E-Coaching Tip 37: Pausing, Reflecting and Pruning Strategies

Alternate Tip on Timely and Efficient Feedback on Assignments

With all the snowstorms and cold, spring and mid-terms can't be far behind! And in recognition of all that you are doing, this week's tip focuses on reflecting and pruning.

But first, a reminder about last week's tip on cognitive presence. As you will recall, cognitive presence means that you and your students explicitly and publicly construct and confirm meaning through sustained discourse. If you have not had time to use that concept or begin to build it into your course, it is good to simply take forward the key phrase of "constructing and confirming meaning."

This week's tip reminds us that while the process of learning requires that constructing and confirming of meaning that learning also includes sub-processes of reflection and pruning. Our brains and memories are simply not designed for remembering everything! This fact is very comforting as we get older as well.

Many of our new technologies, such as cameras, GPS trackers and even brain scanners are going beyond capturing key life moments to support "life-logging," a term used to describe systems that document every conversation, movement, etc. A recent (2-24-07) interview with Emily Nussbaum, a contributing editor of the New York magazine, on Talk of the Nation explores the issues inherent in life-logging and the shifts in privacy perspective that appear to be occurring. In fact, this may be a social phenomenon that some of you may want to refer to in your classes. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7402921.

Just as we cringe -- at least, I do -- at the thought of every moment of my life being captured and recorded, we may well cringe at every moment of our teaching and learning processes being recorded as well! Learning -- as well as life -- can be messy. (When my children were young, I left the kitchen to them as they baked or cooked; I couldn't bear to watch!

Similarly, in the online environment, where so much is being captured, discussed and presented, it is a good thing to do the following:

Pause and Reflect Strategies

Design in pausing and reflecting -- and summarizing-- times. One technique that is very useful for this is the "discussion-wrapping" tip that was referred to in last week's tip. And you will recall this is something that you can do, individual students can do or very small teams of 2 can do. You may want to phrase it in terms similar to today's management terms such as the bottom line, 'take-aways" and "implications for next steps."
Hold question and answer and Concept Summary synchronous sessions using Horizon-Wimba. Make use of this technology to "hear" in real time what your students are thinking about the course content. Faculty who have started using this technology report that it is their -- and their students' -favorite way of gathering and thinking together.
Ask your students to focus on what questions they have at this point in the course. Have them write out/speak out/think out what is confusing them. Last week's tip on cognitive presence mentioned that the higher level phases of developing useful knowledge include integration and resolution. Integration includes " reaching some group or team convergences by connecting ideas, identifying relationships and patterns, and proposing solutions. Resolution is when "the group or larger community applies and tests solutions in the real world scenarios.

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