Reflections on discussion boards and communities-Kajder ch. 4 & 8

6/14/07
I think that in order to teach with technology, it is essential to experience what it is like on the other end, “learning with technology.” In that sense, I think that the idea of offering this class partly on-line is valuable, because it reveals what happens to the student once the assignment has been “given” and the student is at home (or wherever) trying to complete it. Therefore, although I set out an hour ago to respond to complete assignments and respond to prompts, I have instead decided to reflect on the process that I am going through as a student “learning” with technology.
The technology introduced this week is completely foreign to me. I have never used blogs, discussion boards, or wikis. Since our introductory class on these tools, I have gotten several emails from different blogs and from a “googlegroup.” I don’t know what to do with each of these. They don’t contain any (understandable) message or instructions in the body of the email, just (multiple) links. Once I click on these, I am asked to sign in and I am shown a list of people (some of whose names I don’t recognize because they are enigmatic email addresses), or several blogs (2 of which are mine, because I accidentally set 2 up and don’t know how to delet one). I click once again and I am taken to blank spaces profiles or blogs (Are other people having as hard a time as I am, or have they just written somewhere else?). I wish I had some phone numbers—I am desperate for a human voice to bombard with questions, anxiety, and frustration.
All of this clicking back and forth takes away not only precious time, but my confidence in my ability to use this technology. Then I am left deflated, confused, and feeling like I don’t have anything productive to respond or contribute on how this technology can be used benefially. This week, as a student, I feel completely “unbenefitted.”
In contrast, the two previous weeks, I felt emboldened and encouraged to find ways to introduce computer technology into future teaching. I participated quite a bit in the discussion board on WebCT and on the UMB Lit and Writing website. After those two weeks of relative success, when reading Kajder’s Chapter 8 for our class last Tuesday, I underlined with enthusiasm, “The twist that technology provides is to amplify our resources, allowing students to dialogue and collaborate with writers, thinkers, students, and communities across the globe in real-time interactions.” (98) The benefit in this is so self-evident, that all I could do was underline it with an exclamation point on the side. Yes, of course, it is wonderful to be able to collaborate with other writers. These two weeks of on-line discussions had proved it (and that is without even introducing anyone outside our course into the conversation). Although they lacked the immediacy of face-to-face contact, the written discussions on those sites offered the opportunity for a more reflective dialogue, one in which I had time to review material, re-read the previous postings, and call on authors I recalled from outside this course.
The other excerpt which struck me was that making contributions through computer technology “allows [students] to communicate their ideas, no matter how shy they might be.” (100) To this, I would like to add that it not only allows them to do so, it FORCES them to do so. I find this important when working at the high school level, where so many students feel they can keep quiet and stay under the radar: these students often do long-term written assignments and homework, but are not willing to view the classroom as a learning community, to which all members contribute while they are there. In contrast with these silent students, there are also commonly students who believe that if they simply talk (regardless of the relevance or thought exhibited in the contribution), this counts as participating in class. In her section on discussion tools in Chapter 4, Kajder states that they “establish a low-stakes entry point for those students who might traditionally be reluctant to enter into a whole-class discussion.” (37) This reiterates the idea that students who are traditionally silent now have a forum from which to participate without the looks and immediate reaction of their peers or their teacher, either because these are inimidatin to them or because they are uninterested. On the other hand, a different angle to Kajder’s low-stakes assertion is that it creates a specific entry point with topics, and prompts or questions. Students are forced to dialogue ABOUT THE TOPIC. The fact that their comment is in writing gives them both the opportunity to reflect on what they want to say, and the obligation to make their contribution meaningful and relevant, one that continues the conversation.
So, how does this description of my previous enthusiasm for discussion boards connect to my deflatedness with blogs and googlegroup emails this week? Perhaps it has to do with discourse communities: I’ve never been on a blog or a member of one of these email groups, and this week’s tasks don’t call on any of the skills I master in one of the discourse communities I belong to. Instead, I am an outsider to this discourse community—there is too much shared knowledge I don’t possess. I find it useful to reflect on why I am feeling discouraged this week, resisting the temptation to turn off the computer, and trying to translate this experience into something I will use in my teaching. When talking about online communities, Kajder points out that “we [teachers] need to get the initial community built.” (102) I now relate this to discourse communities—these need to be established or taught as well. Thinking of the use of technology in the classroom as a task of building a discourse community will help me as I teach with technology.