to call in appropriate vocabularies or complex syntactical structures. The case was like our lagging yesterday. There had to be a silent interval between what we wrote and its appearance on the board. I can attribute this memory lagging on my part to our traditional teaching back home. We used to communicate in English in classrooms by using writing and reading skills. In the case of other less talkative students, I think they found it a good opportunity in that sea of various ideas to cast their opinions. It was easy for them to draw one opinion and comment on it. The nature of online discussions was also helpful for them since they were not required to write in depth.
What I saw as negative about our discussion was the absence of organized ideas. And here two reasons are at play. First, most students responded at the same time since there were no instructions to tell them when to respond. Second, it took all of us one or two minutes to think, write and post, which made responses appear random and irrelevant.
I think that the use of online discussions requires some instructions. First, teachers should prepare their prompts or ask students to do that. Then, they should let students answer each prompt. Students, then, should read their comments and respond to one another by using the phrase @.... so that everyone knows which comment goes with which response. And they do the same with other prompts.
I think you may have hit on the only real way to make chat sessions work for the classroom: heavy structure and preparation. Students don't necessarily need to respond in alphabetical order, though; I'm a big fan of either small groups (they always get more people talking) or multimodal discussions, such as--dare I say it? I dare!--an MMORPG interface, such as the World of Warcraft combined with voice chat such as Ventrilo.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so now that I put it out there, let me explain: Ventrilo (Vent) is a program that allows for Skype-like group voice chat rooms; while Skype only allows one-on-one chats, Vent has no hard limits on how many people can be in the chat, and since only one person can talk at once it simulates face-to-face (or at least telephone party) discussion. Meanwhile, MMORPGs are usually set up to allow for multiple chat boxes and modes (for example, "say," "channel9," and "whisper" are three different kinds of chat discussion, and can be separated out in their own boxes). Furthermore, with the introduction of (virtual) physical space, a lot more can be inferred from body language and emotes, and classrooms can even break into groups (that maybe wander off to a distant hill or landmark for some privacy).
Anyway, my long point is that I share your optimism, Anwr, but I also agree that classroom chats require an immense amount of prep--more than just a few instructions.
I'm glad you stayed w/ the conversation, and I find it interesting that you had competing responses. On the one hand, it seems you're saying you enjoyed the format, but on the other you found the chaos offputting. I think your point is a good one, particularly for foreign language learners. That is, the space to form ideas can be really useful BUT when it's overrun with the chaos that such spaces often support, well, it sort of negates the usefulness.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, maybe, if the playfulness and chaos can be useful for native speakers in a way it is not for foreign language learners?
BUT, that's probably not entirely fair, as a lot of people found the chaos quite offputting.
Still, I think you raise a very good point that we, as teachers, need to be mindful of our audience and the needs of our students.