As a college instructor in times of COVID-19, I was thrust into online teaching for the first time at exactly the halfway point in our Spring 2020 semester, about 4 short weeks ago. Blackboard, the learning management system (LMS) that my institution uses, went from being the dusty archive where I house course documents and occasionally receive assignments from students, to a vital life source and main point of contact between me and my students and therefore the primary “place” through which learning happens. The fact that it is a “place” and no longer physically constrained by the four-walled classroom may lend itself to ubiquitous learning. As Cope and Kalantzis indicate, the LMS is not a tool that innately promotes reflexive over didactic pedagogy—evidenced by the way I was using it pre-pandemic—though it can certainly be tapped into in order to facilitate ubiquitous learning (13-14).

For my seminar style humanities course taught in the target language (Spanish), my first preoccupation was with how to replace our robust in-class discussions. I use Blackboard’s virtual classroom to lecture and discuss with my students synchronously once a week, while replacing the interaction of the second weekly class meeting with an asynchronous discussion board. While we lose some face-to-face learning experiences that we can’t simply replicate online, we make some gains by way of ubiquitous learning in which technology allows for the breakdown of time and space restricting the traditional classroom. The disadvantages of typing rather than orally discussing are clear from a language pedagogy perspective, however there are also a number of advantages when students have a whole week to create a thread and respond to other students.

So far, I have found that it rings true that the discussion is enriched because the barrier is lower and therefore everyone responds instead of always the same students with quick reflexes (Cope and Kalantzis 18-19). Quieter students are now afforded the opportunity to thoughtfully join the discussion and engage with other students and me. Because students’ comments are no longer fleeting into the linear time of the classroom, but rather anchored down for one week in the discussion board forum, it opens new possibilities for discussion and participation.

Wiley Education Services

This image from Wiley's “9 Student Engagement Strategies for Online Discussion Forums in 2019” is a visualization of the new connections between students and thought overlaps made possible when student discussion is not bridled to the space/time of the traditional classroom.

References:

Cope, Bill and Mary Kalantzis. 2016. "Conceptualizing New Learning." In Cope, Bill and Mary Kalantzis, e-Learning Ecologies. Routledge NY: forthcoming.

“9 Student Engagement Strategies for Online Discussion Forums in 2019.” Wiley Education Services, Wiley. https://edservices.wiley.com/9-student-engagement-strategies-for-discussion-forums/