How do we build community in an online setting?
I decided to start my final semester by asking my students "What challenges have you had with learning online? What do you like most about it?"
I had 57 responses, but for brevity, I will share share six that stood out.
- I love online school. I don't want to go back to regular school.*
- I hate it it it sucks we get way to much homework we don't learn and then we get quizzes.
- The challenges are the breakout rooms mostly they are awkward and what about learning online is you can stay home.
- English barrier. It can improve my English level and make me talk more.
- Sometimes my wifi doesn't work and my siblings walk around the house trying to make their Chrome books work better.
- My biggest challenge is having to keep up with the work and remember what i have to do and the work feels harder without person to person help. I dont like social distance.
During my final semester at USC, my biggest concern was that my students would not be able to build community the same way we could in person. My concern was that there was going to be a lack of interpersonal connection and culture exchange when teaching World History. I asked my students how to build community with all these restrictions. Here are some responses.
- Through Social Media
- Flipped Classroom
- Clubs outside class via zoom
- Its hard because of the pandemic
- We can build community outside of our class time by having outside zooms that are non-school related.
- Umm I do not know.
I did not know either.
Distance learning works for some students, but many are underserved. Breakout rooms were also a concern, as students did not feel comfortable communicating with one another. Oftentimes there was inequity in breakout rooms.
My biggest concern was internet speeds. The following chart indicates that more than half of the students reported average or below average internet speeds. This is particular damaging for students in underserved areas.
How do students build community outside of instruction time? This following chart illustrates the most popular mediums for students to communicate outside of class.
Students overwhelmingly chose text message and social media as their primary form of communication outside of class.
I was inspired to understand potential pitfalls. Rodgers (2002) notes that “while teachers can perceive much through close observation of learning, a great deal is hidden in the minds of the students themselves."
After a semester with these groups of students, I've come up with potential solutions for building community in a distance learning environment.
Solution #1: Provide More Access
Marginalized communities have equally marginalized internet access. Developing infrastructure to create equitable internet access, will not only assist with distance learning, but it can help develop these communities. Service providers have committed to providing access during these unprecedented times, but more needs to be done. District provided Chromebooks were also inadequate. Once the pandemic subsides, the new media literacies taught will become a new normal. Creating infrastructure and providing adequate hardware will be imperative.
Solution #2: Use Slack to Build Community outside of the Classroom
Slack is a wonderful tool used in business and higher education, why not get these students acclimated a technology they will most likely use in several fields. About 1/5 of the students surveyed use Discord and social media to communicate outside of class. Slack has integrations with Google Suite and Zoom, and it can be used to foster a sociocultural learning environment. If a district integrates this, I would have the opportunity to monitor collaborative work. I've used a free version to effectively collaborate with my cohort during guided practice. I am confident it will work with a generation that has so much exposure to new media literacies. I made a presentation on Slack, if there's interest.
In regards to a sociocultural learning environment...
My prior work experience used this application, and I firmly believe it has value in a Secondary space. It's here to stay in the professional workspace, why not introduce it early?
Solution 3: Giving Students a Voice
To truly build community via distance learning, students must be given an option. In one of my exit tickets, I asked my students who they felt comfortable working with. This was after noticing that the zone of proximal development for collaboration was hindered by feeling uncomfortable, shy, or other qualitative observations. In this exit ticket, students informed me of other students that they may or may not feel comfortable working. This continues with the ongoing theme of Safety, Affirmation, Fairness, and Empathy. Students feel safe, collaborating with peers they are more comfortable with, and they are affirmed with fairness that they have an instructor that allows them to work with peers they are more comfortable with.
To get students to take a metacognitive approach, at the end of each class, ask your students: "Did you bring the best version of yourself to class today? Why or why not?" I found a lot of success in understanding where my students were by asking this simple question at the end of each lesson.
Conclusion
It is imperative that instructors have empathy for their students during a global pandemic. Students are experiencing severe trauma from the aftermath of nearly a year without sports, interpersonal events, clubs, dances, and a myriad of other events that have been canceled.
These aforementioned ideas build community, but without internet equity, educators need to find ways to foster this. Through Slack and allowing your students to assert their own voice, community in an online environment can be achieved. These solutions only provide my opinion, but I believe they are viable, as our field has been disrupted in unprecedented ways.
