8 - Coping with Undesirable Online Silence

Summary

This discussion highlights how contradiction exists between what some scholars fervently visualise and what many learners genuinely experience. Digital education has been viewed from both a macro perspective and a micro perspective. Scholars who take the former standpoint conceptualise the field as an exciting movement with massive positive changes sweeping across the globe. From a micro perspective, however, the above revolution does not reach every student equally but numerous problems keep occurring in online academic settings. The author argues that silence is undesirable when it occurs in idleness without thought processing and idea production. This happens when students listen for information but make no effort to form questions, develop viewpoints, respond to issues, or find solutions to problems. The chapter presents some challenging characteristics of online education with a focus on several contradictions between teacher and student expectations. A set of practical suggestions are offered to assist teachers in coping with undesirable online silence. These strategies address components such as learning content, communication, choices, collaboration, task performance, protocols and scaffolding of student learning.