The readings for Module 2 focused on the important aspects of building an atmosphere where students feel safe to communicate. In the face-to-face environment this is generally established during the first days of school. Students are greeted by a smiling teacher and enter a classroom that has been prepared especially for them. They have posters on the wall with guidelines and procedures and often a name card on their desk. Unfortunately, our online students don’t get the advantage of seeing all these non-verbal cues. It is the facilitator’s responsibility to make early attempts at interactions with every student (Vasquez, 2003).
Two of the articles were quite specific to online learning. In the article, “Bridging the divide: from outsider to insider in online learning”, Holman, did a nice job of explaining the sometimes subtle differences between online and face-to-face teaching. He also identified identity, persistency, casual interactions and risk as specific needs for the online classroom. In the article, “Your online voice: how can you set the tone?” Vasquez described the need for online facilitators to have a strong command of voice in their writing. She took time to explain that students can’t judge tone from the traditional non-verbal cues they would have in the classroom. The only voice the students get is in the form of their teacher’s writing. Vasquez mentioned a few examples of voice such as: quiet, direct, energetic, or reflective.
The article, “Icebreakers,” focused on what would be considered to be best practices for any teacher, not just those who teach online. This article mentioned that ice breakers can be used for facilitating introductions, accessing prior knowledge, fostering group unity, etc. Author, Varvel, discussed the reasons that ice breakers are especially important for online classes.
I think every article had useful information, the only one that might be considered unhelpful to educators would be, “Icebreakers,” It is probably due to my own bias but I felt that most of the article was common sense. The part I found of interest was the resource section which led to several broken links and hard to find information. I would have preferred to have examples of icebreakers that had been successfully implemented.
Overall, teachers who are new to online teaching could easily get caught up in content and delivery and overlook this aspect of online learning. For this reason, I feel that the readings would be beneficial.
Bibliography
Holman, J. (2007). Bridging the divide: from outsider to insider in
online learning. Informally published manuscript, Information,
California Virtual Campus, Oroville, California. Retrieved from
http://www.cvc.edu/
Vasquez, M. (2003, November 1). Your online voice: how can you
set the tone?. eSchool News Technology News for Today's K-20
Educator, Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2003/11
/01/your-online-voice-how-can-you-set-the-tone/
Varvel, V.E. (2002). January/February 2002 - Icebreakers. Pointers
and Clickers, 1(1), Retrieved from http://www.ion.illinois.edu
/resources/pointersclickers/2002_01/index.asp
