Speak up! Transforming Classroom Discussions
Some students enjoy speaking up in class while others don't. This is a potential situation in many classrooms. In what ways then, can we promote more students to share their ideas?
This presentation will briefly introduce research undertaken on face-to-face and virtual discussions and discuss some of the literature involved. Based on the findings, I will also highlight some of the benefits of virtual discussions and provide links for experiment in your classrooms.
12. Jarmon, Lim and Carpenter (2009)
"Introduction Pedagogy, Education and
Innovation in Virtual Worlds"
say virtual worlds will be used more for
teaching and learning in the future.
13. Friedman, Karniel and Dinur’s (2009) study
“Comparing Group Discussion in Virtual and
Physical Environments" found that students
had a higher number of on-topic
discussions in the physical
discussion setting versus the virtual
discussion setting (p. 290).
14. Friedman et al. (2009) setup the 3D virtual
world Second Life for students to be
anonymous (p.288).
15.
Carnegie’s (2003) study, “Teaching a Critical
Understanding of Virtual Environments”
found that virtual discussions
provided more opportunities for
quieter students.
16. Carnegie acknowledges that, “[t]he
biggest advantage [of virtual
discussions] was for students who
were shy, self-conscious, or
intimidated in face-to-face
group meetings” (2003, p. 63).
18. Susan Cain (2012) confirms this idea by
explaining that ‘quiet’ students feel
comfortable collaborating in an “online
working group” which is similar to a virtual
discussion because “it is a form of
solitude” which better meets the needs of
more introverted learners (p. 111).
19. Wang and Woo’s (2007) study “Comparing
Asynchronous Online Discussions and Face-
to-Face Discussions in a Classroom Setting”
said, “[i]n terms of authenticity, face-to-
face discussions were more real
and authentic than in-class online
discussions because participants could talk
to each other in real time, see their facial
expressions and clarify matters
immediately” (p. 282). In this aspect, face-to-
face discussions were regarded as more
superior to online discussions.
20. Wang and Woo (2007) also said that
“online discussions were more
comfortable, less aggressive and
offered more equal
opportunities for group
members to voice their
opinions” (p. 282).
21. Participation increased in virtual
discussions
Quality of participation also increased
during virtual discussions
27. REFERENCES
Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking. New York:
Crown Publishers.
Carnegie, T. A. (2003). TeachingaCritical Understandingof Virtual Environments.
Business Communication Quarterly, 66(4), 55-64.
Friedman, D., Karniel, Y., & Dinur, A. L. (2009). Comparing Group Discussion in Virtual
and Physical Environments. PRESENCE by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
18(4), 286-293.
Jarmon, L., Lim, K. Y., & Carpenter, B. S. (2009). Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in
3-D Virtual Worlds. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(1), 3-4.
Ligorio, M. B., Cesareni, D., & Schwartz, N. (2008). Collaborative Virtual Environments
as Means to Increase the Level of Intersubjectivity in a Distributed Cognition System.
Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 40(3), 339-357.
Wang, Q., & Woo, H. L. (2007). Comparing asynchronous online discussions and face-
28. ATTRIBUTION - VISUAL
Speaking Up by HowardLake http://www.flickr.com/photos/howardlake/5540462170/sizes/l/in/photostream/
SSIS Campus images by rappino
Speaking Up & Raising my hand image by rappino
Research Human Rights Faces image by rappino
Trees by Mark Sebastian http://www.flickr.com/photos/markjsebastian/506960906/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Balloons by Tim Geers http://www.flickr.com/photos/timypenburg/5097328888/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Literature by sweet_redbird http://www.flickr.com/photos/18261299@N00/4806782675/sizes/z/in/photostream/
important: by Valerie Everett http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/290711738/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Mask by zigazou76 http://www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/6824175422/sizes/c/in/photostream/
View from the Top by C.M Keiner http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmkeiner/5230441693/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Birds: by Tim Geers http://www.flickr.com/photos/timypenburg/5271241301/sizes/l/in/photostream/
RESOURCES
Discussions in Classrooms: Comparing Face-To-Face Whole Class Discussions to Virtual Discussions by Robert
Appino
Download Presentation on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/rappino/speak-up-transforming-classroom-
discussions-oct-2012
Robert Appino www.rappino.com
Editor's Notes
This presentation is called Speak Up! Transforming Classroom Discussions. Again, my name is Robert Appino. You can find me on twitter @rappin01 \n \n
Here is a snap shot of where I work in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This is the High School building which is the main entrance to the campus. We have over 35 nationalities with 850 student early childhood to Grade 12. One of our principal is actually waving on the far right.\n\n\n\n\nI work as a MS Technology Coach and teacher here at Saigon South International School, Saigon (HCMC) Vietnam. I’m excited to contribute to K12Online this year and wanted to say thanks to those that organized.\n
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Consider this idea? Some students enjoy speaking up in class while others don't? This is a scenario that most educators are familiar with.\n How can we promote more students to share their ideas? In this presentation, I will briefly present research on face-to-face and virtual discussions. \n My over goal with this is to encourage educators to try different ways to reach their students through different modes of class discussions. There isn’t a one size fits all model for the diverse needs of every class.\n \n
The research.\n
I conducted an Action Research on Face to Face Whole class Discussions compared to Virtual whole class discussions. There were 21 students that were part of this study.\n\n
Just to clarify Face to Face discussion is when people have a discussion while occupying the same physical space. \n
Virtual Discussions are class discussions in a virtual space such as a moodle forum, shared google doc, titan pad, a blog or any other virtual space that promotes discussion. In this study, 21 students in my class were participants in both the face-to-face discussions and the virtual discussions.\n
My research questions was : What is the effect of virtual discussions on students’ participation and sense of belonging?\nI wanted to know if students would feel more comfortable participating in virtual discussions vs face to face.\n
The reason I chose to do this study was because in my class of 21, 14 were male and they tended to dominate face-to-face classroom discussions.\nIn contrast, I observed that the quietest female student during class discussion was actually the most active blogger in the class and had a lot valuable thoughts to share. \nSo I wanted to see if it was possible to replicate the feeling of comfort to share ideas when writing in her blog. \nMy idea was to give the students both modes of discussion as a way to better communicate their thoughts. \n
In this next part, I would like to give an overview of the literature on Face-to-face discussions compared with virtual discussions\n
We’ve already seen this trend increase in recent years.\n
I was interested in their findings that highlighted that Face to Face interaction resulted in HIGHER frequency of on-topic discussion. \n
Second Life is a 3D Virtual World which enables users to create their own virtual persona and potentially interact with other virtual personas. This was used to gage on-topic virtual discussions. The limitation of this study is that students wore a “virtual mask” so to speak thus they may have felt that their actions were not as accountable as in the face to face class discussions. So although students were conducting discussions in both settings they were more likely to go off task when adopting their “virtual mask”\n
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This study enabled me to realize that virtual discussions were a means of encompassing the broader needs to accommodate students to feel nurtured and valued in the classroom environment.\n
Susan Cain the author of Quiet establishes the fact that extroversion/ or the cult of personality in the US wasn't always valued the way it is today \nShe demonstrates how this historical change came about /and highlights how the "power of personality" or EXTROVERSION came to be the cultural ideal in the US\nIn her book, she skillfully demonstrates that "introversion" is not a negative quality, rather this is seen as time for careful consideration for example, she details the background of Steve  Wozniak and other so called introverted people who became publicly successful do to their creativity fueled in their ‘Quiet’ moments\nShe also highlights the ways in which Asian American students engage in school and college life. In her research she found that most Asian students preferred the introverted mode of interaction and for various reasons were more comfortable using this mode of communication \nThe research and underpinnings in her book were interest to me because of the parallels I could see in my own classroom.\n\n\n
Read this slide then say that\nIn this way the book Quiet is a breakthrough in understanding that introversion is not a negative quality and that EXTROVERSION is not the ideal.\n\n
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however... Wang and Woo... key point\n
Summarize my results: What I found in my study was that student participation increased in virtual discussions. Also, the Quality of participation increased in virtual discussions meaning students discussion stayed more on topic in virtual discussions. \n
It was interesting what was confirmed in my overall findings.\nIn Virtual Discussions Female students where freed from the constraints they felt from whole class discussions which was dominated more by the male students.\nIn the virtual context they were able to be more active participants in discussion and had a higher frequency of on-topic discussions. Additionally, some male students that reacted without thinking during Face-to-Face discussions had a higher frequency of on-topic discussions in Virtual discussions. This could be due to the fact that virtual discussions have a lasting digital footprint and the students have a growing understanding of the implications of this. Also, virtual discussions require students to reread what they are going to say before they post it. Perhaps because they are writing instead of speaking students were more careful with what they were going to say so they could communicate more effectively. This could be something to follow-up on in a future study.\n
Many educational conferences at this point in time include face-to-face interaction. This conference, K12Online, is a virtual space for educators to interact, share and learn. We still have discussions & conversations virtually through comments in the K12Online website, twitter and other means. At physical conferences we attend face to face presentations, have keynotes, have face-to-face discussions but we also discuss via # hashtags on twitter and other networks. So perhaps in the future we will continue to see a rise in virtual conferences.\n
I would highly recommend integrating virtual discussions into your classrooms. And suggest that you experiment in finding a balance that fits the needs of your particular class. \n
Here are some useful tools to help you integrate virtual discussions into your classroom. All of these tools are user friendly and have variety of advantages. An easy tool to start with is Google Docs because you can include discussion questions in the google doc and use the chat function to discuss while students are logged into the doc.\n
If you are interested in the methods and specific findings from my action research paper please click on the link to the full research paper.\n
References from my paper\n
Image Attributions. You can follow the links and this presentation via rappino.com.\n
Get your students to Speak Up and transform your classroom discussions. If you want to contact me you can find me on twitter or via my website. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this conference. \n\n\n