{"id":30812,"date":"2019-01-08t10:41:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-08t15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=30812"},"modified":"2019-01-08t10:41:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08t15:41:10","slug":"engaging-ethically-and-actively-in-online-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2019\/01\/engaging-ethically-and-actively-in-online-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"engaging ethically and actively in online communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

by chelsea yarborough, graduate teaching fellow, and derek bruff, director<\/em><\/p>\n

the cft\u2019s learning community on teaching digital literacies concluded its fall conversation series on november 13th<\/sup> with a discussion of the ways instructors can help students participate productively in online communities. to get the conversation started, derek bruff, cft director, invited each of our three panelists to talk about their experiences intersecting their classrooms with online communities and helping students engage in civil and respectful dialogue in digital environments.<\/p>\n

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jessie hock<\/strong>, assistant professor of english, started her remarks by reframing the question. \u201cmy goal isn\u2019t to make students civil and respectful,\u201d she said. \u201cmy goal is to make them activists.\u201d she noted that the online world isn\u2019t entirely pleasant. that means she works to protect her students from it, but also empower them to change it. hock described a wikipedia project for her course on early modern women\u2019s writing. like writing on wikipedia, writing by women in england in the 16th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> centuries tended to be non-professional and collaborative. but early modern women\u2019s writing isn\u2019t well represented on wikipedia, in part because much of the relevant scholarship doesn\u2019t appear in traditional books and journals; it\u2019s found in collaborative online communities. for these reasons, hock asked her students to assess the quality of existing wikipedia articles pertaining to the women they were studying, and to suggest edits to the relevant wikipedia pages. students weren\u2019t required to make those edits, but many opted to do so. hock concluded that her goal is to help students become interventionist in online communities (in this case, wikipedia) and to change the nature and structure of those communities with their participation.<\/p>\n

continuing the conversation, amanda little<\/strong>, writer in residence in english, passionately talked about her course \u201cthe art of blogging.\u201d students in the course study the evolving literary form of blogging and how journalism, particularly investigative journalism, works in online environments. as part of this work, students are asked to launch their own blogs using wordpress or medium, publishing 1000 words each week exploring a variety of topics of interest. little said that one of her goals is to help students \u201cthrow off the chains of academic writing,\u201d as they graduate and move into professional settings. she helps her students develop storytelling tools to become better communicators, regardless of their major, and to understand how the field of journalism is grappling with questions of truth and accuracy. little points to the important role of audience in this work, noting how excited her students are to share their work with authentic audiences beyond the course.<\/p>\n

closing the opening remarks, patrick murphy<\/strong>, senior lecturer in spanish, talked about the joys and challenges of using twitter as a component of his language classrooms. \u201cmy motivation to use twitter,\u201d murphy said, \u201ccame from the reality that it\u2019s hard to capture culture in a textbook.\u201d his commitment to students knowing the culture of the language and not simply the mechanics pushed him to consider innovate avenues to invite students into authentic language learning. murphy had students create new twitter accounts specifically for the class, then tweet about issues and articles they saw that complemented the material in the class. for instance, during a unit on costa rice, murphy might ask students to tweet five resources pertaining to the country and its culture. he quickly found that students didn\u2019t put a lot of critical thought into this out-of-class assignment, often not reading the articles they tweeted. so murphy moved the assignment into the classroom, where he could structure their time finding and sharing resources via twitter. by projecting the student tweets on the big screen during class, then examining those tweets with his students in small- and large-group discussions, murphy is able to teach cultural competency and information literacy.<\/p>\n

following the opening remarks from the three panelists, the conversation expanded to the rest of the participants in the room. one of the questions that gained a lot of energy was \u201cdo you do the thing that you ask your students to do?\u201d in some form, the answer from all of the panelists was \u201cyes.\u201d\u00a0 jessie hock noted that she has contributed to wikipedia articles, noting that when students are asking questions and need help building their understanding of the tool, she knows how to help them navigate. patrick murphy followed by saying that he, too, had engaged in his platform (twitter) more intently in order to help students engage well. as a professional writer, amanda little named that as a motivation for her class and work. she has a lot of experience as an investigative journalist on the online platforms that she helps students to enter. the conclusion from this conversation was that it is critical to know the online community that you are trying to engage your students with because it will help you as they are trying to navigate both the technical and social aspects of these community-based assignments and activities.<\/p>\n

one of the greatest gifts of the conversation was the important questions that professors should ask themselves as they are preparing to invite students into online communities:<\/p>\n