Month: August 2022

Activity 1-4 | 3-2-1

3 Initial thoughts about facilitation in digital environments:

  1. One can never make assumptions that everything is clear to the user/learner.  Unlike face-to-face environments, there are no gestures, no body language or nonverbal signals to give the facilitator insight into their users in a digital environment.  For this reason, regular check-ins may assist the facilitator with gaining insight into their learners.  
  2. Digital environments come with their own unique challenges and facilitators need to be able to adjust, adapt and pivot as needed when unplanned issues arise.
  3. There should be a balance of synchronous and asynchronous in order to create a community where learners feel connected and supported.  Without this some learners may feel they are alone and flying blind. 

2 Questions about digital facilitation:

  1. What are some proven strategies that help to build community and strengthen connections in a digital environment?  And strategies to ensure that the connections do not start to waver midway through a course or program?
  2. What are some strategies to help support and motivate learners in a digital environment that are different from face-to-face? 

1 Metaphor about Digital Facilitation

Photo by Jean-Christophe André: https://www.pexels.com/photo/iceberg-2574997/

In the dental world, we often use the metaphor of the iceberg to describe dental issues to clients. Common dental issues may present with little to no symptoms which may give them a false sense of security that everything is great but underneath there may be something more serious happening. When the dental issue becomes serious, it can no longer be ignored.

I believe this metaphor can be applied to how I perceive digital facilitation at this time; all may look smooth above water but a digital facilitator needs to be aware and checking for potential issues under the water.

Activity 1 – The Value of Reflection

Photo by Jacub Gomez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ocean-during-sunset-1143006/

This week I took some time to reflect upon my time in this course and my overall MALAT journey up to this point. Addae-Kyeremeh & Rezaie (2022) define reflective thinking as “the ability to demonstrate self direction, reflect on your own progress as a learner, to continue to advance your own knowledge and understanding and develop new skills to a high level” (para. 1).  As an oral health professional, I am constantly reflecting on my experiences to determine what went well, what I learned, and what I can do differently especially in new and difficult situations.   

Over the last eight weeks, I have committed to fully engage in the design thinking process to solve an identified problem of practice for the dental team.  During this process, I was most surprised to learn that design thinking is not linear but is in fact an iterative process which requires taking time to critically reflect. For example, new data/information was brought to my attention as I was starting to brainstorm in the prototype phase. This new information forced me to go back to the initial phases to ensure that I clearly understood what the users needed in the design by putting aside my assumptions, actively listening and asking questions to gather information.  I enjoyed the creative process of designing and was forced to learn new skills to create my proposal video which was shared with the team to ensure that I captured the information correctly without making any assumptions. I have enjoyed receiving the invaluable feedback from the team because it has given me more “food for thought”, forced me to question my decisions, reflect and make adjustments to the prototype; things that I had overlooked or not considered such as the type of font. 

As I continue to work on the prototype, I recognize that it will undergo an evaluation phase for the team to provide feedback and once again I will have to reflect on the process. Or I may need to consider adding additional modules to the digital learning resource as charting issues arise with the new process.  The support from my dental team has been incredible and I look forward to delivering a learning tool to help the team during this period of transition.  

I see my journey through the MALAT program as a transformative one and how each course has pushed me to learn new knowledge, gain a deeper understanding, and develop new skills.  All of the courses continue to build on my knowledge from the previous one and that is reflective in my blog as I can see examples of my progression and evolution through this program.  

References

Addae-Kyeremeh, E. & Rezaie, P. (2019) Succeeding in postgraduate study. OpenLearn. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=51386&section=