Part I
In the thousands of coaching conversations I’ve been in, with teachers from different levels (7–12 and HE) and all types of disciplines, we ultimately touch on the subject of student engagement online. I often hear things like ‘students are really quiet during class…’ or ‘…they don’t really want to engage…’. These are all common problems that every teacher in the online environment will face at some point in time.
Often, we assume that students will just do. Or maybe rather, do what’s being asked of them. They’ll jump when you want them to, or they’ll answer a question when it is asked. But as anyone that’s stepped into a classroom will know, students have agency, they have thoughts and opinions, and they will do whatever they want to do.
Is it realistic to expect someone to be chatty when they haven’t spoken in the last 20 minutes…
This leads to the question of whether we have really set up the stage. Is it realistic to expect someone to be chatty when they haven’t spoken in the last 20 minutes because we’ve been explaining a concept in a very teacher-centric way? Or is it realistic to expect a social learning environment if we haven’t created the pre-conditions for it? As in, do students feel safe, have a sense of belonging, and incentives to participate (what’s in it for me?). Have we done anything to connect students with one another?
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And of course, there is the added challenge of being online 💻🌐.
We are competing with technology companies for attention. There is a high probability that your students are multitasking, surfing social media and other sites while we are trying to facilitate a productive classroom environment. Let’s face it, we’ll likely lose every time we face off against tech giants unless we create the space that allows students to get more value from being there. These hurdles are tough, I empathise as a practitioner, but that requires different strategies from us in the online space.
It’s all about community
First things first, it’s all about community. We can’t assume this will naturally emerge, sometimes it will but often it won’t. If you look at this in the face to face context, you’ll notice that there is a gravity that pulls people together, whether they like it or not. Groups form, conversations happen, organically 💬. This is the biggest draw of being in the physical environment, the ease by which these communities form and emerge.
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it’s much harder online unless we enable it. Well maybe not harder, just different.
That’s not to say that it won’t happen, it just needs extra thought and attention to make it happen. How often have you explicitly told your class that they should connect and network with one another? Or better yet set up a space online to connect all students in the class and transfer that ownership over to a group of students?
We as practitioners in this environment need to set this up, intentionally. There are no replacements for the gravitational pull of other humans in the physical space, but there are alternatives.
Our brains still crave it 🧠. We can tap into that urge and use this to our advantage online.
The question really becomes, are you ready to build it?
Bill Simmalavong
