Online Teaching
I’ve been thinking about online teaching a lot lately. I am not your techno-fan; I’m wary of technology and don’t spend much time trying to understand it. But I’ve begun teaching an instructional design course that is fully online. Me, teaching an online course on designing online courses. Irony of ironies!
So I am no expert in online teaching! (There are many; here’s one that I’m currently reading.)
But I do know instructional design. And here’s my take-away, even for online teaching:
Relationships still rule the day.
And online teaching, weirdly enough, can rest quite comfortably on that principle.
Why? I think because online teaching spotlights what is true in any case: that your classroom is a network, a system, a living system, in which individuals are connected to each other and to content. (Or not.) When that network is sitting in front of you, it’s easy, perhaps, to see it as a mass that you as a teacher need to act on.
When they’re sitting apart from you and each other, far-flung like stars, it’s much easier to see them as a network.
I think a problem with the switch to online teaching is when teachers focus on the stars, the nodes in the network, rather than on the
lines between them.
The relationships. The communication. The energy.
If you’re focusing on the lines rather than the nodes, you know that
students need regular, individual contact with you
students need regular contact with each other
students need reasons and ways to make contact with the content
What kind of relationship do you want students to have with the content of your course? Why? (The answer to this question is very important in all instruction but definitely, I think, in online teaching where self-motivation is so crucial.) What can you do to foster that relationship, to make it virtually impossible for your students not to make friends with the content?
How do you want students to interact with each other? How can you capitalize on their individuality to foster collectivity? (A colleague of mine shared that she begins classes with “parlor games” in which she asks students goofy questions about themselves, their assignments, the world. I love the freedom — the permission, perhaps — she gives her students to have fun with her and one another. Another idea: have students make teeny videos — is the app called TikTok? maybe? — of themselves answering a question or demonstrating a skill or teaching something — and then concatenate them into a group video for the class. Who wouldn’t watch it?)
How can you create stable, predictable peer experiences? Routines, that is, in which students rely on each other, learn from each other, get creative and have fun with each other? How and when can you mix ‘em up? That is, when can you ask students to pair up with someone new? When can you create new groups? How can you help them get to know and appreciate one another? The beauty of online teaching (maybe?) is that you don’t have to supervise these mixers; you can give students something to talk about or produce with each other on their own time that they publish on a discussion board — or, again, in a video — that everyone sees and comments on.
(Peer pressure at its best.)
And what’s your role? How do you get the lines between you and your students to vibrate and sing? What do students need to hear from you and when? Remembering that your position in the network is complex: You’re not a friend. You’re not a task-master. You’re not a parent. You’re not a disciplinarian.
What are you?
Oh! Such a good question! (Here’s one answer.)