No More Discussion “Bored-s”
In Minds Online (2014), Dr. Michelle D. Miller examines how to structure effective online discussions to support students’ deep processing and intrinsic motivation. Miller outlines three different discussion types:
1. Personalize It!
This kind of discussion asks students to relate the week’s material to their own life, using experiences they’ve had or their own opinions. Students are invited to share only what they feel comfortable sharing, and they’ll have a choice of topics so they need not get involved in a discussion they’re uncomfortable with. Provide scaffolding for students by suggesting how they might respond to their peers’ posts.
Example prompts for students include:
- Have you had a similar experience?
- Are there any supportive comments you can offer?
- What do you think these experiences mean?
2. Relate Old to New
This kind of discussion asks students to explore and explain the linkages between what they’ve already learned in the course thus far and the week’s new material.
3. [Your course/topic] in the Media
This kind of discussion asks students to link course material to the wider culture as portrayed in the media, including classic media, fictional series and movies, and current events.
Mindfulness and Radical Listening
Middlebury College’s Office of Digital Learning and Inquiry (DLINQ) published “Mindfulness and Radical Listening in Digital Spaces,” a resource that includes sentence stems meant to promote radical listening techniques to be shared with students in order to give them concrete ways to engage in constructive dialogue. Sample sentence stems include:
- I am hearing you say X; is this what you mean?
- I’m not sure I understand, could you tell me more about that?
- This sounds or reminds me of X; was that your intention?
References
Cole, B., & Watulak, S.L. (2019, January 18). Mindfulness and radical listening in digital spaces [website]. Retrieved from: https://dlinq.middcreate.net/digital-literacy/digital-detox-2-4-mindfulness-radical-listening-in-digital-spaces/
Miller, M.D. (2014). Minds online: Teaching effectively with technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
