As someone who studies media ecology, I’ve always been fascinated with the critique Neil Postman made of technology and culture in Technopoly. The essence of his concerns rests on the idea that technology overtakes humanity, moving from being a supportive element in life to the defining, shaping and driving elements for all of our lived experiences — from entertainment to education.
With the start of classes just one week away, I’m well aware that there will be distinct differences in the educational culture. Classes will be on Zoom. Office hours will be video calls. Instead of turning on my Scentsy candle and sharing a plate of cookies to develop an inviting environment for students, I’ll be leveraging different approaches.
But here’s what’s not going to be different for me: Education is and will continue to be a people-first endeavor.
I was sharing with a new adjunct earlier this month that our philosophy of education is faculty-led educational communities rather than technology-driven educational modules. In other words, the humanity of both the instructor and the students, which creates a unique environment, are central to how we view learning.
Now, the reality is that this is all well-and-good in theory — but what does it actually mean for educators who find themselves teaching online, remote, hyflex and any other combination that incorporates a mediated learning environment? This is the exact question that most of my presentations over the past couple of months have centered on. I’ve come to believe that there are three key pillars that can differentiate a people-first approach versus a technopoly approach to our new world in higher education.
1. Faculty Presence
Develop personal connections with students
The role of an educator has and continues to be central to learning. In fact, in a recent study I conducted with Dr. Karen Freberg about perceptions by faculty and students toward online learning, the significance of having faculty engaged, available, and interactive was a key component to digital learning.
To help bolster connection, consider both informal and formal ways that you can integrate this. For example, informal may be sending your students a post-card, inviting students to “join you for coffee” on video, or facilitating some other kind of interaction that is outside of class time (and not related specifically to class content). You can also integrate formal practices (or those directly tied to your class) to build connections, many of which you likely did in your traditional courses. This could include things like greeting students by name when they join your class online, facilitating class conversations that engage students in the dialogue of class-time to interact with their ideas and thoughts (rather than straight lecture or only breaking them into groups but not taking time for you to listen during class), and, lastly, keeping the tone of your communication relatable. It’s easy to write in a highly-removed, formal way when creating classes. But if you think of your students’ faces, their stories, and their situations — write to them. Don’t write announcements, posts, and instructions as if they were for unknown humans. These are your students. It is for them. And when your tone reflects that connection and care, your students will notice the difference.
2. Communicate
Be consistent, thorough and intentional
Repeatedly, the role and impact of communication in online education influences perceptions about quality, beliefs about value, and implications for learning outcomes.
In online education, there is a misconception that students are on their own and left to navigate the course without a community. Your intentional communication can help break down this myth and develop a vibrant learning community for all your students. A few of the communication practices that I like to integrate include:
Weekly announcements reminding students about what is happening during the week, what is due, and even suggesting how they may invest time (for example, complete reading before Wednesday, discussion activity on Thursday, and responding to peers on Friday).
Assignment Reminders are great touch-points with students. I like to use the LMS system to find out who hasn’t completed a major assignment 24 hours before it is due. Typically, our weekly announcement, module overviews, etc. have all highlighted the assignment (so students are very aware it is there). But I do take a moment to check-in and remind them that it is due that day, ask if they have any questions, and just do a gentle nudge to help keep them on track for success.
Grading comments are easy to “systematize” in higher education and, I think, this is one area that we really need to fight buying into a technopoly approach to education. While it is so helpful to use a rubric to quickly provide a grade, it is critical to remember why we are grading in the first place. The assignments are designed not simply to give a grade — they are designed to help students learn. Thus, you should provide customized feedback for each student on the strengths, weaknesses, what could improve it and what you observed about their work. Taking the time to truly interact in specific ways is critical for students to know you are in this with them (versus just cookie-cutter grading).
Personal Check-Ins: Depending on your course rhythm, I’d recommend individually checking in with students at three points during a course (at least). First, within the first week to make sure they understand the course design and are able to ask any questions. Second, about four weeks in it is helpful to touch base to see if they have concerns, how they feel they’re doing in the course, and any recommendations/comments they’d have to help the class be better. Finally, about two weeks before the end of the course it can be helpful to connect — to give them extra encouragement to finish strong and to catch any of those key areas that are really make-or-break it type issues before the term ends.
3. Be Human
Untether from technology
While online learning uses a lot of technological tools to facilitate education, it is important to remember that we are not tools. We are designed to have boundaries that allow us to unplug and not engage with the course (and so are our students). We should embrace rhythms that facilitate success both “inside” and outside of the class. Here’s some practices I’ve integrated to help:
Be clear with communication availability: While being accessible is critical, be sure you are equally as clear about your boundaries. For example, I explain that I am not working on the weekends or evenings (so that students don’t expect to be hearing back from me until the work-day). You may also want to share the times of day you check email (for example “I’ll be checking once in the morning and once in the afternoon before heading out of the office” — this can help alleviate tensions with emails being viewed more as text messages, where responses are expected within an hour. Allowing boundaries to be clear helps you focus more on tasks at hand (like preparing amazing content for the class, meeting with students for office hours, etc.) and also alleviates anxiety for students if they don’t hear from you right away.
Give the benefit of the doubt: Because of the pace of technology use, the way we all use various platforms sometimes collides. For example, students may send an email that is more appropriate as a text (or written in the tone of a peer). Part of education in online learning is not only the course content but online communication. Take time to graciously share with the class (or individuals) the role of platforms, the way to craft appropriate tone and the differences in impact when these are not taken into consideration. Usually, students are not intending to communicate in a way that seems presumptuous or entitled — it is usually just a matter of platform, tone and relationship confusion when using digital technology.
Take Time Away: While being clear about communication availability is one kind of boundary, it is helpful to remember that you need to completely untether from technology in order to fully thrive while using technology. I’d encourage you to block off a day where you do not do any class prep, grading, etc. In fact, I try to turn my computer off (and, transparently, lock it in a drawer since I’m so tempted to log in “just for a minute”). I also recommend encouraging your students to find time for digital untethering. The issue of burn out and technology exhaustion is so significant that even organizations are developing work-place policies to encourage employees to be wise about shutting down their screens. We will truly benefit in our personal and professional lives if we do the same.
With these pillars in mind, there are a lot of tools that can help you. I’d encourage you, especially if you are new to online learning, to find one or two that really are easy for you to adopt and make sense for your unique course/teaching style. There’s no need to integrate all the apps and ideas — just find what works for you in order to develop a connection, to communicate well, and to thrive both in and outside of the class.
Tools To Develop Dynamic Learning Communities
Uniquely creating your course
VoiceThread: This is a great tool to do things like a personalized overview of the syllabus, group presentations with video interaction, and much more. I really like that it can handle so many types of media in this tool.
Loom: This is a helpful tool that I, personally, really like for providing feedback on assignments — especially things like client projects or longer papers. It allows you to integrate your video and face, but also keeps the majority of the attention on the project itself with your annotations and particular comments in various sections.
Jamboard: If your institution has given you access, this is a great collaborative tool. It could be used to do ice-breakers in class (example, get into groups and create a Jamboard about the first place you want to travel after Covid-19 is done). You can also get groups to storyboard and brainstorm for projects, and then present this to the class.
Zoom Whiteboard: Similar to above, but with some differences in the ability to export and do smaller group type activities, this tool allows you to develop annotation and engagement in a video setting.
Poll Everywhere: I think this is a lovely way to allow students to interact with a low-risk for social anxiety (for example, students who don’t want to speak while on live video). You can ask questions and get a lot of group engagement using this tool as part of your presentations.
Padlet: This is an app a lot of great colleagues have begun recommending, so I’m considering courses or spaces that it may fit to try out for me too. It allows for interaction within your courses and also lets you curate content that you may want to share (or that students have created) in visually compelling ways.
These are just a handful of tools — and there are a lot of apps that can also be used to make your content more engaging (or to allow students to create different types of content as part of assignments) such as Adobe Spark and Piktochart.
Be Educator Led
At the end of all of this, my main hope is that your educational journey will be faculty-led versus technology-driven. There has never been a time in history where educators are equipped with more tools and resources to successfully develop robust and engaging, digital learning communities. I truly hope you can take advantage of all the tools that enhance your teaching. These tools should support but not dictate, facilitate but not dominate, the learning community you are creating.
Remember: Education is a deeply human experience. It’s a people-first endeavor.
