MOO vs. Skype in Online Classes About Writing, and How it Relates to this Business of Dogs.......................................or Modality and Anonymity

                   

             

The theory of connectivism asserts that:

•        Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
•        Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
•        Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
•        Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
•        Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
•     Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
•     Decision-making is itself a learning process.  Choosing what to learn and the   meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality.  While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.  (www.elearnspace.org)

What the Internet provides us with is a mode of digitally connecting to information and what the MOO and Skype give us is a mode of digitally connecting to individuals that are also able to connect to the information.  So connectivism in this case is not just about connecting to topics or information, connecting to people or experiences, but making the actual electronic connections to the hardware.  How are the MOO and Skype different in this respect?  Besides the obvious system requirements, I am going to focus on the MOO and Skype as information, conversation and social delivery modes.

My first experience with an online course was as part of the TCR program at Texas Tech.  The professor chose Microsoft Lync as the mode of digital classroom communication.  Microsoft Lync is similar to Skype in that it has the ability deliver information via text, audio and visual modes.  For our course, we were going to use text and audio so as to avoid the additional bandwidth requirements for smooth video transmission.  I had experience with Skype as a social tool, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about not being able to ‘see’ someone.  Additionally, while I consider myself a decent typist, I wondered how it would even be possible to have a ‘conversation’ strictly using text.  It turned out to be a highly efficient way to conduct an online class.  Participants had a choice in how they could communicate to other class members.  Most classmates stayed involved via text comments and when asked by the instructor to specifically address a topic via the audio component, students were very willing to let their voices be heard.  Aside from the awkward moments of silence when most likely society politeness was dictating that participants wait and let their fellow students ‘go first’, this dual mode was very effective.  The professor was able to share all content on his screen so he could provide a variety of presentations that we could see simultaneously.  While I originally thought not having the video feed of all participants would make it difficult to personally ‘connect’ to my fellow students, I wonder now if having the video feed would have presented a distraction from the class content.

Shortly after arriving at Texas Tech for the ‘Maynar’, I heard a conversation nearby that included a very familiar voice.  I immediately realized that this was one of my classmates from the Microsoft Lync connected class and went up and officially introduced myself.  I liked the idea that I knew who it was because I had already ‘heard’ them.  My next class in the TCR distance program, however, was not going to involve audio.  The course content synchronous delivery used the Texas Tech MOO (Massive Open Online) courseware.  Even after logging on to the MOO, it took me awhile to figure out that the ‘recorder’ was not an audio recorder.  How was I going to feel ‘connected’ to everyone and the material without some form of audio or visual contact?  What I have found with the MOO, is that it seems to be a highly effective mode of course delivery, particularly for a writing program because everything in the course must be written.  The only mode of communication or connection to participants is through the words that they type.  It is a great way to work on audience, voice, tone and even content.  It is difficult to respond to all topic threads as there are often several views appearing simultaneously, but because the transcripts are recorded and available, review of ‘conversations’ can take place at a leisurely pace.  I feel like I have gotten to ‘know’ some of my classmates through the words they write and while I won’t be able to recognize my classmates voice in a crowd, if I did have an in-person contact with them, I believe I would be able to make a ‘connection’ to their textual style in the MOO.

Now, what about this business of dogs?  As Peter Steiner says, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”  What a fascinatingly simple, yet complex statement about anonymity and maybe even fantasy.  I have to admit I was not familiar with Steiner’s particular quote until Dr. Rice brought it to my attention, but there are similar types of adages and even songs about this notion of being whoever you want to be when no one can see or hear you.  Brad Paisley says it well in the lyrics to his song Online: 

…I'm 5'3 and overweight

I'm a Sci-Fi fanatic

Mild asthmatic

Never been to 2nd base

But there's a whole nother me

That you need to see

Go check out MySpace

'cause online I'm out in Hollywood

I'm 6'5 and I look damn good

I drive a Maserati

I'm a black belt in Karate

                                                     And I love a good glass of wine…

But what about anonymity in online writing courses?  It isn’t really the same kind of anonymity to me.  It doesn’t seem to involve creating online personas that are drastically different than real-life personas.  In fact, the writer’s ‘voice’ can often be ‘heard’ through the words that he/she writes.  And there may be a benefit to using the delivery mode as really another tool to practice writing free from any distractions of what someone looks like, or where they are when the course is taking place or if they are eating or drinking while participating.  All of these layers are peeled away including the potential that the inspiration for what is being written is actually coming from a dog!

I’m reminded of a situation that occurred in my household with my son and his friend when they were about 12.  We had a dog named Oscar and as is the case in many households, I often spoke for the dog, you know in that crazy high pitched or low pitched voice that is meant to represent a canine.  My son always played along, but clearly knew that I was the one speaking.  He told his friend that our dog ‘talked’ to which his friend replied with skepticism.  Of course, Oscar (i.e.-me) had to reply to his skepticism and when I turned away I heard his friend tell my son, “Dude, that was your mom.”  Does this mean that for a short time his friend thought the dog actually talked?  Did his friend know something that I didn’t?

In summary, the MOO, Skype, online writing and even dogs can be ‘connected’ by their differences or their so-called ‘contact zones’; treating their differences “as an asset, not a liability.” (Bizzell, p. 463).  I’m not being facetious here.  Consider the three photos at the beginning of this blog post.  The ‘cow’ represents the MOO, the ‘sky’ represents Skype (I took some liberties here) and the ‘dog’ well, represents the dog.  The text on the menu board represents written text.  All three photos could have been taken in the same shot.  But they weren’t, they were not even in close proximity to each other (different countries and/or states).  But I am able to bring them together, to ‘connect’ them on this page.  This allows me to present them simultaneously.  However, they are distinct photos that each has it’s own story and those differences are what make this story unique from others.  The fact that I brought them together in this way creates a unifying medium with which to discuss their differences.  Not unlike discussing the MOO, Skype and this business about dogs.