A RHYMING REFLECTION ON GILLY SALMONS 5-STAGE-MODEL
By Ingrid Rystedt, May 14, 2020
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Digital confidence, stage-wise induced in online learning, opens new doors via zoom
Communities of inquiry transcends, with emotional presence, the traditional classroom
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As teachers, we do well in seeking guidance from Salmon’s five-stage model
Implemented creatively and wisely, it will students warmly and securely swaddle
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Students in online and blended learning can often feel somewhat baffled
You can avoid this by integrating into your course a supportive scaffold
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Clear instruction on access and acquaintance with a repertoire of online tools
Helps students feel empowered and curious, not merely like fools
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In Salmon’s first stage, moving along slowly develops crucial student motivation
This is, subsequently, an important catalyst for sustainability in the online education
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Remember that for any newly formed group to be stable and to feel safe
Learning about each other is as important as learning the online interface
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In the second stage, initiatives by the e-moderator to promote online socialization
Will likely bear fruit, later on, in group collaboration – and travel beyond cooperation
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As fuel for future innovation, the model’s third stage centers on information exchange
Here, the micro community among students solidifies and e-tivities no longer feel strange
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With students gaining in confidence, knowledge is now not relayed, rather constructed
The e-moderator takes a step back, when the group no longer needs to be conducted
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The teacher, or e-moderator, is now invited to move along in the flow of knowledge creation
As co-learner, not leader, nor facilitator – for the teacher possibly a unique transformation
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Scaffolding from early phases of our course, provides, in the fourth stage, an effective incubator
Where students by-pass social niceties and grasp each other’s perspective without translator
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This, in turn, generates unique development, in Gilly Salmon’s fifth and final stage
Amalgamation of experiences means more than the group members’ skills and age
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Online and blended learning attracts students from diverse cultures and backgrounds
In this context, nurturing collaboration yields thinking out of the box, and of out bounds
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As individuals, we develop when we’re forced to reach beyond what we already know
A solid scaffold prompts students and teachers to take the additional step, and grow
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Recently, the wide-spread fear of the corona-virus prompted nations to lock down and protect
Hence, open networked learning is currently more important, in restoring hope, trust and respect
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We complete our course in digital pedagogy during highly unusual international circumstances
I wish we all stay safe, and continue to enrich our digital learning, spurring new advances
