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Building Online Community through Dialogue

Lin Linlin@tc.columbia.edu

Instructional Technology and MediaTeachers College, Columbia University

June 1, 2005

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Agenda

Introduction Benefits and challenges of online dialogue Technologies that can be integrated to facilitate

online dialogue Strategies to facilitate online dialogue Creating different online spaces to facilitate

learning (thinking of how people learn) Q & A Some useful references

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Discussion Board – the most commonly used technology for online dialogue

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Characteristics, benefits, and challenges of online dialogue with Discussion Board

Selected quotes from a research study (please see the handout)

Reference:Lin, L., Cranton, P. & Bridgall, B. (summer, 2005). Psychological type

and asynchronous written dialogue in adult learning. Teachers

College Record.

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Questions for thoughts Dialogue and Time:

What is the cycle-time required to make a dialogue a true dialogue? Is the send-receive-read-respond cycle with lapsed time in between too big a

gap to sustain a dialogue? Or is the gap in between necessary time to conduct a more meaningful and

reflective conversation?

Dialogue and Space: How and why is physical presence (body language, facial expressions,

gestures, tones of voices) important in dialogue? How might the lack of physical presence be as conducive or more conducive

to learning than having physical presence? How might this be different for different individuals?

Oral or Written Dialogue: What do we gain and what do we lose when a dialogue is conducted in a

written format?

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Chat or instant messenger Benefits:

Immediate Easy to brainstorm ideas

Challenges: Scheduling conflicts? Numbers of participants? Time to think? Typing speed?

Implications for teaching and dialogue?

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Live web conference Benefits:

Immediate Voice over IP Emoticons Whiteboard Text messaging

Challenges Bandwidth and access? Support? Time to reflect?

Implications for teaching and dialogue?

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Email and ListservBenefits:

Immediate Personalized

Challenges: Organizing and

differentiating messages?

interruptive to normal schedule?

Implications for teaching and dialogue?

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Blog Benefits:

Personal Open Free on the web

Challenges: Creating many-to-many

interactions? Exchanging and sharing

files? Implications for teaching

and dialogue?

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Wiki for collecting, sharing and co-constructing knowledge

Benefits Collaborative

Challenges Creating a trusting

and collaborative environment

Stability and validity of knowledge

Implications for teaching and

dialogue?

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E-portfolio Benefits

Easy to organize files, lesson plans, resources, share and export files

Challenges Creating a space

for dialogue? Implications for

teaching and

dialogue?

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Digital pictures, cartoons and audio/video streaming files

Benefits Interesting and

stimulating (“a picture is

worth a thousand words”)

Challenges Finding or creating

appropriate multimedia

technologies

Implication for teaching and dialogue?

http://www.glasbergen.com/images/g292.gif

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Games and simulations

Benefits: Interesting to most kids Stimulating

Challenges Finding or creating the

appropriate games or

simulations for

educational

purposes Implications for teaching and dialogue?

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Making connections

Based on the above characteristics, benefits, and challenges of different technologies and approaches, what are the pedagogical or design considerations we should take into consideration as educators?

How can we use different technologies and approaches to address the needs of different learners?

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Strategies to facilitate online dialogue (Brookfield’s discussion methods)

The conversational roles/methods (ask students to take turns to facilitate the dialogue):

Problem, Dilemma, or Theme Poser: The facilitator has the task of introducing the topic of conversation. He or She draws on his or her own ideas and experiences as a way of helping others into conversation about the theme.

Reflective Analyst: The facilitator keeps a record of the conversation’s development. He or she gives a summary that focuses on shared concerns, issues skirted, and emerging common themes.

Scrounger: The facilitator listens for helpful resources, suggestions, and tips that participants have voiced as they discuss how to work through a problem or situation. He or she keeps a record of these ideas and summarizes them at the end of the week’s discussions.

Devil’s Advocate: The facilitator listens carefully for any emerging consensus. When he or she hears this she formulates and expresses a contrary view. This keeps group-think in check and helps participants explore a range of alternative interpretations.

Detective: The detective listens carefully for unacknowledged, unchecked and unchallenged biases that seem to be emerging in the conversation. As she hears these she brings them to the group’s attention. She assumes particular responsibility for alerting group members to concerns of race, class and gender. She listens for cultural blindness, gender insensitivity, and comments that ignore variables of power and class.

Theme Spotter: This person identifies themes that arise during the discussion that are left unexplored and that might form a focus for the next session.

Umpire: This person listens for judgmental comments that sound offensive, insulting and demanding, and that contradict ground rules for discussion generated by group members.

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Strategies to facilitate online dialogue (Brookfield’s discussion methods)

The conversational moves (ask students to make some moves when dialoguing with each other):

Ask a question or make a comment that shows you are interested in what another person says

Ask a question or make a comment that encourages another person to elaborate on something that they have already said

Make a comment that underscores the link between two people’s contributions Make a specific comment indicating how you found another person’s ideas

interesting/useful. Contribute something that builds on, or springs from, what someone else has said. Be

explicit about the way you are building on the other person’s thoughts Make a comment that at least partly paraphrases a point that someone has already

made Make a summary observation that takes into account several people’s contributions &

that touches on a recurring theme in the discussion Ask a cause and effect question – for example, “can you explain why you think it’s true

that if these things are in place such and such a thing will occur?” Find a way to express appreciation for the enlightenment you have gained from the

discussion. Be specific about what it was that helped you understand something better Disagree with someone in a respectful and constructive way

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Thinking of how people learn

Self-directed learning and self-study space Collaborative inquiry and peer-to-peer

support space Seeking expert knowledge and expert space

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Creating different spaces to make best use of time and to facilitate different kinds of inquiriesInquiries Online Spaces Pedagogies Sample

TechnologiesLearning / Actions

Independent Inquiry

Self-study Space Reflection

Critical Thinking

Readings, online resources and explorations, blogs, e-portfolio, discussion forums

Comprehension

Creation

Collaborative Inquiry

Peer-to-peer Support Space

Problem-solving

Problem-based learning

Dialogue and facilitation

Discussion forums, wiki, file exchange, chat, web conferencing, shared drive, Yahoo calendar, online space, email, blog, etc.

Problem-solving

Co-creation

Inquiry with Experts

Expert Space Focus

Guidance

Co-creation

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Q & A

Questions?

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Some Useful References Bender, T. (2003). Discussion-based online teaching to enhance student

learning: Theory, practice and assessment. VA: Stylus Publishing. Brookfield, S., & Preskill, S. (1999). Discussion as a way of teaching:

tools and techniques for democratic classrooms (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Duffy, T. M., & Cunningham, D. J. (1996). Constructivism: Implications for the design and delivery of instruction. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology: A project of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 112-142). New York: Macmillan Library Reference, USA.

Palloff, R. M., Pratt, K. (2004). Collaborative Learning Online. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Swan, K. (2003). Learning effectiveness: What the research tells us. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.), Elements of quality online education: Practice and direction (pp. 13-45). Needham, MA: Sloan Center for Online Education.