Educator's Voice

Vol 8, Issue 5
September 19, 2007

The best looking math teacher on campus…

“I cant beleve how offen students think that is tue.  No the chemical nature of this particlar plant cant oparate in the same envirenment as the otter.”

The preceding words were from an instructor to a student in an online course.  I’ll let that sink in for a moment…  A teacher wrote this!

About 8 weeks ago I had the most significant experience of my life.  I became a dad for the first time.  As I marveled at those tiny hands that held my finger and the small cry that I ached to soothe, a host of other concerns flooded my mind.  How do I keep her safe?  How does she know who to trust?  How will she learn what is OK and what’s not with the Internet?  How do I keep boys away from her for the next 30 years?  (Ok, my wife has said this last one is not possible…)  And the list goes on. 

As I wrestle with these questions, get advice from others and read voraciously about each topic, not only do I realize there is no one answer, I also get a tremendous headache!  But, there are some solid, tested and effective ways to present information to my daughter that I also think apply to any instructor dealing with any student so the above example of horrific grammar does not happen!  Specifically, I’d like to promote a healthy use of modeling.

Instructors can be many things: mediator, facilitator, guide, scholar, conflict resolver, researcher, supporter, reporter, creative catalyst and so on.  But, one other role that effective teachers take on is that of model.  (*Note – I am NOT referring to putting up a picture of a cover-model in your bio section.  Being called the best looking math instructor at your school is not a benefit of what I’m referring to here—although it’s not necessarily a bad idea.)

So, what do instructors model in an online forum?  It’s easy to think about modeling “behaviors” in our live classes, right?  As a communication instructor, I need to model poise, nonverbal actions, effective use of keyword outlines and so on.  But this is very different online.  So what CAN we model in this medium?

What about:

• Grammar – Isn’t the online format a great way to combat the trend of increasing illiteracy by adults and (specifically) by college graduates?
• Professional Communication – Beyond grammar, the employers who are hiring our graduates want to know that they can communicate effectively in an asynchronous form on a daily basis. This means no “instant messaging” language, proper use of capital letters, punctuation and so on.
• Integrity – Holding students accountable to ethical behavior using any tools at our disposal, models the importance of integrity to our students.
• Responsibility – Bringing students along the continuum of being personally accountable for their time, their actions and their decisions is good for the student, the school, the employers who hire them and ultimately our culture.  How long should a student take to turn in an assignment? Perhaps a better question is how long should it take you to return that assignment to them?
• Sociability – As more and more communication takes place asynchronously, a value must be placed on learning to correspond without paralanguage.  Sometimes words are seen as bullying, other times as mean, when they were meant in jest or otherwise.  Modeling how to interact as much as how to create content is vital.
• Interest – I once was chided by another instructor for, “acting like my subject matter was the most important a student will learn in college!” I looked at them and replied, “I sure do…don’t you?” Our students will see our interest and engagement with our content through lectures, presentations, discussions and so on. 
• This list is certainly not exhaustive. There are many other things that we can (and should) model for our students!

My daughter will watch my wife and I interact with others. She will see us demonstrate who to trust. She will watch and hear us discuss the Internet and start to get a feel for what is OK long before it becomes an issue. (And, ultimately, she will watch how I treat my wife which is modeling the type of boys she should associate with…right?)

Our students watch everything we do. They see how we write, they take in how we respond, they keep track of the time it takes to get work returned, they scour our syllabi for policies defining ethics and integrity and they feel our “excitement” about our content in every lecture, every link to content and every podcast. 

For some instructors, this will mean more “hands on” work in their online class. For others, it may just mean reevaluating participation methods. But your filter should now be one of modeling in every interaction you have with your students. If you are the best looking teacher on campus, good for you! However, if you are a role model to your students, that’s good for us all. Good luck and good teaching!

--Jeff D Borden, M.A.
Director of Academic Training & Consulting
(Not the best looking educator on any campus…)

Instructor’s Tip:

Using ClassLive

ClassLive^SM, powered by Elluminate^®, simulates traditional classroom lectures and takes place synchronously. ClassLive is a robust learning tool that contains a whiteboard, chat and much more. You enter ClassLive by clicking the Chat tab in the course toolbar and then selecting the ClassLive button. Each session that takes place is automatically archived.

Here are just a few instructional options for using ClassLive.

• You have full control over the chat and whiteboard rights of all users in the session.
• You can conduct tutoring and office hour sessions online and archive them.
• Your students have the ability to "raise a hand" to signify to you that they have a question or need assistance.
• You may upload multiple files (like PowerPoint^®) to the session and share them with the class.
• ClassLive is equipped with a graphing calculator.  
• The advanced ClassLive Pro version offers two-way audio and video. It is recommended that students use headsets with microphones in ClassLive Pro.

Practice with ClassLive before you try running an actual session with students. Set up a session using two side-by-side computers; perhaps in your school's computer lab. In the lab, you can log into a course as the instructor on one computer and log in as a student on the second computer. Then, run a ClassLive session playing both active roles—instructor and student. This will enable you to practice running a session and to see what students see on their screen. You'll be glad that you took the time to go through this exercise.

Before using ClassLive with students, we strongly encourage you to review your computer’s configuration for the whiteboard tool and to walk through a tutorial. For the tutorial, click the ClassLive Tutorial link, also available from within ClassLive. Remember, too, that the Help pages in your courses have instructions for using ClassLive as well as links to the Elluminate site with tutorials and detailed technical help pages. The Elluminate materials are quite extensive and very helpful—written in a user-friendly manner.

Using the synchronous ClassLive tool, you can create a virtual classroom experience for all of your online students and begin to develop online communities within your courses. More importantly, the powerful and adaptive tools offered with ClassLive allow you to engage multiple learning types simultaneously.  

  —Ken Switzer, Ph.D.