{"id":138,"date":"2025-08-27T22:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T05:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/?p=138"},"modified":"2025-08-27T22:57:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T05:57:01","slug":"lrnt528-week-1-reflection-my-initial-thoughts-on-digital-facilitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/lrnt528-week-1-reflection-my-initial-thoughts-on-digital-facilitation\/","title":{"rendered":"LRNT528 Week 1 Reflection: My Initial Thoughts on Digital Facilitation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3 Initial Thoughts, Ideas, or Feelings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This might be a general and clich\u00e9 thought but <strong>Connection feels different online.<\/strong> Building trust and engagement in digital spaces seems less intentional and structured (in my opinion) compared to face-to-face facilitation which is contrary to what &#8220;Boettcher, 2013&#8221; pointed out. Or at least I could say, it is subjective to people that are being thought.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Flexibility is important.<\/strong> One thing that is true is that digital environments allow for asynchronous and synchronous interactions, but this flexibility allow for challenges in maintaining momentum (University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, 2021).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The facilitator\u2019s role is evolving.<\/strong> Instead of being the primary source of knowledge, facilitators act as guides, community-builders, and curators of resources (Rapanta et al., 2020). This evolution can be considered a positive one because if students are guided in the right way they come to conclusions by engaging their creative sides.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2 Questions I Have<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How can digital facilitators balance structure with learner autonomy, ensuring both direction and flexibility?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What strategies best support building a sense of community when learners may never meet in person?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1 Metaphor<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Digital facilitation feels like <strong>hosting a summer campfire on the internet<\/strong>\u2014the facilitator sets the fire (content and structure), but it is the participants who bring the stories, energy, and warmth that make it meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>References<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Boettcher, J. V. (2013). <em>Ten best practices for teaching online<\/em>. Designing for Learning. <a href=\"http:\/\/designingforlearning.info\/writing\/ten-best-practices-for-teaching-online\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">http:\/\/designingforlearning.info\/writing\/ten-best-practices-for-teaching-online\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison. (2021). <em>Facilitation strategies for online discussions<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/kb.wisc.edu\/instructional-resources\/page.php?id=121264&amp;utm_source=chatgpt.com\">https:\/\/kb.wisc.edu\/instructional-resources\/page.php?id=121264<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P., Gu\u00e0rdia, L., &amp; Koole, M. (2020). Online university teaching during and after the Covid-19 crisis: Refocusing teacher presence and learning activity. <em>Open Praxis, 12<\/em>(4), 589\u2013603. <a href=\"https:\/\/openpraxis.org\/articles\/10.5944\/openpraxis.10.1.721?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">https:\/\/openpraxis.org\/articles\/10.5944\/openpraxis.10.1.721<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3 Initial Thoughts, Ideas, or Feelings 2 Questions I Have 1 Metaphor Digital facilitation feels like hosting a summer campfire on the internet\u2014the facilitator sets&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/lrnt528-week-1-reflection-my-initial-thoughts-on-digital-facilitation\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">LRNT528 Week 1 Reflection: My Initial Thoughts on Digital Facilitation<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru296\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}