Last week’s topic on digital literacies is a area that I think is really up to date and that we have quite little practical knowledge about. As a teacher, I often come across it and I can also recognize myself in situations where I can feel insecure because of new digital circumstances. A specific problem, which I touched on in my previous post, is that we (at least in many of our courses on our subject) design distance education based on the same approach we have in traditional classroom teaching, i.e. we take a lesson intended for classrooms and conduct it in for example Zoom. The problem that arises is that we as teachers put students in a digital context without thinking about their needs.

A comparison:
– During regular classroom teaching, the students meet on the way into the classroom and possibly talk informally with each other. During the lesson, they see who is sitting in the classroom, can read facial impressions, can direct their attention to the person they are talking to, etc. Communication can be done with ease, the students feel secure and are engaged (perhaps also because the social code requires that you show some commitment). Should anyone need to make a phone call, they can go out, etc. After the lesson, those who want to stay can stay, and the threshold is quite low to talk to the teacher and other students.
– In distance learning (with traditional thinking) there is not the same informal meeting before the lesson, instead the students enter a Zoom room with the whole class. If you want to say something, you do it to the whole class or chat internally with those you already know, which means that it is usually quite quiet in a large class. During the lesson, there is language confusion and the format entices you to hide behind your screen and not interact so much (especially if you do not have your camera on). It is difficult to know if someone is interested or if they are doing something else. The student becomes uninvolved because it is difficult to create interaction, etc. After the lesson, you just close the meeting room.

This comparison can be made more scientifically but still shows some things that are important to think through. Something I think about is primarily presence. In an article written by Gagnon et.al (2020), they address the importance of three types of presence that are important: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. I think we should think about how we can create these type of presence, before, during and after the lesson sessions.

One digital tool I have tested in a project course during the year is Gather.town. Gather.town, is basically a video conferencing tool but with added functionality so that you can move your avatar around using your keyboard. One of the features is that you can create different virtual areas, for example a lobby where you need to be close to people to talk and listen, or classrooms where everyone in the room can hear no matter virtual distance. What I have seen in that project course is for example that informal meetings are easier to create, presentation setting feel more natural and safe for the speaker, and that project meetings in the own group become more efficient and engaging. Gather.town may be a simple representation of reality, but for educational work, I think it contributes to the above-mentioned presence by that little extra, compared to standard video conferencing tools. Some of the qualities and what it adds to:

• The own choice -> Motivation, attention and dedication
• Virtual distance -> Simplicity and saves time
• Mimicking reality -> Cause and effect

I believe that the own choice of attention is important for the student to be able to feel motivated and dedicated to the task, i.e. if you want to chat with someone individually, you can do it, or take a phone call during a meeting. A virtual distance would mean, among other things, that it is quick and simple to create new constellations of people. Mimicking reality makes it quite intuitive how things work in the virtual, i.e. you do not have to search for buttons in an interface, etc.

Gagnon, K., Young, B., Bachman, T., Longbottom, T., Severin, R., & Walker, M. J. (2020). Doctor of Physical Therapy Education in a Hybrid Learning Environment: Reimagining the Possibilities and Navigating a “New Normal”. Physical Therapy, 100(8), 1268-1277.