Are you real???

Are you real???

by Fahim Faqdani -
Number of replies: 11

Nowadays, online teaching and learning have become an undeniable part of our lives. I believe all of us look around to google or YouTube when we hear something new which shows how much these platforms conquered our lives. If we see from the positive perspective to online teaching and learning and digital platforms, we get that for the first time digital and online education has changed the arrangement of a classroom which was the same for more than 150 years. But still there are problems and issues that make online learning less effective than in-person which one of them is social presence. Social presence is how people establish themselves to be real (Lowenthal, 2009). The ability of students to project themselves socially and emotionally as well as their capacity to perceive other students as "real people" are described as social presence in the context of online learning. (Boston et al., 2010, p. 68).

I used to teach as an online teacher during the Covid19 quarantine time and I always believed that most of the lesson that we are doing is not beneficial for students as we didn’t know anything about social presence. We were thinking that making just a video recording or doing a zoom meeting with students is all about online education. Most of my lessons were at early morning and nearly all of the students were sleeping during the lesson lol 😊. When I started my MAT journey, although it is also online but it is very different from the online education we were doing as in MAT we were always engaged a lot and we were really feeling ourselves as real people in the class, however still I am against online education from Afghanistan due to our country’s problems in internet connectivity and electricity issues. We faced lots of problems during these months but still I was feeling myself real in all the classrooms as I was always busy doing things related to our course.

Using affective expression is a very important ability for online teachers and learners in order to project themselves as real people. Online teachers should encourage all the students to have a profile picture and if possible, most of the time the cameras should be on in order to be felt more real. There should be different icebreakers in order to not get tired of the class. I remember my Inclusive Education course, while my professor was doing an icebreaker and she asked to show something that is around you that is always with you and you cannot do without it. I was feeling that everyone in the class get alive and was searching for something to show at the camera to the classmates. I couldn’t find anything special to show and when she called my name to open my camera, my daughter opened the door of my room and was trying to convince me to leave the lesson and play with her, I did vice versa and showed her to the class as a special creature of my live and we had the lesson together that day.


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In reply to Fahim Faqdani

Re: Are you real???

by Fahim Faqdani -
References:

Lowenthal, P. R. (2009). Social presence. In Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition (pp. 1900-1906). IGI Global.

Boston, Diaz, Gibson, Ice, Richardson, Swan. (2010). An exploration of the relationship between indicators of the Community of Inquiry framework and retention in online programs. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14(1), 67-83.

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In reply to Fahim Faqdani

Re: Are you real???

by Deleted user -
I completely agree with you about the problem of online learning in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan majority of people do not have access to a good internet connection and almost all people do not have stable electricity, so teaching online is not a good option there. Also, I liked your point about having icebreakers during online classes. Short icebreaker activity helps students to feel social presence of their professors and their classmates which is very effective.

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In reply to Deleted user

Re: Are you real???

by Fahim Faqdani -
Thanks for your reply Mursal! Absolutely icebreaker is kind of activities to get all the members of an online lesson get to know each other and feel they are real and help the members to engage more to the lesson.

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In reply to Fahim Faqdani

Re: Are you real???

by Deleted user -
Yes, I agree with all these challenges we face online. But we have to push as we cannot do without technology and despite many disadvantages it also has many advantages. But at the same time we may need to utilize the online platforms four our purpose i.e., to establish a dialogue in learning with the instructors and other classmates. Like many other changes, we will initially feel distracted but as we adapt and get used to it, we can feel natural with it - i hope that will not take longer. Additionally, as you may note and agree we are in the catch-up mode and not invention mode. I hope we will be able to contribute to change the online education and contribute to making it better and perhpas we have to push for a critical digital pedagogy for all our classes, whether we are teachers or students.

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In reply to Deleted user

Re: Are you real???

by Fahim Faqdani -
I remember this from my physics teacher when he was speaking about Mechanical Advantage, everything has its advantages and disadvantages but we need to decide whether to use it or not while comparing these two. If advantage rate was higher so all the disadvantages can be covered. The same we have in usage of technology and online education, for sure it has its issues and problems but when we see from a wider vision so we see that the advantages are very very more and higher than the issues.

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In reply to Fahim Faqdani

Re: Are you real???

by Deleted user -
By confirming all of you. Additionally, we know that everything has its own advantages and disadvantages, but sometimes some things seem to be more advantageous, such as the using of technology on online lessons. Technology in the field of education, knowledge has become easily accessible to all students anywhere in the world. Classrooms help students who are in the same group but in different places to communicate.

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In reply to Deleted user

Re: Are you real???

by Harira Amani -
I absolutely in the same idea with you Parisa, and as Fahim mentioned also we need to see on the rate of advantage and disadvantage of anything we decide to use and in digital education, of course the advantages are higher. I can give my own example, due to the problems I faced to get VISA for my daughter, I couldn't join the lessons F2F in Bishkek. If digital and online education are not available for us, so I was never be able to get my Master's degree from a prestigious university like AUCA as you know we don't have lots of good ones in Afghanistan which have the Master's degree in education.

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In reply to Harira Amani

Re: Are you real???

by Arezu Rahmani -
Absolutely, Harira. As Afghans, especially the women, we struggle with this the majority of the time. Since women in Afghanistan are no longer permitted to attend school or universities or hold teaching positions, online learning is a fantastic opportunity for them to continue their quest for knowledge. They can even take online courses to teach themselves.

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In reply to Arezu Rahmani

Re: Are you real???

by Deleted user -
Yes Arezu, you have pointed out a very good point, nowadays the only source of education for Afghan women is only online courses😔

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In reply to Fahim Faqdani

Re: Are you real???

by Sohaib Rahiq -
Dear Fahim,
For me, reading your remarks was like time travel and a journey to the past. I completely comprehend how difficult it is to plan online lessons and follow up with students using online tools when both teachers and students face several electrical and bandwidth issues. I agreed with your disapproval of Afghanistan-based online education. I can understand the challenges you are facing there and really appreciate your efforts and enthusiasm toward MAT.
wish you all the best,

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In reply to Fahim Faqdani

Re: Are you real???

by Elizabeth Alibaeva -
Hi Fahim, I like your post title. :)

Thanks for sharing your experience. COVID certainly gave us all a run for our money, so to speak, when grappling with online teaching. I agree with Fakhrullah, who I think mentioned the idea of being in catch up mode vs. being intentional in design; COVID was certainly a catching-up kind of time. I love that your little daughter could join your Inclusive Ed class as part of the ice breaker; thanks for sharing the specific example, as it shows how you connected to your classmates and also had the unexpected opportunity to connect with your daughter during class time.

What do you think about the distinction between synchronous and asynchronous learning and the sense that students feel when it comes to belonging and cooperation, as referenced in "Synchronous and Asynchronous Discussions: Effects on Cooperation, Belonging, and Affect" (Peterson, Beymer, & Putnam, 2018)? Have you experienced social presence mitigating some of that distance felt during your asynchronous learning experiences?

Also, do you and Harira have questions for the group? (Just checking re: the 1/23 assignment and how it connects with this one...)

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