2.0 learning

FOC08(2): Facilitating, moderating, or teaching

There is an important change between traditional learning basis and web2.0, 2.0 education ones. Vertical (up to down) comunication, tradicionallly “teaching” establishing estructured information have been progressively surpased by mentoring, tutoring, facilitating, horizontal ways (peer to peer) to show different paths to fluid, relative and sometimes chaotic information.

Facilitation has been defined as to manage ‘the communication of others online’ (Coghlan 2001).

In order to define the facilitator role, we must to answer to these question:

How are the skills different for each role?

Leigh Blakhall writes about this in Facilitate,not to teach:

“We are working with people who has been educated on a tradicional teaching based model. Online communities participants, are unprepared, not used to the facilitated and individually responsible and self motivated learning environment facilitator tries to encourage:

I can understand the expectation for a teacher in a course. Naturally a student who has enrolled in a formal course, following traditional administration channels, paying fees etc and who is of an age and professional experience that is very used to the idea of taught and instructed learning, would expect a similarly efficient, industrial strength, structured learning pathway within the course. But this is at odds with my understanding of facilitation and my principals around individual responsibility, networked learning, and a belief in the importance of deschooling.

Either I yield to the tradition of schooled learning and assume the role of teacher, instructor and assessor and forgo the role of facilitator, or I invest a lot more time with these courses and develop my skills as a communicator and become more sophisticated in ways of moving expectations towards a facilitated and individualised learning environment.(…)

Unfortunately frustrations are expressed from time to time that relate to the seeming lack of structure and direction in the facilitation of the course, and the apparent over whelming amount of information and technical skills needed to participate. I can’t help but think that a lot of this frustration can be attributed to the confusion between teacher and facilitator, and the expectation of instructed learning that the course admin has encouraged.

It is generally assumed that “facilitation” ethic emerges after a participant practices blogging and experiences networked connections. This is true for approximately 10 – 20% of the participants I have had contact with, so what of the 80 – 90%?

Perhaps this number will decrease as more and more people experience this type of expectation and meet others who have experienced it before.. a bit like the take up of email… or perhaps social networking sites like Facebook or Ecto will replace the idea of blogging and bring us back to group work, which seems to be what we are all schooled to being more comfortable with.. sadly.”

The last is an interesting point. Individual, self-conducted (but networked) learning as the better way to learn.

I´m going to end this post with the following, very clear scheme about the various moderation models now being presented to assist teachers understand the fundamental concepts of facilitation and as a basis for theorising:

* Salmon’s Five Stage Moderation Model
* Collison, Elbaum, Haavind and Tinker’s Facilitation model
* Paulsen’s Function model
* Hootstein’s ‘Four Pairs of Shoes’ Model

Salmon’s fives stages are

* Stage 1: Access and motivation
* Stage 2: Socialization
* Stage 3: Information Exchange
* Stage 4: Knowledge Construction
* Stage 5: Development

Each stage calls for different e-moderating skills requiring participants to master certain technical skills and steps learners through a logical process of induction before deeper level interactions occur. Students learn through participation and engagement. Motivation is the key, and so is the provision of a conducive structure and environment.

Collison, Elbaum, Haavind and Tinker’s model is based on techniques used by the moderator to guide and facilitate the learning. It is premised on the view that appropriate communication interventions by the moderator can move students forward and facilitate (but should not lead) their understandings.

Paulsen maintains that moderators should identify their preferred pedagogical style, based on their philosophical orientation, their chosen moderator roles, and their preferred facilitation techniques. Moderator roles can at times vary. Facilitation functions are classified under headings of organizational, social and intellectual facilitation.

Hootstein proposes a model in which the e-learning facilitator or moderator “wears ‘four pairs of shoes’ – acting as instructor, social director, program manager, and technical assistant”. In the instructor role the instructor guides the learning in a problem-centred learning environment, offering insights and assisting learners. As a social director they create and foster a collaborative environment. A program manager directs the agenda. And as a technical director they “assist students to become comfortable with systems and software and prepare learners to resolve … technical difficulties that may occur”.

Each model presents a different way of conceptualising the learning and facilitation interactions and provides useful techniques, and each has made a significant contribution to the research fields of online learning and computer-mediated communication.

References

• To Facilitate or to Teach – CC By Leigh Blackall with discussion in the comments.
• Wikibooks: Managing Groups and Teams/How Do You Build High-performing Virtual Teams?
• GROU.PS is a platform for social groups to get together. Use it for any purpose. Choose your template and pick all the modules that you want (wiki, blogs, photos, links etc). And get your group web site without waiting. No branding, it’s free!
• Effective Online Facilitation – Australian Flexible Learning Framework guide
• Five stage model for e-moderating- Gilly Salmon.
• Curatorial Teaching CC By George Siemens 2007 with audio recorded presentation and discussion

© 2008 The Shell.