Reflections on Facilitating

I have had two turns at facilitating. The first time I was flying solo and the second time I had a partner. For my first experience I picked a topic that I thought would be a piece of cake for me, Technology. How difficult could it be, after all I know a lot about technology, right? All I would have to do is impart my wisdom and offer guidance; I would be great, right? Wrong!!! I might know about technology, but I don't know how to be an effective facilitator and that became painfully clear to me once I got started.

For the discussion threads I was supposed to read what everyone was posting, not a problem. After reading the posts I was to make comments, give feedback or ask questions. Big Problem!! I was at a loss, I could no longer think. All of my comments seemed uninspired (lame), feedback - it was as though I didn't know what the word meant, and questions -what a joke. This was meant to stimulate the discussion, encourage deeper thoughts on the topic and I failed. I was afraid of hurting feelings or coming across as confrontational so I just went with "Great job" or "I agree". When I did try to ask a question, it didn't invoke deep thought, it didn't do anything. Instead of taking a risk and trusting that my fellow classmates would understand if my questions or comments seemed abrupt or rude, I played it safe. When I received my feedback, there were no surprises (I knew that I had done poorly).

I thought that I would at least wow them with my presentation in Wimba. I spent all week getting the PowerPoint just right. I had some movement with the text, not too much just the right amount. I added links so that I could demonstrate different websites. I thought I had it all, and then.... You know the saying "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry"? I had decided to do a dry run about 1 hour before the class started, which turned out to be the best thing I could have done. I came to the realization that links do not work in Wimba, so I had to come up with Plan B. Luckily I had asked Bonnie to stop in while I was doing my dry run and she explained my options and helped me come up with Plan B. I decided that I would go out to my desktop and work from there. I could still use my PowerPoint, back on track, yea! The first part went okay, I was on topic and then.... I went off topic and tried to demonstrate Second Life. Why? It certainly didn't pertain to the topic. At that time I justified it as being the ultimate in technology. I got carried away and spent way too much time.

Did I learn a lesson from all of this? YES!!!

The lesson I learned was this: just because you know a topic, you have no more of an advantage than someone who doesn't. If they know how to ask questions or give better responses that keep the discussions alive, then they are going to be the better facilitator. A good facilitator can learn any topic while a poor facilitator no matter how well they know the subject area is still a poor facilitator. To be a good facilitator I need to master the art of responding to discussion threads. I need to learn how to ask the stimulating questions that require more thought. I also need to learn how to take negative feedback and turn it into feedback that will enrich the students' learning experience by having them look deeper into the topic. For my presentations, I will keep on topic and encourage students' questions and interaction. I will also keep it a reasonable length of time. My going on and on isn't going to impress anyone or necessarily add to the learning experience.

I mentioned that I had a second experience, this time with a partner. In some ways it was totally different, but in many ways it was the same. How can that be? Well, we split the discussion threads and I let him do the presentation. (I had already done a presentation and was not required to do a second one unless I wanted too).

This time I my only responsibility was monitoring a discussion thread and assisting my partner with his presentation. Here was my chance, a second discussion thread, my chance at redemption. I had the feedback; I knew what I had done wrong. I would be great this time. Right? Wrong!!! My discussion thread didn't take off and I didn't do my job of stimulating the discussion thread. However, my partner did a fantastic job, his discussion thread rocked (I wanted to be a part of his discussion). I knew what I needed to work on, so what went wrong? I tried; I thought I was asking better questions. But all I did was ask questions that weren't clear and quite simply caused more confusion. I feel short again, I failed becaused I didn't ask for help. (By the way, Rafael's presentation was fantastic.)

So what did I learn from this experience? Well I learned that if I work with a partner, we would both monitor all the discussion threads. I could have used his help and I really wanted to join the discussion. Why didn't I just tell my partner that I needed help and wanted to part of his discussion? I don't know why, it just didn't occur to me at the time. I also would like to do a joint project. I know, I know, it was my choice. But by not embracing the experience of having a partner I cheated myself out of a learning experience. There is no one else to blame but myself. What did I learn from this experience? I learned that I have a lot to learn about facilitating and that I have a hard time asking for help.

So what has this self-realization done for me? It has caused me to question whether I will be able to improve my ability to facilitate discussion threads enough to be a good facilitator. No, I am not going to throw in the towel, but I am going to work very hard at improving my facilitation of discussion threads and asking for help. But when all is said and done, I am going to be realistic. If I don't improve by the end of the next two courses, then perhaps I am more suited for designing the courses (or assisting in the design).

Diane

Facilitator Roles - Reflections

In the second part of the course we have been looking at facilitator roles and I realized how little I knew. When you are the facilitator you have to consider so many different things: time management, planning the course, technology, pedagogy, and creating a social community. All of these are necessary and must all be present and in balance to have a successful class. You can utilize the most cutting edge technology but without proper planning or taking into consideration the needs of the students your course is a failure. And once we have everything in order that is not the end, but the beginning. We will be constantly examining our course to ensure that everything continues to function.

So what is involved in creating our classes, lets start with pedagogy. The definition is: the art, science, or profession of teaching. That sounds simple, but it doesn't explain what is actually involved. It is not simply standing in front of a group of students and lecturing, especially when we are talking about an online course. Pedagogy is actually the accumulation of everything I mentioned earlier.

We need to understand our students and how everything in their lives will affect how they learn. They are coming from different ethic groups and age groups. They are going to have different learning styles and different personalities. Why is this important? If you have someone with a personality that is very "out there or pushy" they might end up intimidating someone who is more reserved. I as a facilitator will need to be aware and be able to offer an outlet for the student with lots to say as well as encourage and make the reserved student feel comfortable. Different ethnic groups and cultures also affect how a student learns. If they have been raised to respect authority figures, they might not feel comfortable questioning the instructor. These are just a few of the things to keep in mind. Is this an impossible task? No, it just means that we must pay attention to our students and keep in mind that they are all individuals with their own unique backgrounds. Just as we are the sum of everything that has happened in our lives, the same applies to our students.

This barely scratches the surface when it come to the art of teaching. We also need to consider how we plan to teach, because that too is a part of the art of teaching. Are we going rely on lecture notes? interactive material? lots and lots of reading? We need to figure out our teaching styles first then work to build the course. Right now I prefer the instructor led design, I feel it best suits how I want to teach. I want to include technology and readings on the web to support the topics. I will also encourage feedback and interaction among the students. But this alone will not make my course a success. I need all of the components including: Time management

Time management is a part of the planning stage as well as the maintenance. How much time to allow for assignment? Too little time allowed is a quick way to overwhelm the students. Too much time and your students are bored and not learning. When deciding on how much time to all you need to consider: number of hours in a day. Then split it up: sleep, work, other classes, family, and unexpected. Out of all this, how much can we reasonably expect them to have for our class. Are we asking them to read, post on discussion groups, and do weekly assignment? How much time would we have to spend? Then ask ourselves, are we slow and need time or we don't need much time? Probably somewhere between the two is reasonable. On the topic of time how much time are we going to allow ourselves to grade tests, assignments, respond to emails and spend on the discussion threads? What is reasonable? For this, I will ask advice from those with experience because I would be guessing.

And while we are on the subject of planning I learned that my syllabus has to clearly spell out everything that I expect from my students. I need to tell them what my policies are, what type of turnaround they can expect when they send me an email or turn in an assignment. As important as the syllabus is, I need to make sure I have an icebreaker activity for the 1st week of class. I want the students to get to know each other so that they will be comfortable asking questions, responding to posts and working together if group projects are involved. Why the icebreaker? To start to foster a sense of community. That is as important as everything else mentioned. It will enrich the learning experience for both the instructor as well as the student. The sense of community will allow for better discussion threads as students develop connections with each other.

By now I was thinking that that had to be everything, right? Wrong, now come maintenance and keeping up with technology. Technology is evolving quickly and even if we are using all the latest things out there, we need to know that they exist. How can we do this? By attending conferences, keeping up with research and talking to others in Online Teaching to mention a few ways. Perhaps we will discover things that will help us with maintaining our courses. Perhaps something to help us check links, keep track of bookmarks etc. We also need to keep an eye out for new articles to keep our readings up to date. Have I thought of everything, I doubt it. Do I know everything I need to know? No. Will I ever know everything? I hope not, I don't ever want to lose the excitement of learning something new. I hope to always be learning something new that will help be create an even better course and be a better instructor.

But I do know this, I know more today than when I started and I know I am on the right path to becoming the instructor I want to be.