Communication in eLearning

mkrill — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:31:04 +0000

Cross posted from: A&S Reflections

This week members of my program cohort completed a Communication Styles Inventory. I’m generally pretty wary of these types of surveys – I mean it was only 10 questions. Anyway, based on the questions (which, in many cases, had two very good choices), I was found to be a sensor. Some words from this ‘communication character’ were: doer, decisive, pragmatic, independent, assertive, practical, opportunistic… Honestly, I think many of those characteristics can be seen as both negative and positive. I wasn’t sure I was pleased with the outcome of the survey.

However, I also rated high on the feeler scale, which made me feel a little better. Some words from this ‘communication character’ were: patience, perceptive, understanding, respectful, accepting, people oriented…

I do see myself with the sensor qualities, but also felt that single description did not factor in my ‘feeling’ qualities. Therefore, I’ll be referring to myself as a sensor/feeler:) The other two styles were intuitor and thinker, and I also had some of those characteristics. Of course, those rated lower for me and that is an important thing to understand about myself.

The reason for completing the communication styles inventory was to determine my communication style for the purpose of later using the information to build teams for coursework activities. As a sensor/feeler, I’ll need to pay attention to the characteristics of the other two styles: intuitor and thinker and be sure I’m incorporating those characteristics into my work. Also it seems I’m looking for some thinkers (avoids emotionalism and speculation, can be overly cautious or conservative, even rigid ) and intuitors (excel in imaginative tasks, see the value of continuous probing and re-examination ) to be in my group. Although I know combining these other communication styles to my style might mean that it will be more challenging and maybe take longer to get things done, I bet they’ll be deeper in content and contain more vision than I could on my own. I guess that equals a collaborative team!

Two Courses, One Reflection

mkrill — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:08:22 +0000

Rewind…

Last fall (2007), I participated in a graduate course entitled, Teaching in the 21st Century: The Need for Change. This course was totally online ~ my first experience with a totally online course. I learned plenty about shifting practice in teaching, but most importantly (for me) I learned a lot about myself and how I learn.

I have always been a good student. I do the work and generally perform fine on assessments. However, this course was different in that I was expected to set my own pace for working through the material, while meeting established deadlines along the way. It was also my responsibility to determine what was important from the readings and video lectures. An online course puts the bulk of responsibility on the student.

Once I realized that I’m a bit of a procrastinator and often save the bulk of work for a one time session, I was able to keep moving and get the work done. This will be an important thing to remember as more online courses become a reality for younger students. We will have to teach them to manage their time better!

I learned that reflection is the most important part of the coursework. The readings were important and so were the discussions, but the time taken to compose responses to readings and discussions was more time than I think I have ever invested in learning.

In an online course, no one is telling you to ‘remember this’ or ‘this will be on the test’. It’s up to the student to pay careful attention and make critical decisions about what is important.

This particular class ended with a research paper. Now, I had not completed a research paper in many years (too many to mention:). I gathered the recommended number of resources ~ print, online, etc. and sat down to write the paper. I wrote the paper in one day, although I had probably been forming it in my mind for a couple of weeks. I had worked hard throughout the course to stay on top of posting reflections and discussions, but when it came to the paper, I was not nearly as motivated. I was more just working to ‘get it done’.

Fast Forward…

This fall (2008) , I have been participating in a face to face course, Web 2.0 and Interactive E-Learning. This course has been a great chance to explore online tools for learning. It might seem odd for this type of course to be face to face, but it has really been helpful to work through how AND when to use/not use many of the tools.

This course had us keeping a blog to reflect and once again, I found myself thinking hard to write thoughtful posts and to really synthesize the weekly readings into meaning for myself. Even thought this course was face to face, the majority of the learning happened on student time. We were expected to read the readings in advance and post a reflection and/or comment on another student’s post.

The end project for this course was not a paper, but an online portfolio to showcase the sites we had discussed. Well, I can tell you what, I spent at least 10 more hours on this project than I did on the research paper last fall. Preparing the site forced me to revisit many of the readings and websites and to make decisions about how to best portray those sites on my site. And, I now have a great resource site to use and share with others.

Conclusions…

I can’t say where my research paper is, but I will never forget where to find the online portfolio. I can continue adding to the site to keep it current and to include more content as it becomes relevant for use in education. I take more pride in the online site project because it will be viewed my more folks than me and the instructor. It’s a living project!

It seems that whether a course is an online course or a face to face course, it will be a better learning experience for the student when:

1) it includes much opportunity for individual reflection

2) there is communication among the course members

3) a culminating project (if there is one) is meaningful, useful and editable.

At least that’s what works for me!

Finding Common Ground » reflection

Communication in eLearning

Two Courses, One Reflection