Actually, it wasn’t that funny... It was a bit dispiriting.
I’d spent a good deal of time setting up an online forum, a Google+ Community in fact, for my Year 12 Performing Arts class to use.
We’d discussed the positive benefits it would have for their learning. How it would help them to develop their discursive and reflective skills. How it would help them to write with greater clarity. How it would help them to broaden their knowledge of the subject. How it would give a voice to those too timid to speak in class. (To be honest, not many of them in a Performing Arts class but there you go)
I’d even posted pictures in advance so it would look appealing.
When I went to have a look at it at the end of the week? Nothing!
If anyone had visited the forum, not one of them had left a trace.
There’s more evidence of activity in Pompeii.
So, I’ve spent some time experimenting with a variety of tactics over the last few months. I think there are two issues and it’s helpful to separate them.
The first is simply getting them to visit the forum. The second, is helping them to use it effectively when they do arrive.
Here is a summary of the methods I have found to be successful. Not all of them will work for you or your students; experiment until you find the combination you all get on with.
Persuading students to visit your forum
Make it very clear how the forum fits into the learning aims of the course. If students sense that it is an optional extra they won’t do it. It’s like using the phrase ‘wider reading’ in an English class; you can see everyone thinking, “Brilliant, don’t have to do that, then!”
Be explicit and prescriptive about your expectations. It helps students if they know they have to make one new post and respond to two other people’s posts each week. Or if they know they are expected to write 75 words or more in a post. Make up your own rules - but do make up rules and do give them to your students.
Give discussions a clear beginning and end date. Ideally, that end point will coincide with some class work that builds on the discussion in the forum.
Give a clear goal for discussions. Maybe it will lead to an essay. Or a performance. Or an experiment. (You don’t need a separate forum for each discussion - use topic tags to keep things organised)
Make sure you and, ideally, other members of your department participate actively in the forum. Not only will this help to ‘police’ the forum but it’s important we model good practice. And, more than that, the students need to feel that their work is being recognised and valued.
But don’t respond too hastily. It can stifle discussion if the teacher is always the first to respond. Students will just look to us to provide the definitive answer.
Set it as a prep task to contribute to the forum. This might seem to go against the idea of free, open discussion, but it might be necessary, particularly at first.
Be explicit about the skills that students will develop by participating. Writing skills. Comprehension skills. Metacognitive skills. And be explicit about the fact that they will need those skills at university.
Assess the contributions formally. You could use a rubric that is in line with the expectations you established at the start.
Set class tasks that require students to use the material in the forum. You could require them to write an essay using quotations from the forum. Or ask them to summarise the various opinions expressed in the forum.
Make it regular. You don’t have to use it constantly. It’s OK for there to be fallow periods. But you do have to use it regularly enough for it to become a habit.
Build in some exciting events. You could think about hosting a Youtube Live discussion for members of your forum, maybe with a guest expert from outside the forum. Have a quick competition - chocolate for the first person to respond to a question etc.
Helping students to use your forum effectively
In her book, Teaching as a Design Science, Diana Laurillard makes the point very clearly:
There is a difference between discussion and learning through discussion. The latter does not just happen; it has to be deliberately scaffolded by the teacher.
It takes time. We need to understand that and we need to devote time to teaching the skills.
Again, there’s no magic here. Experiment with the ideas below and find a method that works for you.
Make sure you set the right tone. You want your forum to be friendly and supportive but you also want it to have a certain formality. It’s not a social media platform. We want it to help develop writing skills. So, probably no emojis!
Encourage disagreement. But teach the difference between disputing an idea and disputing with a person.
Think carefully about the size of your forum. Too many people and it can be intimidating. Too few and there isn’t enough activity to generate momentum.
Be aware of dominant users...and lurkers. Of course, we want people to be excited, committed participants but it’s possible to ‘squash’ less confident members in an online forum, just as it is in a classroom. Be ready to have a ‘quiet word’ if necessary; in person not via the forum. Conversely, some people will be ‘lurkers’. They will read posts and may learn a lot from them without making a post or comment themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that - some people are timid at first - but be prepared to talk to them if it persists.
Use students as moderators. Not to replace the teacher but it can work well to appoint a student who will lead a discussion and take on the role of promoting debate by asking timely questions. High level skills.
Actively scaffold students’ contributions. Ask them to categorise their contribution and give it a tag. Maybe:
Question - about a definition, function or reason
Explanation - of a concept, a function, assistant, or a reason
Conjecture - about an assumption or a prediction
Comment - as a justification, or a commentary
Critique - as a complement, a correction, and alternative
Or, you could use Garrison’s problem solving stages:
Identifying a problem
Defining it more clearly
Exploring the problem and possible solutions
Evaluating the applicability of different solutions
Integrating this understanding with existing knowledge
Give students a list of phrases and vocabulary to use. Ideally, these will be linked to the categories listed above. Your list will probably develop over time - but do write a list as a starting point.
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