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The Online Learner and The Art of Communication
Noel Chidwick
"Communication!"
-The Moody Blues
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| Mary wondered how best to send an apple to her favourite on-line tutor. |
As I said last month, the web is the greatest publishing medium since Gutenberg's Printing Press. The Internet is also the greatest communication device since the telephone, and let's make it clear now: education is a communication process. Typing a word into Google and following up the links is not learning - it's information gathering. Even then, how often do you really read what you find? Learning happens when you internally process what you have just read, watched, heard, practised: and then you demonstrate to yourself and to others a change or an increase in what you know or what you can do. This BBC site is a good place to go to find out more about what learning is: How We Learn.
An online course should be no different to a 'real-world' course: you should have the opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned - to communicate what you have learned. At the New Curiosity Shop all our courses have a real tutor to support you through the course. They have set activities and assignments to test your new knowledge and skills, but how do you 'report back'?
The answer is: take your pick from ... Let's look at a few.
This is the simplest one. If you have a quick question, send an e-mail to your tutor. Please, however, don't expect your tutor to reply instantly - he or she will have a life too! Even if you like to be online at 3am, your tutor might just be catching up on his ZZZZZs. However, our tutors will normally reply within 24 hours, if possible.
The Online Forum
An online forum is where any number of people can post a message for others to see. It's sometimes known as a discussion group, or even a bulletin board. Your activity might well be to post something on the forum for other students to comment on and discuss. If you are working on a course with other students this is a
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| Geraldine longed to contribute to the on-line forum, but she was destined to remain a lurker for ever. |
great way to demonstrate your learning. It's a great confidence booster too. A forum discussion can take place over a period of days or even weeks, which gives you time to revise your contribution, and to make sure you are happy with what you are going to say. In an online classroom, you don't have to be the shy one anymore! Contributions need not - and should not - be too long either. It's an online seminar where you have time to think about what you are going to say.
Live Chat
A forum can take place over a long period of time, but the 'live chat' is in real time. A tutor, in agreement with her students, will set a time and date when all the course participants 'meet' online. Usually a live chat is a separate window in your browser with space to type a line or two of text. When you press return, the text you have typed appears in a box for all other participants to see. This happens live, or in real time. As others type, you see what they have written too. Live Chat is an effective and fun way to conduct a discussion, especially if you and your tutor and fellow students are separated by thousands of miles! It can be good fun too when you realise you might be talking to someone on the other side of the planet who has had to rise very early in the morning to join in.
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| "No," expostulated Morag, "contributing to a forum means that your reply can be more thoroughly argued." |
Submission
A learning activity or assignment might be to create a report, or write an essay, or send in some photographs. On the New Curiosity Shop Learning Place that's as simple as clicking on a button. Once you've got your work ready you can submit it to your tutor, or even post it to the forum for others to see.
And the rest
"Waiting for the Gift of Sound and Vision"
-David Bowie
All the examples I've talked about here are text-based. As technology marches
swiftly forward we are now seriously looking at audio to communicate. We are
developing an online course on Learning Italian, and you will be able to have
a live tutorial with our Italy-based tutor. She will talk and listen to you
over the Internet just as you were using the telephone - but without the phone
bill. Video conferencing is becoming more common, when you can see and talk
your tutor, and you can see and talk to other learners.
You are not alone on an online course
There is a perception that an online course is a lonely place to learn: the
reality is that it can be just the opposite! Other activities you might be
set could include groupwork, where you work in a team on a project, or you
could be asked to make a report to your fellow learners.
Having said that, we are aware that some people are quite happy to learn
by themselves, and again, an online course means you can choose to work alone
or with others: the choice is yours.
Interestingly, colleges and universities are adopting these tools for their 'traditional' courses. College students might not see their lecturers from one week to the next, but many colleges now have online forums where students can post their questions at any time. So, taking a course at the New Curiosity Shop may well give you the boost of confidence you need before you launch yourself into a full-time course.
This month's homework
The forum on the New Curiosity Shop is called the 'Howf': for your homework this month you have to find out what a 'Howf' is and report your findings to the Fire Balloon course (you can register as you enter).