Donna DesBiens

Hi Leva,

It was good to see you again too... and redeem myself after slipping away from the Book Club last fall.  This LS course has been a great learning & doing experience! 

Warm regards, Donna 

Hello all,

Now I will revise the activity I drafted  - integrating the feedback received and other ideas that bubbled up during the reflection process.  Timeline: By end of next week! 

I will also take some time to review other participant contributions over the weekend. I only had time to scan during the work week and now plan to enjoy a good reflective read over the next couple of days. 

Warm regards, Donna

Hello all, 

So what? 

I got past thinking into making an activity that has been on mind for a long time - that I'll be able to use in a current course development. 

One assumption I had was that LS was mainly about inclusion. I learned that it’s also about sharing power and knowledge so now see more possibilities for integrating more equity activities in my work. 

It was very challenging to think of ways to engage and support the affective aspects of learning in synchronous online that seem to happen more naturally in f2f contexts.  The examples shared in this course are so helpful to meeting that challenge! 

Hello Beth, Leva and all,

What happened?  

I drafted an activity that I'll be able to use in an upcoming course once I've revised it with the very helpful feedback I received. 

Doing this helped me better understand the HSR structure I chose to work with and the feedback I received helped me clarify & integrate my facilitation intentions. 

I also developed a better understanding of LS overall by participating in the course activities and reflecting on co-participant perspectives and contributions. 

Some things I noticed 

I really enjoyed the meta-level of learning of how LS can be done online by participating it the various experiential activities during the week.  Am going to work on modelling this in my own courses. 

Also, appreciated that activities were so well chunked and sequenced that it felt manageable to actually get an activity drafted during a week where I had to be very Zen about time management. 

Thanks for a great learning experience! Donna

Hi Sylvia, Terri & Beth,

Thank you all for the feedback. 

It's affirming to hear which pieces seem to work well, e.g. that trust and relationship building precede this likely vulnerable activity and the choice of HSR to start building faculty empathy. The next activity is about developing more equitable assessment for cultural 'others' so those pieces of feedback confirm the activity sequence for me.  

I'm also glad to hear that the language sounds warm, inviting, and focuses on working with students - that's what I was aiming for. 

In your generative feedback, all 3 of you also nailed activity aspects I was struggling with myself.   

On Sylvia's question about "responding in the same way," I only want to convey that responses should be succinct - long posts spell long time commitments for everyone in asynchronous.  Terri's feedback about forming small groups to share stories is helpful on this point too - it could take a lot of time to read everyone's posts and might even start feeling like a sad therapy group!  

Taken together with Beth's question about the vulnerability of whole class share, I think the idea of small groups is a better fit with the purpose of HSR. (Pairs might be a problem because of variable participation patterns). The relative privacy of small group Collaborate sessions or discussion forums is likely to feel safer and better support both the active listening practice and harvesting of patterns - first by the groups, and then include a facilitator synthesis at the end. And maybe model the Troika adaptation used in this share/feedback activity to come at the listening and harvest, while saving time!  

Thanks Terri, for your suggestion about connecting the privilege piece into the HSR question before they view the video.  That was still a loose end in my draft. And so important because 'privilege' is one of the big triggers for reactivity.    

So helpful! Thanks again, Donna 

PS Sylvia, the course runs in November - would love it if you can join in. I try to structure it to keep the time commitment to about 4 hours a week.