26.3: Time - When Techno Expression Happens

“By Modernism I mean the positive rejection of the past and the blind belief in the process of change, in novelty for its own sake, in the idea that progress through time equates with cultural progress; in the cult of individuality, originality and self-expression”. – Cruikshank (1989)

The temporal, or time-based, nature of each online activity contributes to how students express themselves. Lisa Kimball, a founder of one of the earliest online communities, the Meta Network (1983), spoke about the importance of time in creating a successful experience: “We’ve been working with time in different ways to create a pulse in the asynchronous time of cyberspace. For an online facilitator, the walls of the room are made of time” (Chautauqua Conference on Meta Network, Item 40, 1997). Time is a crucial element in building and sustaining rapport or deepening reflection in the learning process online.

If the activities are asynchronous (that is, not happening simultaneously), then students can synthesize information and form thoughts before engaging in the process. If the activities are synchronous, then students can connect with fellow students for discussions or concept generation sessions. Consider the following pros, cons, and use cases for the two activity timing types to help you determine what to do with your students. (Also see Chapters 25, 29, and 30 for more information related to engagement and communication, as well as communities of practice). Overall, combining asynchronous and synchronous elements throughout a course seems to be the best approach. Students can create a community in different ways and at different times, while having equal opportunities to brainstorm and delve deeply into the material.

Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Lessons from Wild Geese At the start of a class, we often turn to metaphors from nature for creating community.

We pose the question, “What can we learn from the behaviour of wild geese as we form our learning community?”

Students post or respond with suggestions such as:

• “They stay in formation.”
• “As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an updraft for the bird following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds greater flying range than one bird alone.”

And we guide the conversation towards “How might we draw on each other’s strengths?”

“When a goose gets tired, it rotates back and lets another take front position—geese instinctively share the leadership role and do not resent the leader.”

We ask students to apply the metaphor to the online environment: “How might we do this online, with shared leadership, and community roles?”

“Geese honk from behind to encourage each other to keep going.” “When we notice that someone has not posted, how might we reach out to encourage them?”

Asynchronous Methods of Expression

Asynchronous activities allow students to enter more deeply into the material or an idea. There is time to look up facts, to draft an outline of what to say, and to revise mistakes before others respond. For students who speak English as a second, third, or fourth language, asynchronous activities give them time to translate instructions or other students’ ideas and to refer to other resources before they communicate their own thoughts. Provided that they have done some preparation, students can be more confident in their work. This aspect of student expression should not be underrated.

On the flip side, some people feel that going through a course with only asynchronous forms of communication can cause students, and even instructors, to feel disconnected. While I have participated in some amazing discussion forum sessions in which students have demonstrated genuine care for their peers, I recognize that we were in a hybrid class that got to meet in person half of the time. Students may drop out of a fully online class, even if it is past the drop deadline, if they do not feel a connection to the instructor or at least to some of the other students. At the beginning of an online course we’ve found it useful to ask students to talk about what fosters their learning. We share a script of online discourse from a previous semester and cast roles. After the script is read, we ask students to describe what they heard. They often respond by describing the voices as “respectful, collaborative, and caring”, or “thoughtful and insightful—I could really hear that people took time to respond”. How opinions are shared can be crucial to sustaining a safe environment that all will participate in. Hearing what a democratic dialogue sounds like can help to set a valuable tone and move a group from being a group of learners towards becoming a learning community.

Creating asynchronous assignments that will motivate students to express their opinions is not difficult. For example, a peer-reviewed, written assignment about the US war in Iraq and its impact on international business will generate some impassioned responses. A discussion forum debate about stem-cell research will enliven a biology unit about cell division. If you want to use debate as a way to encourage student expression about topics in your field, the International Debate Education Association (IDEA) has a database of debate topics, called the Debatabase, and a database of debate exercises for instructors to use (http://www.idebate.org /teaching/exercises.php).

Even in math- or science-related fields, students can express opinions. For example, you might create a wiki for the entire class or small groups to solve problems together over time. The first part of the assignment could be for each student to state the best way to solve the problem, to provide a rationale, and to vote on the one the group will use. For problems with more than one solution pathway, this could generate some interesting dialogue. Be sure to read all the winning solution pathways so you can steer groups in the right direction if no one got it right, or if the group chose the wrong pathway.

Synchronous Methods of Expression

Synchronous activities can provide a sense of community. For fully online courses, chat sessions or meetings may be the only time that students are in the same place at the same time. Encourage students to use synchronous tools to interact among themselves for small group projects or to help each other with questions or concerns.

Conversely, not everyone can express him or herself quickly in a real-time situation using speech, much less by typing. If you are using a video chat or online meeting space, then students who speak English as a foreign language will be at a disadvantage. Other students may be left out due to lack of access to the additional technologies needed. Synchronous chat sessions can be shallow in content and hard to follow. Words sometimes fly by your eyes faster than you can read, or several threads of conversation can become confusing when students interject new ideas or questions before the first idea or question can be addressed. Your job will be to manage the flow of the conversation. You can do this by setting protocols before you start (see Tip below).

Note

You can create a virtual “talking stick” by telling students to type a special character or phrase as a way to “raise their hands” during a chat, such as an asterisk (*) or the words “hand up”:

Instructor: From the readings, what are examples of music playing a role in freedom movements around the world throughout time?

Student C: *

Student B: Hand up

Instructor: Go ahead, Student C. Student B, I will call you next.

Student C: Chimurenga music in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle

Instructor: Good. Student B?

Student B: US slave songs were sometimes used for communication about escape

Instructor: Right. So, is there a relationship between these examples and today’s hip hop?

Example \(\PageIndex{2}\)

We conducted a synchronous chat exercise to give students a chance to solicit feedback about their final project ideas from their peers. For this 90-minute exercise, we assigned eight students to a group. Each student was given five minutes to state his or her final project ideas, answering common, predetermined questions. Then he or she was required to stay quiet while the other seven students typed ideas, comments, and other feedback. We had made a rule that constructive criticism meant the peers were obligated to help construct solutions for any problems that they identified throughout the process. There were no problems with student behaviour. Everyone provided supportive and helpful feedback. A survey conducted later determined that the students felt it was a very useful activity for the success of their project. As we archived the chat sessions, it did not matter that the student feedback was almost impossible to read as it was being typed by seven people simultaneously. Each student would have a section of the archive that he or she could review later to determine what changes to make if he or she could not keep up with all of the comments or ideas.

If you are able to have a face-to-face session with students, you can demonstrate the potential for cacophony in synchronous meetings by asking everyone to talk at the same time. Students quickly see the need to take turns in chat or group environments. As we stated when describing strategies for success with asynchronous tools like discussion forums, read a script that models the type of chat you want to conduct. Let students know that it is important to you that they state their opinions openly without fear of attack from the instructor or other students.