Comments on: Dangerous territory

By: Stephen Powell

Stephen Powell — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 05:30:30 +0000

I think your last point is a good one Gina, we come together (‘students’ and ‘teachers’) with different values and beliefs and a whole load of baggage. It will take a long time to negotiate what this new relationship looks like.

By: Gina

Gina — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 18:54:47 +0000

I would agree that being an online teacher has many more opportunities for misunderstanding – every single thing we say is under so much more scrutiny. It would be interesting to know how online students feel too. Maybe they feel more scrutinised too – I know it’s taken a long time for some people I work with to share their work online and not feel embarrassed.

The key seems to be creating a ‘safe’ environment, much like in a classroom, but then we come back full circle to your point about the tnesions here – we can’t be cool and distant and careful all the time and still do this.

I also think a key point to remember is that trying to create more ‘delightful’ and open space for learning, may require time to break down old ideas of student and teacher.

By: Stephen Powell

Stephen Powell — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 02:52:44 +0000

Possibly so Shirley, I suppose that is partly what I was thinking about. It seems to be such a risky territory, so should we re-consider our rules of engagement? Personally I think that the answer would be OK, but we mustn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. If we were not careful, we could end up with a very antiseptic (safe, risk free, etc.) experience that was by comparison very shallow in the kind of learning it was enabling.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 19:41:15 +0000

To conflate elements of your posting and Richard’s response – when swimming with sharks, would it be sensible to assume good intent? I’ve often wondered if the “cardinal rule” is anything more than a placebo, it might be the equivalent when faced with a hungry shark of trying to avoid splashing. There are alternative tactics when swimming with sharks, such as going down in a cage or not getting in the water at all. It would be interesting to consider the online equivalents, though such comparisons have their own dangers.

By: Stephen Powell

Stephen Powell — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:30:04 +0000

Yes Ricahrd, if the trust is there, then misunderstandings, although they will occur will be, less likely to cause disharmony.

By: Richard Millwood

Richard Millwood — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 17:21:42 +0000

It is indeed a shark-infested water for many. One way of reducing the load may be to have tools for the independent inception of smaller learning sets to work together privately, with confidence, before embarking into a wider context.