"Under no circumstances can students be seen as passive recipients of wisdom conveyed by the medium of distance-teaching course." Is that possible? Holmberg recognizes that some communication needs to be one way and it is not always possible to have a two way conversation about the material. If this case he suggests that materials be created in a way that simulates informal communication. Does that alone make the learner active recipients? I agree that it may help them be more attentive and engaged emotionally but to what degree? He suggests making it personal or "chatty." Does that mean that the instructor should share personal feelings/experiences and humor? I have tried to do this when I create orientation videos for 287. Each week I create a video to help the students become familiar to that week's tasks. In that video I tend to follow many of the concepts of guided didactic conversation. I originally started making the videos this way in an attempt to increase my social/instructor presence in the in the class. This concept seems very close to that of social presence or other concepts of community. Most of what I have read about community contends that people who feel a high level of community are more motivated to be active participants. It is almost combining Moore's thought of content interaction with social presence. Can there be social presence of the author or developer/designer in the course?
I like the concept of developers having empathy for the end users and that they should try to address them as individuals. Write materials as though they are talking to one person. When I teach I am typically also the developer/designer so I am normally thinking about the end users. However, I don't know if that is always the case with developers who will not have direct interaction with the students. I love the concept that the author would think of any time spent on materials as time spent with them.
interesting thoughts - I wonder a little bit about how students perceive the "conversational approach" when there is no opportunity for reciprocity?? An interesting question.
ReplyDeleteI think that it helps the instructor to establish their identity but it does nothing to help with the student's identity. I think if you really want to increase motivation the student needs to know that the teacher knows them.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the fine line: as a teacher, I want to be fully professional. I have worked with teachers who were criticized for being too informal in language choice with students. Where is the boundary.
ReplyDeleteHaving the end user in mind is also so important. I've been handed curriculum in the past and spent at least as many hours redesigning it so it better reflected both me and the "end users" as it would have taken to design it from scratch. The desire for it to reflect ME was purely selfish (I guess? :). But perhaps I would have been saved some redesigning if the developer had had a better sense of the end users (9th graders).