"Would you expand on that a bit further, please?"

Module 4, Collaborative Communities

I have been continuing to learn how to more effectively facilitate discussions - and augment them! I took a few more risks this week. My colleagues and I, in our small group discussion, I think came to a working agreement that interactivity was the byword for an exciting discussion that keeps building upon its own "critical thinking" to "successful learner-facilitator interactions." I of course believe that critical thinking is the "safe" way of expressing exciting discussions that absorb the brain and the heart! Discussions that grow and ebb and flow and eventually come full circle are the secret magic to teaching. Start in one place, tell a long story, and end up at the beginning of the circle with a much greater awareness than at the beginning. A spiral, really, because we end up further along than where we started!

I learned a wonderful thing from Rebecca Brink, one of my teachers in this class (the course intern, to be precise), in her feedback to me: "We need not be too polite in thought, but we need to be polite in how we address." Isn't that beautiful? I modified that into my own, "Sharp thought, soft expression." It's a way to give myself permission to own my direct, hard-headed thinking by kind phraseology. I think the bottom line is, there can never be too much kindness in the world, including kindness to ourselves in claiming our freedom to self-express.

I learned a great question from our facilitator, A., to draw people out with: "Could you expand a bit more on this experience?" That was a highly professional way to ask for more personal information, if the assignment is indeed to express a personal experience. I really enjoyed expressing with and hearing from my other small group partners. After half a year together for some of us and a few months or weeks with others, it is wonderful to feel like we're all getting to know each other! I also acknowledged my experience that posting four times a week, as we do in this class, tips the balance into interactivity in a way that three times a week, the standard in other classes, never did.

In the large discussion group I learned about a lot more Web 2.0 tools and how smart my colleagues are! Their questions about the wiki developer I chose to write about, PBWorks.com, inspired me to learn more about the program so I could answer them! Their facility with tech and the writing about it is inspiring. I'm very grateful for learning these tricks of the facilitation trade because I am getting to know these wonderful people better and more effectively!