The readings suggest that being authentic when teaching online is a learnable ability that takes as much time and effort as learning how to be authentic on a face-to-face situation.
I can relate this idea to the concept of being a natural performer in music. Mass media has done an excellent job at promoting the idea that some (or actually very few) people are born with a natural and authentic persona for the musical stage. However, recent research on high performance suggests that that such apparently natural abilities are more likely the result of hours and hours of conscious and unconscious practice. After all, the X factor is a learnable ability.
Performing on the “online stage”–online teaching–requires a new learning process on our part. Creating a new “authentic” persona is one of the main challenges of creating an effective learning environment in online teaching.
First, accepting the fact that technological developments shape our ways of knowing, developing and communicating knowledge (Major) leads to major discoveries on the limitations of our traditional disciplinary concepts and beliefs. Second, realizing that online teaching fosters a student centered experience, where we, as teachers, are not in the center of the game, also hurts our ego. I confess that it is easier to talk about student center approaches in a theoretical discussion than to actually experience it and live by such principles in one’s own class.
The author makes a point by stating that “the quality of the communication in an online course becomes the quality of the course itself” (179). I am a bit overwhelmed by the amount and quality of tools that can help us improve communication and create a persona in online teaching. This semester I am teaching two face-to-face and two online courses (for the first time).
My initial thoughts were that this class would give me some tools to apply on my own online classes. It is now clear that it was “wishful thinking”–I love this American expression– to assume that online teaching was a matter of packing my class in the Moodle platform and add some cool gadgets to spice the mix.
It will take a few semesters to develop and feel more comfortable about my online persona. But I am confident that it can happen and that my classes will at some point accommodate to my student’s learning style and to my teaching style. Flipgrid is helping significantly. The X factor will show up eventually.
Should I mention that my face to face persona is also changing after this experience?
Camilo's Blog 