Confessions of a FIT...

Before I really get to the heart of this blog, I feel I must say that I really have enjoyed my FIT experience.  That being said, I have had my snags along the way.  What I would like to focus on in this blog, are 1) the uncomfortableness I felt writing comments on students responses to the activity I was facilitating and 2) time (yes, I know I've talked about this before, but...).  

As mentioned in an earlier blog, I had to facilitate an activity for Week 11.  After the students uploaded their responses to the activity (which, by the way, was about imperialism), I had to provide them with feedback.  While this was great experience for me, I felt quite uncomfortable about doing this because I don't have a degree in history.  I love history, don't get me wrong, but I don't feel qualified to teach it.  However, I was able to critique their critical thinking skills, which may have been the only thing my FIT director's wanted me to do anyway.  Yet I still felt very strange and apprehensive about giving feedback to students who are not my students.  I guess more than anything I worry that my FIT directors won't like the feedback I gave, will feel like I overstepped my boundaries, or will think "what the heck is she talking about?".  I'm also dealing with younger students than what I'm used to.  I teach college-level communication courses; I've never taught high school students.  At one point I felt as if I was being too harsh with the comments, so I went through all of them again before sending them out and added more comments that praised the student for their efforts.  Hopefully, the directors find them to be appropriate.

2) Time, time, time...it's sooo different when you're facilitating an activity online.  I made the mistake of waiting until all the students responses were submitted.  This seems very silly when I think about it now, but I thought this was appropriate because I was thinking of face to face courses.  If someone turns in an assignment early, I don't look at it until I get everyone else's assignment.  I do this so that I can grade them all in one sitting (or perhaps two) and recognize areas that students did not do so well - that way I can consider being lenient and not counting off so many points if it seems that all or most of students struggled with a particular aspect.  But for the most part, you don't have a lot of students turning assignments in early during face to face courses - however, since students taking an online course encouraged to work at their own pace, they are often working ahead and turning things in early.  Anyway, one of my directors gave me some good advice and said that I should really try to respond to them 24 - 28 hours after they send in assignments in order to keep the students motivated.  I had a problem too because it's just so easy to say, 'I'll e-mail them tomorrow' - and then tomorrow turns into 3 days later.  It's easy to do this because they are not in front of you so it's easy to escape from the responsibility of communicating with them.  Right now, I feel like they are 'invisible' - like they aren't really 'real'.  Surely other online facilitators have felt this way at times...

Defining 'Public' and Reconsidering Online Public Speaking Courses

Last week I attended the National Communication Association Convention in San Diego, California. Not only was the weather glorious, but I got to attend a short course titled "Virtual Asynchronous and Synchronous Training Program for Communicating Effectively in Higher Education".  Specifically, the course focused on using asynchronous and synchronous technologies in college-level communication courses.  The instructors of the course did a great job discussing  challenges they faced when trying to have a communication course online.  They mentioned several things, but what I would like to mention here are some of the things I thought about during the session in regards to how to put a public speaking class online. 

 

1) It seems many public speaking instructors think that it's impossible to have a public speaking course online.  Often times I hear, "it wouldn't be in front of people - it wouldn't be public speaking". So it got me thinking - how are we defining public? The phrase 'in public' is defined (by my computers dictionary) as 'in view of other people; when others are present'.  If we consider this definition, then we may first think, 'yes, they are right - they wouldn't be speaking in public'.  BUT, if we think about how our technology has changed how we communicate with people in general - perhaps we need to reconsider what we mean by being 'in view' of other people and being 'present' among others.  Are we not in the presence of others when we are talking with others online - especially when using synchronous communication tools? Are we not sharing a space as we would if we were face to face?

2) If we move past this argument that it wouldn't be public speaking, could we not open up more doors for creativity.  For instance, if a student decided to do a persuasive speech on recycling, the student could videotape themselves giving a speech with a polluted creek behind them, which could make the speech even more persuasive because the creek could act as a visual aid.  

3) If students present a speech online (either live or recorded and presenting it on Wimba or Elluminate), other students could re-visit the speeches of their peers or their own and critique the speeches more so than they are able to when they see it once when presented face to face.  Furthermore, since students can type messages about the speech during the presentation.  This would allow students to type in how a certain sentence, word or main point effected them at the time it was delivered.  This could then be viewed by the speaker later and allow them to reflect even more so on how the content/delivery of their speech could be improved.  Some people against the idea of online public speaking courses are worried about how the speaker will not have the audience's feedback.  However, this is not lost, it's just different - and there may actually be advantages to this online feedback they are receiving.  

4) While this could be said about any online course, I think that something needs to be said about the sense of accomplishment that students feel once they master a new kind of technology.  Some instructors worry about the students ability to use the technology necessary for an online course, but once this is mastered (which in my experience, didn't take long) does this not motivate them to want to learn more in the course in general.  If the students are feeling good about mastering the technology, I would think this has to have positive effects on their learning as a whole...perhaps researchers have discussed this already.

So there are my thoughts - hopefully it got you thinking (or perhaps re-thinking) any previous ideas you may have had about these issues.  

Leading Blindly

A couple of weeks ago one of my FIT directors sent an e-mail asking me and my fellow FIT's how we would like to contribute more to the online class we are observing.  He gave us a lot of suggestions on different things we could do and that was great.  I chose to lead an activity that was coming up in a few weeks.  A week before the activity was do, I followed my director's recommendations and sent an e-mail to the early start section (there is an early start and a late start section which are about a week apart).  That was a little over a week ago and I have only seen one student post their answers to the activity.  I've been checking every other day, hoping to see more posted.  I feel like I'm at one of those moments that our 7130 class has been talking about throughout the semester.  That moment as a facilitator where you're not sure if you should act (maybe send out an e-mail to the students and remind them of the activity) or if you should calmly wait for more to respond.  

Well, I just did the next best thing - I e-mailed my FIT directors and asked them what I should do.  If this were my own class, I wouldn't mind making an executive decision here, but it's not.  I would hate for the students to get behind or something because of me.  I'm starting to wonder if maybe the activity isn't due until the end of this week - not the end of last week.  The schedule is very confusing to me - I'm used to having set days when things are due.  When I asked one of my FIT directors when  the week 11 activity was due (the activity I'm working on), he told me to watch and see when the kids start posting things on the discussion board for week 10 - when they start posting there, that means they are getting ready for week 11.  I saw students posting on week 10 before I sent out the e-mail about the week 11 activity, but what if the students posting on week 10 were just working ahead? 

Anyway, I'm just feeling like I'm leading a bit blindly here.  Without the students in front of me, I can't rely on the nonverbal and verbal feedback that I'm used to.  Perhaps they are confused by the assignment? Maybe they didn't even get the e-mail?  I suppose I'll just wait for my FIT directors to get back to me.....