La Correspondencia de España (Madrid, 1902)

“I hope that there’s no right or wrong” ~ Robert

A recurring theme during my interviews was the notion of online communities and, in particular, discussion forums, as being places where people could voice their opinions, be heard, feel safe, and not feel pressured to respond under any duress. According to Robert,

“So what I think happens in the online environment is that you have some safety built in which is people don’t have to necessarily think on their feet. They don’t have to feel the pressure of oh I’ve got to be really smart here because that guy just said something really smart. And that it’s easier to create a safe environment because in a face to face

class or even in a group of people like faculty you would say “it’s ok, if your shy” you’re already pointing out things that are just aggravating the problem. So in a Virtual

Learning Community I think that holds true also. Which is it’s ok to have an opinion and it’s ok to have a brief opinion. You don’t really have to get into it. And I hope that there’s no right or wrong. That should be the key to any kind of discussion anyway. That’s the nature of discussion. We’re discussing. If I discuss and you say I’m wrong then we’re not discussing any more we’re arguing. And that’s ok too. But that’s different than discussion. So I think that its a safe place to try out ideas and solutions in the way we use VLCs we’re talking about our practice usually, how to do things in different ways you know its back and forth. So I think its a pretty safe environment.”

One of the clear advantages of the VLC program and its emphasis on not only allowing, but encouraging and facilitating dialogue in online discussion forums is that faculty, in particular, have an opportunity to give careful consideration to their input in at least a cooperative way, and in many cases, according to interviewees, a truly collaborative way. In one multi-course online community where enrollment is mandatory, but participation is voluntary, faculty take the opportunity to have their voices and opinions heard. According to Roger,

“Maybe once, twice a semester we have training sessions or get togethers so that we can look at the syllabus and so on. But between there it’s 15 weeks of minimal contact with your colleagues. So with the forums, that actually opened up the possibility for people to have conversations as the program’s rolling. We document down problems with the program or issues that arise during the semester. And they can have a

conversation through that forum. It actually encourages people to have a voice, I think. Rather than sometimes in a meeting some people will be very quiet. But on the forum they’re actually quite vocal. And we’ve always presented the forum as open discussion, as something that they can put down whatever they want, you know. And then we

actually use that as a way of assessing the program, the success of it and what changes we’re going to do the next semester.”

Sandra in her work in faculty development at the CiTE sees an important parallel between the experience that faculty are gaining in the VLC program and their own practice in the classroom. It is, in essence, a pure form of faculty development that starts with a

disorienting dilemma for some and ultimately results in critical reflection and a new way of seeing things, in particular, how we facilitate our own classroom spaces and give them a chance to be heard. In discussing how her face to face classes diverge from her online experiences in the VLC program as well as social media external to the campus Internet environment she says that,

“…when I first started to work with online forums, it was really eye opening to see sort of the explosion of that student who wasn’t necessarily involving themselves in the

classroom activity because of all sorts of different fears and comfort levels and maybe this has to do with gender and race and orientation and all the different reasons, all the different roadblocks, that that individual in my classroom has had to fight through in the past and what I represent as a teacher, and certainly one that talks a lot. And how do I need to shut up and listen too, I think is a whole other part of this conversation.”

It is indeed an experience for many educators to participate in asynchronous dialogue with colleagues and to not be able to dominate the discussion but have to learn new ways to learn and to develop personal, as well as professional skills. But for faculty, the experience can be intimidating at times and not without risks.